Child Exposure to Domestic Violence Essay

Child exposure to domestic violence has become the modern trend, which is happening way too often in many homes throughout the world today. Child exposure to domestic violence makes the exposed child to physiological indent to violence. Domestic violence is treated with consequences for violating the law. The crime can be considered a personal crime with traumatic psychological anxiety for the viewers of the crime. The content of the video capitalized on the effect of children who are exposed to domestic violence. The children are very much aware of the events that are happening within their home, some children view domestic violence as a normal everyday living so the percentage of the juvenile displaying violent tendencies are very high. Everyday some parents will disregard what a child may feel in order to satisfy his or her own desires. The identifiable casual factor addressed in the video is: when a judge places a restraining order on an individual and the order is violated the offender will be arrested. For example, the video displayed the police reacting to a 911 call for a domestic violence dispute; the ex-boyfriend was trying to break into his ex – girlfriend’s house by climbing through the window. The male suspect has a child with the female victim. While the officers waited for the background check on the individuals involved, dispatch informed the officer’s the male subject had a restraining order against him. The police officers arrested the man for violating the restraining order. The officers emphasized to the woman involved to leave that man alone and to think about your child. The police officers also asked for her opinion on what she thinks the exposure to domestic violence is doing to her child and she responds with â€Å"I love him.† Majority of domestic violence disputes between guardians the child or children get caged in with the violence. The element of the domestic violence crime served for the foundation of the video selected, which is the silent cries for help for the children who are exposed to severe violence between their family members. The news reporter in the video interviewed the children who witness their  mothers getting battered by her boyfriend, or ex – lover. The audio for from the questions asked by the reporter was very troubling to hear about and the things they see and hear. In the video a young girl being interviewed disclosed how she heard her mother’s boyfriend state he was gone to kill her mother first, and then the children. To imagine how the child felt fear for each time the child heard or saw him and when the child did not know where her mother was is very horrific. The specific feeling when a child develops a negative intuition such as when their mother’s life may be in jeopardy, but the fact what if the children are watching is never taken into consideration. The cri minological theories, that could best explain the occurrence rate of this type of crime is the attachment theory, and social process theory. The attachment theory is a component of psychological theories. According to John Bowlby, the components of the attachment theory beginning with a bond between people through childhood experiences (Bowlby, 1990). If a child is denied any emotional need such as a strong, natural, emotional bond the child may eventual find the emotional bond elsewhere such as gangs and possibly becoming juvenile delinquents (Schmalleger, 2012). The second theory is the social process theory which governs the thoughts on how someone may have become the person he or she are currently. Researchers have debatable beliefs that a person’s behavior comes from the environment around him or her. The ethical perspective of the children exposed to domestic violence may be corrupted. Ethical absolutism which is the decisions made is based on past experiences. According to Peter Singer (1995), â€Å"ethical absolutism argues that there exists an eternal and unchanging moral law, the same for all people, at all times and places. The absolutist believes that certain moral principles apply to all people everywhere, and that people can recognize or discover these principles and be guided by them in deciding the nature of their own conduct and in judging the conduct of others†(Singer, 1995). The reason why this theory was selected is because there high probability that the males commit these types of heinous acts because of past experiences of exposure to extreme violence or some traumatic psychological occurrences in the past. The past experiences which formed their conduct led them to believe that the way to treat women is the same way they witnessed the male figure in their family treating a woman. Researchers still have not found no explanation as to why displaying  disrespect in front of children and others comes as natural behavi or. Professional research studies estimate that about 10% to 20% of juveniles are high at risk for exposure to domestic violence (Child Welfare, 2009). Studies of the amounts of psychological trauma children endure from high amounts of reality violence such as domestic violence, is indicated by psychological detachment and the farther the detachment the higher exposure to violence. Children’s risk levels of having become exposed to domestic violence are about 9 out of every 10 preexist on a continuum where some children demonstrate enormous resiliency although others show signs of maladaptive adjustment (Child Welfare, 2009). Domestic violence is already considered serious but the exposure of violence to children needs to be taken more serious with heavier consequences. The majority of the citizens in the United States can disclose a lengthy story from past experiences to exposure to domestic violence and how the events affect them as a person. Reference Child Welfare. (2009). Child Welfare Information Gateway. Retrieved from: www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/factsheets/domesticviolence.cfm Singer, P. (1995). Ethical Importance in Criminal Justice. Retrieved from: http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/46945_CH_1.pdf Schmalleger, F. (2012). Criminology today: An integrative introduction. (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Who was a better leader, Joseph Smith or Brigham Young?

Joseph Smith was an important religious figure who founded Mormonism. He was faithful, driven, and a strong speaker, but was easily tempered. Joseph Smith had his great contributions and failures, and after his death the new Mormon leader became Brigham Young, who also made great contributions to the Mormon movement, but just as Joseph Smith he had his failures. Joseph Smith was born in 1805. While Smith was growing up, there was a great religious revival taking place in New York State. When he was fourteen, Smith was finding this very confusing, and began to pray for guidance. Smith then claimed that a pillar of light appeared before him, and told him not to join any religious sects. Later as he was growing up, Smith experienced a vision from the angel Moroni, who told him that God had work for him to accomplish. The angel told Smith that a book written upon gold plates was deposited. The book gave accounts of former inhabitants of this continent and their source. The angel then told Smith where to find the book, and he dug it up on a hillside near Manchester. The book gave a different story from the Bible. According to the book, lost Israeli tribes migrated to America before the birth of Christ. There they fought each other until Christ was born and established his Church. Then the fighting began again, and one of the survivors, Mormon, wrote down records of his people on the plates. The person who found these plates was to restore the Church of Christ in America. Smith wouldn't let anyone check the plates to check his honesty, and said he had returned them to the hillside. Smith then published a translation of the plates in 1830. Smith started with just five followers, but his speaking and persuasions kills were very strong, and by the end of 1830 he had several hundred followers. However they were very unpopular in New York State because people claimed that Smith was only trying to make money and his book was offensive. His house was attacked and followers were shot in the streets. Smith then prayed for guidance, he took his followers Kirtland, Ohio. There he planned to set up a City of God. In Kirtland, the Mormon movement flourished greatly, reaching a thousand followers by 1831. They even founded colonies in Missouri. They worked very hard and soon had a store, bank, printing press and a mill. They soon outnumbered the non-Mormons. However their success increased the envy and hatred of the others. Very unfortunately for the Mormons, in 1837 there was a economic crisis, making many banks collapse. Many non-Mormons had put their savings into the Mormon bank, and when it collapsed, they were chased out of Kirtland. The Mormons and their leader, Joseph Smith, then went to the colonies they had set up in Missouri, but this didn't increase their popularity. Attempts were made to stop them from voting, and the local settlers destroyed property. When the government sent in troops to make order, the Mormons were blamed for everything, put in prison, and condemned to death. Then rumours began to go around that they were freeing slaves and upsetting Indians, making the government declare them as public enemies. In 1838 the Mormons were released from prison, they went to a very small town of Commerce in Illinois, which Smith renamed Nauvoo. The Mormons were allowed to develop it into and independent city state. They prospered cooperatively, and in 1844 Nauvoo was the biggest city in Illinois, dominated by the giant temple. The Mormons, now at 35,000 were trying to create an ideal society with no poor, homeless, smoking or drinking. Many of the poor converted, promised salvation. The Mormons were finally settled. However this was ruined by Smith's serious mistakes. He said that the idea of polygamy was right, leading to many Mormons calling him false, and a lot of criticism in the newspapers. This angered Smith and he destroyed the presses of the newspaper. His critics then asked for him to be arrested, and he was put into jail in Carthage. Once the news about polygamy spread to the non-Mormons, they were enrages. They shot Smith in the prison, and Mormons were hunted down by mobs. After the death of Joseph Smith, the new leader of the Mormons became Brigham Young. He decided that the Mormons would leave to the Great Salt Lake in 1846. Young was very organized and down-to earth, and very determined. He also married eight of Smith's former wives, so he was very considerate. Preparations took all winter, and then the Mormons finally began their journey. They passed many dangers even though the journey was well organized, such as the prairie weather and plague that killed hundreds of people. On their way to the Great Salt Lake, they met Jim Bridger, a mountain man who warned them that it would be too cold for growing corn, but was ignored. They also passed Sam Brannan, a Mormon who told them to go to California. Young replied that he is looking for a desolate place. They climbed on upwards, and by July they reached the Great Salt Lake. Young had total control over his community; they trusted and believed in him, and so although he had many challenges to overcome, he knew he'd be able to build a Mormon City. Young decided that there would be no private ownership of land or water, and land would be assigned to people according to their needs by the church. Everything was going well, but in 1848 the US defeated Mexico in war and gained territories including part of the Great Salt Lake. Young decided to form a Mormon state called Deseret, but the US government refused and a compromise was made and the territory of Utah was created, and Young was governor. Young organized and developed Utah very well, building new towns and making farming and wheat production a success. He was sure that the Mormons would be self-sufficient. Young also sent out missionaries to convert people, and got an amazing result. There was an immigration fund set up to help converts pay for their passage to Salt Lake and organize it. However the Mormons weren't very self-sufficient and still didn't have enough workers or money for industrial development. Education wasn't much of an achievement either. Tension also grew between the Mormons and the outsiders when converts began to move to Utah. Many bad rumours spread about the Mormons. It was suspicious to the outsiders that the Mormons had converted some of the Indians, and so rumours spread that they were planning to kill all gentiles together. The US government decided to emphasize their authority, and in 1857 an army of 2500 men was sent out to march against the Mormons, who fled to Salt Lake City. This worked very well and the army ended up not reaching Salt Lake City. Then the Mountain Meadow Massacre took place. As 140 emigrants were heading for California, they passed Utah. They abused Indian converts and insulted the Mormons. This provoked the Indians to attack them. The Indians and the Mormons killed all the emigrants to stop the news from spreading out. The Mormons then blamed everything on the Indians. But soon newspapers spread the story, begging for the Mormons to be punished. The US government sent troops out again, causing the Mormon families to flee. But when the news reached the East, the Mormons were suddenly turned into victims. In 1858 the US government offered them a full forgiveness if they accepted the US authority. They agreed, a governor was appointed, and they were allowed to develop in peace. Their true leader was still Brigham Young. However polygamy was still a disagreement. When Utah applied to become a state, the US offered to let them become a state if they accepted the ban of polygamy. They agreed, and Utah was made a state in 1896. Both of the men faced challenges, found solutions, and left a positive impact on the Mormon movement. Joseph Smith was very driven and determined and wouldn't accept defeat. He was a great public speaker with a lot of charisma, and thereby converted many people into Mormonism. He was a business man and established banks. Smith was very intelligent because he created a thriving business and a new religion. He was also a great leader before he was jailed. He was also clever to establish colonies in Missouri, to which the Mormons fled out of Kirtland. Brigham Young managed to leave a very positive impact on the Mormon movement as well. He was a great leader, and his people believed in him and trusted him. He was very organized and more down to earth than Smith. He managed to organize the long and difficult journey to the Great Salt Lake. When they faced cold weather in the winter, he arranged the winter quarters where they stayed. He also had total control over his community and established a thriving city in the Great Salt Lake. He developed a great law of land being given to people according to their needs. He also negotiated well with the US government, eventually receiving the land of Utah. His missionaries to convert people were a big success, and he built new towns in Utah, as well as making faming and wheat-production a success. He also established a great immigration fund for immigrant converts. He made a right and down-to earth decision when he accepted anti-polygamy, finally making Utah a State. He was also very considerate; he had the answers to the Mormons' problems, carried them through after the death of smith, and married all of Smith's wives. He left a long-time impact, and after his death Salt Lake City was prosperous, the power of the Church was finally established through his system of government, and many of his foundations still remain today. Both of the Mormon leaders also had failures. Joseph Smith's strong temper got him into jail twice. He was also too ambitious, and his ideas of polygamy ruined the Mormons' peace in the land they were finally free in. When his banks collapsed, this added tension to the Mormons' relationship with the outside world even more, and made them seem unreliable and too ambitious. By the time he presented his ideas about polygamy, his people didn't believe in him anymore because he had gotten them into jail, and so his leadership image was ruined. Brigham Young had failures as well. Although his planning for the Great Salt Lake journey was good, they still faced challenges and people died on the way. He also didn't manage to establish a law to allow polygamy. They also weren't as self-sufficient as he planned, and they lost money when their iron, pottery and textile attempts didn't succeed. They also didn't achieve much in the education area. The emigrants also complained of overcharging, and relations between Mormons and the outsiders remained difficult. Overall, Brigham Young definitely left a bigger positive impact on the Mormon movement. He was much more down-to-earth than Smith, and his people remained believing in him until his death. Even when Utah was appointed a new governor, he still remained their spiritual leader. Young managed to make Utah a state where Mormons continued to live after his death. Many of his foundations still remain today. The power of the Church was firmly established through his system of government, and Salt Lake City was prosperous after his death. Many Mormons remain in the world today. Young didn't get the Mormons into jail or disappoint them like Smith did, and carried them through his death. Smith had minimal achievements compared to Young, and died in shame and disapproval unlike Young, who left a great impact after his death.

A Sense of Sin Essay Example for Free

A Sense of Sin Essay ? No one doubts the presence of evil in the world. We experience it in a variety of ways: national and international conflict; domestic and street violence; political and corporate corruption; and a host of manifestations of sexism, clericalism, racism, ageism, and other violations of justice. All such forms of brutality, disorder and discrimination, seem from a theological perspective, are rooted in sin. But do we ever recognize the sin and name it as such? 1 For some reason, sin seems to have lost its hold on us as a way of accounting for and naming so much of the evil we know. Among the many other reasons, the eclipse of the religious world view through the rise of the secular spirit accounts significantly for the loss of the sense of sin. In fact, in his post-synodal exhortation, Reconciliatio et Penitentia (1984), Pope John Paul II credits â€Å"secularism† above all with contributing to a loss of a sense of sin.2 The secular spirit questions the relevance and meaning of all Christian symbols, and even of religion itself. One effect of this secular spirit on the meaning of sin, for example, has been to reduce sin to some form of psychological or social disorder. The therapeutic perspective which pervades the secular spirit looks on behavior as either healthily adaptive-problem-solving behavior, or as unhealthy, nonadaptive, and problem-creating behavior.3 It does not call the latter sin. For a survey at major attempts in the past twenty years to explore the mystery of sin, see James A. O’Donohue, â€Å"Toward a Theology of Sin: A Look at the Last Twenty Years,† Church 2 (Spring 1986): 48-54. 2 The other factors of a non-ecclesial nature which John Paul II lists as errors made in evaluating certain findings of the human sciences, deriving systems of ethics from historical relativism, and identifying sin with neurotic guilt. Within the thought and life of the Church, certain trends have also contributed to the loss of the sense of sin. Among these he lists the movement from seeing sin everywhere to not recognizing it anywhere; from an emphasis on fear of external punishment to preaching a love of God that excludes punishment; from correcting erroneous consciences to respecting consciences but excluding the duty to tell the truth. Two other ecclesial factors are the plurality of opinions existing in the church on questions of morality and the deficiencies in the practice of penance. To restore a healthy sense of sin, the pope advocates â€Å"a sound catechetics, illuminated by the biblical theology of the covenant, by an attentive listening and trustful openness to the magisterium of the church, which never ceases to enlighten consciences, and by an ever more careful practice of the sacrament of penance.† See Origins 14 (December 20, 1984): 443-444, quotation at p. 444. 3 The research of the team headed by sociologist Robert Bellah which has produced Habits of the Heart (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985), a study of the American beliefs and practices which give shape to our character and form our social order, shows that the therapist is the newest character forming American culture. See Chapter Two â€Å"Culture and Character: The Historical Conversation,† pp. 27-51, especially pp. 47-48. 2 Moreover, the secular, therapeutic perspective tends to look on persons more as victims of unconscious or socio-cultural influences than as agents of free actions. Psychiatrists Karl Menninger in Whatever Happened to Sin4 and M. Scott Peck in People of the Lie5 want to make full allowance for those conditions which cause people to do evil. Yet both insist on a strip of responsibility which cannot be negotiated away to these determining influences. While the behavioral sciences provide us with helpful explanations of human behavior, they do not give a full account. Sin is real, and we need a fresh way to get at it and call it what it is. What do we need to grasp in order to retrieve a sense of sin in an adult manner? Contemporary moral theology says a â€Å"sense of responsibility.† Christian theologians find in â€Å"responsibility† the essential theme of Christian faith and the central characteristic of the moral life. A leading Protestant theologian of this century, H. Richard Niebuhr, has done much to give impetus to the â€Å"responsibility† motif in Christian morality. 6 He summarizes the constituents of responsibility by describing the agent’s actions as a response to an action upon him in accordance with his interpretation of the latter action and with his expectation of response to his response; and all of this is in a continuing community of agents. (The Responsible Self, 65) Since God is present to us in and through all that makes up our lives so that we are never not in the presence of God, our responses to all our actions upon us include our response to God. As Niebuhr asserts, â€Å"Responsibility affirms: God is acting in all our actions upon you. So respond to all actions upon you as to respond to his action† (The Responsible Self, 126). If â€Å"being responsible† sums up the quality of character and action marking Christian moral living, sin will mark the failure to be fully responsible. â€Å"Responsibility† as a motif for the moral life has found its way into Catholic moral thinking with the strong support of the biblical renewal in the Catholic Church. Bernard Hà ¤ring, who has been instrumental in renewing Catholic moral thinking, has used this notion of â€Å"responsibility† with great success in reconstructing Catholic moral thought. Along with other Catholic theologians, Hà ¤ring has found in the biblical renewal a fresh theological framework and an orientation for understanding the moral life.7 We turn, then, to the biblical perspective on sin. Menninger, Whatever Happened to Sin? (New York: Hawthorn Books, Inc., 1973). Peck, People of the Lie (New York: Simon and Shuster, 1983). 6 See especially Niebuhr, The Responsible Self (New York: Harper & Row, 1963), pp. 61-65. 7 Bernard Hà ¤ring’s writings are vast and wide-ranging. His early three-volume work, The Law of Christ (Westminster: Newman Press, 1961, 1963, 1966), was one of the first major works by a Catholic moral theologian to rethink morality in light of the biblical renewal. His most recent three-volume work, Free and Faithful in Christ (New York: Seabury Press, 1978, 1979, 1981), is an expression of Hà ¤ring’s more mature thought. This work is not a revision of The Law of Christ, but a completely new work. Charles E. Curran, a student of Hà ¤ring, has followed his teacher’s lead in making efforts at renewing moral theology in light of the biblical renewal. Some of Curran’s pertinent articles are â€Å"The Relevancy of the Ethical Teaching of Jesus† and â€Å"Conversion: The Central Message of Jesus† in A New Look at Christian Morality (Notre Dame: Fides Publishers, Inc., 1968), pp. 1-23 and 25-71. From the Bible we see that Christian morality is primarily a â€Å"vocation.† This means that our life is a response to the word of God spoken to us preeminently in Jesus, but also in and through the people and events of our lives. From the perspective of vocation, wherein God calls and we respond, responsibility replaces obligation as the primary characteristic of the moral life. Also, the relationship that we establish with God in and through our responses to all things becomes the focal point of the moral life. From this point of view, practicing the presence of God becomes essential for Christian responsibility, Christian moral growth, and our awareness of sin. A consistent theme of contemporary theology has been that we cannot have a proper understanding of sin unless we have a proper understanding of the nature and implications of the covenant God has established with us. â€Å"Covenant† and â€Å"heart† are the dominant metaphors of biblical faith for understanding the moral life. They provide the biblical horizon against which to recognize sin. The two frequently used terms for sin in the Old Testament point to violations of relationships. Hattah is the most common term. Its meaning, â€Å"to miss the mark† or â€Å"to offend,† points to a purposeful action oriented toward an existing relationship. The existence of the relationship makes the offence or failure possible. Pesa, meaning â€Å"rebellion,† is a legal term denoting a deliberate action violating a relationship in community. The New Testament term for sin is hamartia. It connotes a deliberate action rooted in the heart and missing the intended mark. 8 These terms acquire theological significance when used in the context of the covenant which expresses the most personal kind of relationship between God and us. The primary aim of the covenant is that God loves us without our having done anything to attract God’s attention or to win that love. God’s covenant is a bond of completely gratuitous love, pure grace. But God’s initiative of love (grace) does not destroy our freedom. Unlike the Godfather, God makes an offer we can refuse. God’s offer of love awaits our acceptance. Once we accept the offer of love we commit ourselves to living as the covenant requires. The covenant context lifts the notion of sin out of a legalistic framework to set it on a level of a personal relationship with God. In worshipping the golden calf (Ex 32), Israel missed the mark of covenant love, or sinned, not so much because Israel broke one of the laws of the covenant, but because Israel broke the personal bond of love of which the law was an external expression. The law was not to be the final object of Israel’s fidelity. God was. Sin in the Bible is not merely breaking a law. Sin is breaking or weakening the God-given bond of love. The law was an aid to Israel’s fidelity and pointed to the responsibilities of being in relationship to God. A Sense of Sin. (2016, Dec 10).

Taylorist Job Designs and Hard Human Resource Essay

Taylorist Job Designs and Hard Human Resource - Essay Example In this sense therefore individuals should not be coerced into presence and participation in work activities (Larsson, Vinberg & Wiklund, 2007, p. 1147). The soft model of HRM causes a positive attitude among employees towards their work activities and as a result preventing absenteeism. On the other hand, the strict rules that are set within the hard management model causes stress and negative attitudes among employees and as a result leading to high rates of absenteeism at the workplace. The soft model in HRM ensures that individuals are self motivated to come to come every day and engage in their work roles and responsibilities even when there is little or no supervision. On the other hand, the application of the hard model and its characteristic punishment on employees makes them to lack motivation and as a result causes absenteeism. When individuals are compelled regulations, policies, standards and rules in their work activities as demonstrated by the application of the hard mo del, they are more likely to be less productive (Truss, et al, 2007, p. 57). The reduced productivity is related to the absenteeism which is related to the application of the hard model of human resource management. On the other hand, when duties and responsibilities are delegated to individuals in a less strict and supervisory environment of the soft model of HRM, these employees will be less absent at the workplace leading to more productivity. It is argued that the absence that individuals demonstrate at work is as a result of the natural instinct of human beings to avoid responsibilities. It is because of this that the soft model in HRM is encouraged in organizations as compared to the hard HRM model.... This paper stresses that Taylorist job designs provide that the execution of job activities is separated from the planning process. In additional, Taylorism as described in scientific management provided for procedural and timed work activities. Since services are less procedural and unrealistic to time, it is argued that the Taylorist job designs cannot be applicable in the service industry with the required effectiveness. This report makes a conclusion that in light of the above analysis, discussion and illustrations, it is evident that Taylorist job designs and hard human resource management model are suitable for application within the manufacturing industry such as food processing and manufacturing companies. Taylorist job designs are procedural, timed, segmented and focused at minimized training needs and cost which makes them suitable for application in the manufacturing industry. The hard human resource management model is also appropriate within the manufacturing industry where cheap labor, minimal communication, more machinery and little delegations are exhibited. On the other hand, Taylorist job designs are not suitable within the service industry such as a call center because of the difficulty in segmenting job activities and the need for collective training for broader skills and knowledge within the service industry. The hard human resource management model is also not suitable within the service industry because of the delegating characteristic of this industry and the increased need for motivation and compensation for effective service delivery.

Leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 19

Leadership - Essay Example It is quite apparent that a great percentage of people do not comprehend the distinction between leadership and management and therefore use the two terms interchangeably. However, the two terms are different since leadership involves motivating and inspiring while management involves administration and control (Northouse 13). Apparently, Leadership is more desirable than management for various reasons. Research has shown that organisations are better off having a few effective leaders and many brilliant managers than the other way around. Many scholars argue that the world needs more leaders than managers. Leadership is more of a trait than an acquired ability. Management can be taught; that is, anybody can be a manager but not everybody can qualify to be a leader. While a manager focuses on attaining results through the application of managerial skills, a leader focuses on improving the quality of performance rather than results. Leadership and management are, however, similar in the sense that they share complimentary attributes. For instance, a good leader should possess good managerial skills and vice-versa. My biggest strength is the ability to think critically and creatively. Critical and creative thinking forms the basis for effective leadership. The ability to analyse situations and develop effective solutions to common problems develops good leadership skills (Hurley and Brown 2). The objective of applying critical and creative thinking is to approach challenges with an open, holistic perspective. For example, if one is performing poorly financially, he /she should trace the root cause of the problem in order to provide a rational solution, free from any biases. Using inductive and deductive reasoning, which are essential to critical thinking, it is possible to create a systematic approach to the problem. The basic

Education changes life Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Education changes life - Essay Example nd uninterested, but through his own liaison with books, Alexie was given an opportunity that many of these people deprived themselves of by grasping the various facets of the world around him, which he discovered in books. By learning to read, Alexie was able to view his world in a new, vibrant light, one that he would have never gotten a chance to see if he had succumbed to the shallow beliefs of others. When Frederick Douglass decided to act on his impulse to learn to read and write, he was living as a slave. The opportunity at receiving an education was not available to him, and even after his mistress promised to teach him to read, she quickly withdrew this promise at the request of her husband. Instead of being deterred, Douglass was even more eager to learn the symbols that were being hidden from him, that had piqued his curiosity. Over the years, Douglass enlisted sympathetic neighborhood boys as his teachers, and with â€Å"their kindly aid . . . I finally succeeded in lear ning to read† (Douglass 101). These newly acquired skills were amazing enough to this boy who had been denied a proper education, but he was able to use them to understand that, despite the color of his skin, he was still human. Among the books that he read, Douglass favored stories and histories about the past and present fate of his people. He detested what he read, and â€Å"often found myself regretting my own existence . . . but for the hope of being free, I have no doubt but that I should have killed myself† (103). Douglass did not like what he was learning, but what he discovered was life-changing: he was entitled to freedom. Malcolm X coaxed himself to learn to read and write while he was in prison, desperate to convey in writing his appreciation to Elijah Muhammad. Furthermore, â€Å"the... This essay demonstrates how important the education is in the life of each person on the examples of Alexie, Douglass, and Malcolm X. Through their unique experiences with learning to control language, write effectively, and read with strong comprehension, Alexie, Douglass, and Malcolm X not only gained a firm understanding of the world around them but also of themselves. However, these had not been their goals when they began the journey of learning the written word. When these men taught themselves to read, they did so for the sake of their upbringing, curiosity, and for freedom. I do not think that these three men expected to discover what they did upon learning to read, which were completely new worlds beyond the ones that had become familiar to them. As their comprehension of the written word strengthened, these men were soon finding truths and answers to the pressing questions of life within the pages of books. By looking at what Alexie, Douglass, and Malcolm X gained from lear ning to read, it can be said that the effect of these skills is discovery, both of the world and of the self. Through their personal experiences, reveal how life-changing education can be. These men, happy as most of them were with life, longed for something more, something that allowed them to explore themselves and their world in a way that offered virtually no boundaries. This ability was discovered in the skills of reading and writing, which let these men learn from others and have the skills required to share their own knowledge and discoveries.

Assessments used to determine if a students has a learning disability Assignment

Assessments used to determine if a students has a learning disability - Assignment Example The IQ-accomplishment discrepancy model evaluates whether there is a noteworthy distinction between a childs scores on a test of general insight. In the event that an understudys score on the IQ test is no less than two standard deviations higher than his or her scores on an accomplishment test, the understudy is depicted as having a huge error in the middle of IQ and accomplishment and, accordingly, as having a learning incapacity. According to Ellison & Semrud-Clikeman (2009), these methods may not be as effective because the child may face other challenges such as language barrier or other forms of disability. Use data from a perception in routine classroom guideline and checking of the youngsters execution that was done before the kid was considered for an assessment, as in a reaction to intercession model. In the event that a kid is not as much as school age or out of school, a evaluator must watch the youngster in a situation fitting for an offspring of that age. Using RTI evaluates the general and overall performance and behavior of the student. Academic achievement in academics is factored in as well as examining the progress of the child in relation to pre set standards and benchmarks. The rate of the child’s learning as well as the level need to be considered. The child needs to be observed in a class setting. This provides direction on whether to consider the child when the child does not achieve sufficiently for their age or does not meet state-approved evaluation level standard in either or more of the following areas, when provided with appropriate direction and knowledge necessary for the childs age or state-approved evaluation level benchmarks: Oral expression, Listening understanding, Written expression, Basic perusing expertise, Reading familiarity abilities, Reading perception, Mathematics estimation and Mathematics critical thinking. The general behavior of the child must be

Chapters question 6 for Essentials of Health Behavior, Social and Essay

Chapters question 6 for Essentials of Health Behavior, Social and Behavioral Theory in Public Health book Mark Edberg. b - Essay Example For instance, if a health organization wishes to communicate to the youth about the dangers of smoking the right media to encode the message is through social media via the internet. Community mobilization effort fosters to ensure the community at large is aware of any health conditions that may not have been accepted by the community. Community mobilization effort tries to create awareness about a certain condition that may be affecting the community (Edberg 70). For instance, public health organizations may wish to address the problem of HIV/AIDS stigmatization to the community. Some societies and culture still do not talk about the disease ad they isolate those infected, therefore to curb the problem healthcare professionals can use lobby groups through community mobilization efforts to ensure the community becomes aware of the disease and its implications. Organizational culture refers to the style in which an organization uses to carry out its daily activities. Different organizations have different ways of handling their activities. For instance, in a health organization setting organizations handle patients and diseases differently. Therefore, due to technological advancement health organizations are required to embrace changes and incorporate them in their daily activities (Edberg 71). Organizational culture also affects the health behavior of an organization. For instance, an organization may find it difficult to relate with an immigrant who is not a native speaker. Therefore, the organizational culture should be incorporated to handle all problems even language barrier problems. HIV/AIDS pandemic affects mostly the poor people living in urban areas. Therefore, through political economic approach the problem can be addressed to reduce the impact of the disease to the affected people. The government can provide affordable loans to women who can engage themselves in

Living with PTSD Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 6250 words

Living with PTSD - Assignment Example The paper has to conclude with the recognition of the current treatment trends and see the implications of the above mentioned points to the future researches in fighting against Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Traumatic events seem to surround people everywhere: accidents on the streets, violence in the neighborhood and even at home, sexual, mental or emotional abuses, natural disasters every now and then, and wars and terrorism – name it, the world seems to be its natural source. One of the most intriguing movements that have shaped and influenced the treatment of PTSD today was the war in Vietnam. Many of the soldiers who were able to come back from the war have been identified to have developed the disorder. This essay makes a conclusion that the particular population in the United States who has developed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is indeed comparatively small as it only accounts almost only 4% of the total adult population. On the other hand, it is still considered significant for the people – especially those who have influences in the treatment or dealing with PTSD sufferers – to have dependable knowledge of the causes, effects and treatment of PTSD. Moreover, more researches on evidence-based practice and how to be in charge of the controllable sources of trauma can lead to the lessening of the prevalence of PTSD if total eradication is impossible since this disorder most often than not can hinder one from living one’s life normally and without fear and anxiety.

CHANGE MANAGEMENT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

CHANGE MANAGEMENT - Essay Example The necessity for the change management process has been recognised because of the three main issues. One of the prime concerning issues is that the department was not being able to reach around 30% of the population targeted by them. It has also been noted that the department was not being capable to reach the own targets set by themselves with regards to performance, customer service and finance. Thus, the government’s target population was not being able to receive the services that were offered by the department. At last, the local authorities decided that the department should consist of youth who will be responsible for delivering services to all the children within the age group of 0-19 years. The department also has planned to provide support to children at the earliest stage who have been identified with additional needs (Education and Families Department, n.d.). The discussion in the paper will include the major processes that took place in the department’s ch ange management initiative. ... The Implemented Change Process in the Department The existing department comprises The Extended Service Team which was formed to be a part of the Children’s Partnership Service along with the Integrated Services Team and Young People’s Sexual Health Team. The department achieved their objectives by working in collaboration among the teams that were associated with the department. The teams had to provide services spread over 12 establishments which were costing the local authority very significantly. Thus, the future plans within the change process include setting up of 16 establishments which will increase the budget for the local authorities if the same model or management was followed (Education and Families Department, n.d.). However, the economic downturn made the competent authorities to focus on bringing certain changes in the management structure and processes that could lead them to deliver effective services through efficient planning. Children centres being r elatively newer concept, the department decided to establish a forum for governors and local management board members of all children centres. The issues for dissolving the earlier board were blocking the pace for development which made the department to work in partnerships with different boards and government bodies. The Education and Families Department planned to provide excellent services to the families with children under statutory school age. The transformation of the management decided to develop a streamlined governance structure which will be efficient and provide strong support to all the centres across each locality (Education and Families Department, n.d.). The department’s proposed structure included the decision to merge

Its anti-life Essay Example for Free

Its anti-life Essay Now I’m not going to delve into the argument of whether an unborn fetus is life because that’s a complete and utter waste of time. But I do want to know if life is as valuable as everybody claims. Do you really think about how valuable the life of a beggar is when you meet him or her down the street? Do you value the life of a murderer when you’re facing him at gunpoint? Do you value the life of a corrupt government official when he is using his power for profit? The truth is we only value life when the absence of life is there. The rest of the time we don’t really give a crap about it. We waste life, we self-destruct, we kill, we steal and yet when we see a loved one die or when we find out we’re dying we start valuing life. Isn’t that simply hypocrisy? The truth is, the only life that’s valuable to us is our own life and the lives of those who are close to us. You people rant about how important human life is yet when exposed in our vulnerable state all you see is a facade of hypocrisy to shield your irrational beliefs. You brag about valuing the human life yet all you really care about is your own selfish life. It isn’t life that’s important to humans. What’s important is the â€Å"person† inside each and every human being. You can tell me that the reason why some people don’t care about life is because there is good and there is evil when it comes to people. If that is so then that means that life is also either good or bad. And when it comes to human nature, people almost never put any value into anything that is bad. Euthanasia is defined as the practice of ending a life prematurely in order to end pain and suffering. The process is also sometimes called Mercy Killing. Euthanasia can fall into several categories. Voluntary Euthanasia is carried out with the permission of the person whose life is taken. Involuntary euthanasia is carried out without permission, such as in the case of a criminal execution. The moral and social questions surrounding these practices are the most active fields of research in Bioethics today. Many Supreme Court cases, such as Gonzales v. Oregon and Baxter vs. Montana, also surround this issue. Voluntary euthanasia is typically performed when a person is suffering from a terminal illness and is in great pain. When the patient performs this procedure with the help of a doctor, the term assisted suicide is often used. This practice is legal in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg. It is also legal in the state of Oregon, Washington and Montana. Passive euthanasia is carried out by terminating a medication that is keeping a patient alive or not performing a life-saving procedure. Active euthanasia involves the administration of a lethal drug or otherwise actively ending the life. These two types of procedures carry different moral and social issues. Euthanasia Debate Controversy There is a lot of controversy surrounding the issue of euthanasia and whether or not it should be legal. From a legal standpoint, the Encyclopedia of American Law categorizes mercy killing as a class of criminal homicide. Judicially, not all homicide is illegal. Killing is seen as excusable when used as a criminal punishment, but inexcusable when carried out for any other reason. In most nations, euthanasia is considered criminal homicide: however, in the jurisdictions mentioned above, it is placed on the other side of the table with criminal punishment. Arguments regarding the euthanasia debate often depend on the method used to take the life of the patient. The Oregon Death with Dignity Act made it legal for residents to request a lethal injection from a doctor. This is seen in other jurisdictions as being a criminal form of homicide. However, passive euthanasia through denial of drugs or procedures is considered to be legal in almost all jurisdictions. Those who argue for euthanasia feel that there is no difference. Those who are against it disagree. Euthanasia and Religion Many arguments also hinge on religious beliefs. Many Christians believe that taking a life, for any reason, is interfering with Gods plan and is comparable to murder. The most conservative of Christians are against even passive euthanasia. Some religious people do take the other side of the argument and believe that the drugs to end suffering early are God-given and should be used. One of the main groups of people who are involved with the euthanasia debate is physicians. One survey in the United States recorded the opinions of over 10,000 medical doctors and found that sixteen percent would consider stopping a life-maintaining therapy at the recommendation of family or the patient. Fifty five percent would never do such. The study also found that 46 percent of doctors believe that physician assisted suicide should be allowed in some cases. The controversy surrounding euthanasia involves many aspects of religion, medical and social sciences. As this is one of the most studied fields of bioethics, one can rest assured that more studies will be performed to learn more about this issue and how to best address it. Firstly, I disagree with your definition of euthanasia. Euthanasia is the putting to death, by painless method, of a terminally-ill or severely debilitated person through the omission (intentionally withholding a life-saving medical procedure, also known as passive euthanasia) or commission of an act (active euthanasia), as defined by the leanlegal dictionary online. I also find your first point confusing; in what way does the legalisation of euthanasia affect the close family ties in Filipinos? I, being a Filipino, can relate, and I fail to see your point. Secondly, define what you mean by the doctors ethics? In a case to case basis, a doctor will not be performing euthanasia if he/she is against it, therefore it is a fallacy to generalise to all doctors. Lastly, euthanasia is against the constitution, that is why the topic is should it be legalised. Saying it is currently not legal is restating the topic, no relevance. Now for my arguments. Firstly, the financial costs of keeping a person on a life support machine are enormous, not to mention hospital bills and 24-hour medical care. 80% of the Filipinos live in poverty, how many people can afford this? What happens then if the family cannot afford keeping the relative on life support? Do they get arrested? Secondly, the emotional distress that is caused by seeing your loved one in a vegetative state for an extended period of time while doctors continually tell you that there is no hope for recovery is potentially traumatizing. Some people who consider this as suffering for the vegetable loved one will want euthanasia, but they havent the option. Legalising this will not force everyone to take this course, but rather only provide an option. Lastly, the medical facilities and time that is devoted towards the vegetative patient with low chances of recovery could be spent helping someone else in greater need. Already in the Philippines we have a shortage of medical personnel and equipment, this additional burden will only cause more damage.

North Koreas Influence of Peace in North East Asia

North Koreas Influence of Peace in North East Asia North Korea and North East Asian Peace and Security Current security issues in North East Asia, raised by North Korea Nuclear Test. Please examine how far North Korea can affect the peace and stability in Northeast Asia and how other countries such as America, Japan, China, and Russia react on this issue. And lastly, How to solve this security issues permanently and increases future stability in the area? Abstract The following dissertation will discuss and evaluate North Koreas influence and effect upon peace and security within the North East Asia region. This dissertation will evaluate North Koreas relationships with other countries in the North East Asia region such as South Korea, Japan, and China. Countries from outside the immediate North East Asia region like the UnitedStates, Russia (as the largest successor state of the Soviet Union) and to a lesser extent Britain and France also have an interest in the North East Asia Region. All these countries have an interest in preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons and nuclear tests. For instance these countries must consider how the actions or the potential actions of the North Korean government are able to influence or effect peace and security within the North East Asia region. Nongovernmental organisations like the United Nations and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), as well as the International Atomic Energy Aut hority (IAEA) have taken a great deal of interest in how North Korea effects the peace and security of its immediately neighbouring countries. These organisations are taking North Koreas nuclear programme as well as its ballistic missile capacity into account when they regard the North Korean threat to peace and security going beyond the confines of the North East Asia region itself. This dissertation will evaluate the development and changes in North Korean government policies that have influenced and arguably threatened peace and security of the North East Asia region from Koreas initial division at the end of the Second World War through to the present day. North Korea has been regarded as a threat to the peace and security of the North East Asia region ever since Pyongyangs decision to invade South Korea provoked the Korean War of 1950 to 1953. The Korean War as will be discussed set the mould for North Korean defence and foreign policies, whilst ensuring the importance of the relationship with China and Russia. The North Korean regime, as will be shown, has been very reluctant to embrace and adopt any kind of economic or political reforms, preferring to use its scant resources on maintaining and expanding its military capacity. It is also continuing its nuclear weapons programme, long drawn talks having yet to result in effective nuclear disarmament, and thu s undermining peace and security within the North East Asia region, and when issues of nuclear proliferation are concerned outside that region. Finally the following will explore whether there are any ways in which North Korea can finally become a country that its neighbours in the North East Asia region could trust and believe will not threaten their common peace and stability rather than a country that they mistrust. The United Nations is an organisation that could offer the North Korean assistance to overcome its failed economy in return for the ending of North Koreas nuclear programme and potentially aggressive foreign policy. The main onus for international efforts to contain North Korean nuclear weapons development has been by the United States, China, Japan, Russia, and South Korea. The prospects for the international community being able to monitor and eventually close down North Koreas nuclear weapons programme, dismantling any weapons already constructed will also be discussed and evaluated. Introduction Korea has a long history of being a definable and separate nation state, although it was for many centuries subject to Chinese and later Japanese control (Lenman, 2004, p.450). Japanese control of Korea was ended by its defeat in the Second World War, which would inadvertently lead to the partition of Korea (Whitakers, 2007, p.892). The division of Korea was caused by the way that the Allied powers liberated the country from Japanese occupation, United States troops cleared the south, with the Soviet Union being responsible for clearing the north. This was intended to be a temporary division along the 38th parallel that would provoke the hottest conflict of the Cold War, as well as creating a dispute that continues to destabilise the peace and the security of the North East Asia region. As with the division of Vietnam the division was purely carried out as a reflection of the distribution of American and Soviet armed forces at the time of the Japanese surrender in September 1945 (Gad dis, 2005, p.41). It was Kim Il Sung who had previously fought the Japanese for many years that emerged as North Koreas first political leader, and he would be the man most responsible for his countrys attempt to re-unite Korea by force. Kim Il Sung was also responsible for North Koreas subsequently militant defence and foreign policies that has remained stridently anti-Western, militaristic, and potentially aggressive towards its immediate neighbours in the North East Asia region ever since. It was Kim Il Sung that decided to re-unite Korea by force, after his realisation that diplomacy would not bring about such a re-unification led to the plan to invade South Korea, although he seems to have pre-empted similar plans that the South Koreans had hoped to implement. Kim Il Sung went ahead with that invasion with the approval of the Soviet Union and China, and the apparent indifference of the United States, which had already withdrawn its military garrisons from South Korea during 1949. However, the Nor th Korean invasion which, was launched in June 1950 persuaded the United States to lead the United Nations forces into defending South Korea and driving the North Koreans back across the 38th parallel. The United States had been able to take advantage of the Soviet Unions representative not been at the United Nations due to the Soviet decision to boycott the organisation due to Communist China being excluded from the Security Council (Evans Newnham, 1998, p. 293). The United States decision to intervene in the Korean War started its long -standing military alliance with South Korea to guarantee South Korean security from the continued threat of North Korean aggression. The Korean War itself would drag on for three years with the North Koreans having to rely on large-scale Chinese military intervention and covert air support from the SovietUnion. North Korea only survived after the American led United Nations forces had captured the majority of North Korean territory due to Mao Zedo ng sending in the Chinese army. The conflict could have escalated, due to the involvement of Soviet aircraft that could have provoked a war between the superpowers yet both Moscow and Washington did not want an all out war to start due to the Korean War (Hobsbawm, 1994 p. 228). After the Korean War the prospects for Korean re-unification seemed to be remote, with the two Korean states being integrated into the alliance systems of the Soviet Union and the United States respectively. North Korea was therefore firmly in the communist camp, and initially enjoyed strong and productive political, economic and military relationships with both China and the Soviet Union. South Korea was a willing member of the United States alliance system and received substantial monetary and military backing from the United States, and later significant economic investment from Japan that would make it wealthier than North Korea. The United States government was not bothered by the Seouls regime lack of democratic practices just as long as it remained fervently anti-Communist (Hobsbawm, 1994 p. 228). Kim Il Sungs North Korean regime was in contrast avowedly Marxist-Leninist in ideological outlook, whilst trying to create a strong sense of North Korean nationalism that was decided ly anti-American and increasingly isolationist in perspective (Heywood, 2003 p. 179). The Korean War meant that neighbouring countries such as South Korea, Japan, and China kept an interest in political and diplomatic developments that involved North Korea, the former as potential enemies, the latter originally as an ally. The balance of power during the Cold War meant that North Korea could only pose a threat to the peace and security of the North East Asia region if that suited the Soviet Union, and to a lesser extent China. The Kremlin to a large extent kept the regime in Pyongyang in check, not wishing to provoke further conflict, and realising that the United States would not tolerate North Korea attempting to invade South Korea again, or indeed developing its own nuclear weapons. On the other hand the Soviet Union exported missile and nuclear technologies to North Korea as part of its military and economic aid packages to the Pyongyang regime (Gaddis, 2005 p. 60). The fighting during the Korean War was heavy, the agricultural sector being particularly adversely affected, and the war had devastated North Koreas economy. American bombing had also heavily damaged the North Korean capital city, Pyongyang. The number of North Korean fatalities, 419,000 was testimony to the high human costs of the conflict, with around 3 million people dying during its course (Castleden, 2005, p.299). The scale of destruction did not prevent a strong economic revival and rapid industrialisation, although most of those improvements were brought about by considerable amounts of help from China and the Soviet Union (Castleden, 2005, p.300). Large-scale industrialisation in North Korea would therefore have undoubtedly been much harder to achieve without that substantial aid that North Korea received from China and the Soviet Union. The Soviet decision to export nuclear technology to North Korea, for the non-military use of generating electricity would later allow Pyongy ang the opportunity to start its own nuclear weapons programme. That would have been unthinkable at the height of the Cold War, as neither the Soviet Union nor the United States would allow any of their satellite states to disturb the nuclear power balance between them. However, once the North Korean regime believed that the Soviet Union and China would no longer offer North Korea any meaningful kind or level of protection that is indeed precisely what the North Korean regime decided to do (Lenman, 2004, p.451). North Korea would continue to operate a planned economy even though that would eventually fail to adequately support its military build up and its civilian population. The North Korean government opted to keep its military infrastructure expanding rather than attempt economic reforms or adequately providing for its people (Heywood, 2003 p.137). The Soviet Union would have certainly disapproved of North Korean plans to develop its own nuclear weapons, yet the Soviet Unions in fluence upon North Korean military and defence policies had waned long before its own disintegration in 1991 (Gaddis, 2005, p.264). North Korea arguably became a threat to the peace and stability of the North East Asia region due to the nature and character of its hard line Stalinist regime. Kim Il Sung was a Marxist dictator in the mode of Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong. However for the majority of the Cold War period the North Korean threat was seen to be much less pronounced to the non-communist parts of the North East Asia region than the more obvious threats of the Soviet Union and China (Gaddis, 2005, p.60). Kim Il Sungs craving for power meant that North Korea dedicated and continues to dedicate a large percentage of its national budget and resources towards internal repression and building up its military strength to threaten the other countries of the North East Asia region. However, North Koreas conventional weapons would not be enough to successfully invade South Korea whilst the United States continues to offer full protection against such attacks, even if their purchase had almost bankrupted the Pyongy ang regime (Castleden, 2005, p.303). Despite the faltering of the North Korean economy in the last two decades or so, Pyongyang seems to be more interested in threatening South Korea and Japan with nuclear weapons and ballistic weapons than feeding its own population. Although North Korea should be wary of what happened to its erstwhile ally, the Soviet Union whose excessive and unsustainable military expenditure played a major part in its eventual collapse (Tipton, 1998, p.434). However, although the North Korean regime decided to start its nuclear weapons programme that decision violated North Koreas formal and legal pledges not to proliferate its own nuclear weapons. North Korea had signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and had joined the IAEA, which meant that it was not supposed to start its own nuclear weapons programme at all (Evans Newnham, 1998 p. 68). For the North Koreans there were other examples of small and large sized states that had already broken their promises and legal commitments not to develop their own nuclear weapons. Those states nuclear weapons programme with varying degrees of reaction from the official nuclear powers of the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, China, and France. Countries such as Israel, India, and Pakistan have gone on to successfully acquire their own nuclear weapons with little or no action been taken against them to make them give up those devices. The North Korean regime understood that it could dev elop nuclear weapons with the possiblity that the United Nations and the leading powers would not be able to take any effective action to take those weapons off North Korea (Fukuyama, 2006 p. 80). Chapter One North Korean defence and foreign policy misrepresented or a threat to peace and security? Since the foundation of North Korea as a separate nation state its defence and foreign policies have been geared towards the re-unification of Korea on Pyongyangs terms, rather than South Koreas terms (Rayner Stanley, 2006, p.234). As far as the North Korean regime of Kim Il Sung was concerned the re-unification of Korea was not an issue that should concern any other countries apart from North and South Korea themselves. It was the context of the Cold War that complicated the strategic, military and diplomatic situation concerning the dispute between North and South Korea about which country should over power the other to dominate a reunified Korean state. In military terms North Korea is the strongest, in economic terms South Korea is the strongest (Tipton, 1998, 434). On the one hand the assistance of China and the Soviet Union was useful for the economic development of North Korea and also as a means of building up the countrys military power. On the other hand the Cold War meant that the United States was more alert about the need to protect the countries in the North East Asia region that were opposed to communism, like Japan, South Korea and South Vietnam (Gaddis, 2005, p.60). The Cold War meant that the United States was unwilling to allow any more parts of North East Asia to fall under communist rule. After all the presence of United States forces in Japan had allowed the United Nations forces to resist Kim Il Sungs invasion of South Korea. North Vietnam would eventually overcome South Vietnam despite the best efforts of the United States, yet the terrain of Vietnam was different from that of Korea and the North Vietnamese had better military tactics than the North Koreans (Hobsbawm, 1994, p.228). Whilst the Cold War continued, North Korea was not seen as the main threat to peace and security in the North East Asia region, superpower rivalry meant that the Soviet Union and the United States mistrusted each other more than they mistrusted any other stat e. China would also emerge as a major power within the region, one that eventually took independent policy decisions from those of the Soviet Union. The United States government however, remains wary of North Koreas intentions towards the rest of the North East Asia region (Gaddis, 2005, p.61). The peace and security of the North East Asia region altered during the 1960s, not as a result of changes in the Cold War, but as a result of alterations in the relationship between North Korea, China, and the Soviet Union. The regime of Kim Il Sung had not wished for North Korea to be reliant upon either China or the Soviet Union as soon as the country had recovered from the Korean War and had become economically self sufficient. By the mid 1960s the North Korean regime believed that it become self-sufficient and no longer such high levels of aid from China or the Soviet Union. Kim Il Sung wanted to maintain military links with China and the Soviet Union, yet did not wish for North Korea to be a mere client state of Beijing or Moscow. North Korea was not going to be like the majority of communist states in Central and Eastern Europe were in relation to the Soviet Union. Although of course the North Koreans did not have to worry about invasion by the Soviet Union if it took much of a n independent from Soviet policy (Castleden, 2005, p.301). North Koreas military power was originally reliant upon Chinese and Soviet built equipment and the regime could not afford weapons from any other countries outside of the communist bloc (Gaddis, 2005, p.61). Under Kim Il Sungs leadership North Korea could not get away from its close economic links with the Soviet Union until the latters collapse in 1991, which in turn would have very detrimental affects upon North Korea (Watson, 1997, p.246). The strong relationship between China and the Soviet Union declined dramatically towards the end of the 1960s resulting in border clashes between the two states. The break down in the relationship between China and the Soviet Union meant North Koreas most powerful allies would spend more time arguing with each other than the United States. Pyongyang did not back either state publicly although Kim Il Sung regarded the Soviet Union as a more reliable ally, and unlike Beijing, Moscow did n ot occasionally make insulting comments about the North Korean leader (Watson, 1997, p.240). Whilst the North Korean economy seemed to enjoy impressive growth rates from the 1950s through to the 1970s, the country arguably did not have or develop the infrastructure or indeed have the resources to become a serious threat to peace and security in the North East Asia region. North Korean economic policy was heavily influenced by the planned economies of China and the Soviet Union, and was as unsuccessful in North Korea as they had been in China and the Soviet Union (Heywood, 2003 p. 152). Kim Il Sungs regime collectivised agriculture and began the process of large-scale industrialisation. The collectivisation of agriculture commenced in 1946 when estates with Japanese owners were confiscated in the north under Soviet guidance (Tipton, 1998,p.304). Collectivisation and the modernisation of agriculture increased the life expectancy of the North Korean population. Industrialisation at least during the 1950s and 1960s appeared to be impressive. However much of that economic growth was due to the revenues raised from the export of natural resources to the Soviet Union and the receipt of aid from the Soviet Union (Watson, 1997, p.246) Economic growth could have been stronger if it had not been hampered by Kim Il Sungs decision to make expenditure on the military as high as possible, and his governments main priority. The military build up was meant to unnerve the South Korean government. In terms of total expenditure South Korea spent more on its military expenditure than North Korea. This was mainly due to North Korea being regarded as an ever-present threat to South Korean security. There were differences as to how the two countries military expenditure was regarded in the North East Asia region and beyond. South Koreas military expenditure was seen as being justified as it would deter North Korea. On the other hand, North Koreas military spending was viewed as being unjustified, aggressive and a sign of Kim Il Sungs megalomania, policies that his son, Kim Jong Il has continued (Gaddis, 2005, p.61). North Korea had one major disadvantage if its regime wished to outspend South Korea in terms of their defence budgets, as they were poorer. Whilst North Korea found it difficult to find foreign investors, South Korea was able to attract very high volumes of investment, especially from the United States and Japan. South Koreas increasing levels of wealth meant it could easily match North Koreas military build up, without reducing the living standards of its population, or driving its government towards insolvency (Tipton, 1998, p.304). In terms of any future conventional war between North and South Korea, South Korea held key advantages. Firstly, the South Korean population was twice the size of its neighbour to the north, potentially allowing for its armed forces to have twice the number of personnel in war- time conditions. In 1985, South Korea was estimated to have a population of 41.2 million compared to North Koreas population of 20.1 million people (Watson, 1997, p.262). South K orea was economically more productive and therefore wealthier than North Korea, with the latters seemingly impressive growth rates beginning to slow down by the start of the 1980s. An example of the growing disparity between the countries was the per capita income, whilst it was $790 for North Korea in 1982, it was $1,840 for South Korea in 1983. In economic terms, North Korea could not realistically afford its high levels of military expenditure, although Kim Il Sungs regime was determined to carry on with spending money it believed kept the regime in power and made it a continuing danger to its capitalist neighbours (Watson, 1997, p.262). In the following decade North Korea was widely regarded as bring an increased threat to the peace and security of the North East Asia region, despite the countrys economy going in to a steep decline. Whilst the North Korean regime refused to scale down its military expenditure its agricultural sector, especially suffered an alarming drop in productivity that contributed to an estimated two million North Koreans dying of starvation during the 1990s. Despite famine and economic decline the North Korean regime still used scarce resources to develop its nuclear weapons programme. North Korea barely increased its economic productivity during the 1990s and was by then considerably poorer than South Korea. To give a stark contrast, South Korean per capita gross domestic product (GDP) reached an impressive $13, 700, whilst North Korean GDP languished at $900. It was a paradoxical situation in which, although the North Korean regime could increasingly threaten its neighbours with missiles and nuclear weapons, yet it would eventually need emergency aid from those countries to prevent more of its own population starving to death (Pipes, 2001, p.152). On paper at least, North Korea has impressive conventional military strength with around 3,500 tanks and 2,500 armoured personnel carriers, whilst the army had 950,000 troops. The North Korean air force has 590 combat aircraft, whilst the navys 88 submarines could pose a serious threat to shipping in the North East Asia region in the event of a future war. However it is the potential development and possible of nuclear weapons that causes a greater concern than North Koreas conventional arsenal (Whitakers 2007, pp.893-94). South Korea has smaller armed forces yet still has a standing army 560,000 strong and 2,330 main battle tanks. South Korea would no doubt have to increase those numbers if 94, 450 Americans were not based in South Korea (Whitakers 2007 p. 895). However, it was not just North Koreas strength in terms of conventional weapons that means it is regarded as being a threat to peace and security in the North East Asia region. The United States government has long suspected that North Korea has played a part in sponsoring and supporting terrorism within the North East Asia region and indeed further afield. The suspicions of the United States have been founded upon the anti-American rhetoric that the North Korean regime its content to produce from time to time (Gaddis, 2005, p.261). South Korea had previously accused North Korea of trying to undermine internal stability by supporting dissident South Korean groups and calling for the re-unification of Korea (Tipton, 1998, p.304). North Korea was one of the countries that the administration of Ronald Reagan denounced as being terrorist states back in 1985. The Reagan administration viewed North Korea as being a risk to international peace and security within and beyond the North East A sia region (Ward, 2003, p.349). North Korea did not have any moral or political hang ups about selling weapons such as assault rifles to other countries that found it hard to acquire weapons due to arms embargos or sanctions. For instance, North Korea sold surplus Soviet manufactured assault rifles to Iran during the early years of the Iran-Iraq War. Such arms sales may have contributed to the United States accusing North Korea of being a terrorist state. The North Koreans could have countered that these claims were hypocrisy on the part of the American government that sold a much greater volume of weapons to any state or organisation that was anti-Communist, or if it suited the United States interests to do so. Hypocrisy that was demonstrated by the Iran –Contra Affair in which the money from arms sales to Iran was used to fund the Contra forces in Nicaragua (Fisk, 2006, p.278). North Korea also supplied ballistic missiles to the Iranians and even sent engineers to Iran to e nsure those missiles successfully reached Iraqi targets, especially Baghdad. The willingness of the North Koreans to sell missiles to the highest bidders certainly increased concerns about Pyongyang posing a threat to peace and security (Fisk, 2006, p.281). Surveillance and interceptions of cargo ships have provided evidence that North Korea will sell weapons to terrorist organisations as well as any state that can afford them. For instance, the Spanish navy intercepted a North Korean merchant ship that was officially taking cement to South Yemen. Once aboard that ship the Spanish found ballistic missiles that could have been used by the terrorist group that had brought those missiles. The Middle East is a volatile region at the best of times, so the ability of North Korea to supply ballistic missiles to governments and terrorists groups in that region is another concern for the United States and other Western countries (Davies, 2003 p. 238). It was during the early 1990s that the prospect of North Korea carrying out a successful nuclear weapons programme became the cause of major international concern. In the United States, the administration of President Bill Clinton was determined to persuade the North Korean regime to halt that nuclear weapons programme peacefully by preference, or by force if necessary (Clinton, 2004 p. 561). Aside from the United States, South Korea, China, Russia, and Japan were, and still are the countries that are most anxious to prevent North Korea acquiring and keeping nuclear weapons. Britain and France have also been involved in international efforts to prevent North Korea acquiring nuclear weapons as members of the United Nations Security Council, and as signatories of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (Evans Newnham, 1998 p. 381). South Korea and Japan are particularly anxious and insecure about North Koreas attempts to produce nuclear weapons because they would be the most obvious targ ets if North Korea ever decided to use nuclear weapons. That anxiety is increased because the South Koreans and the Japanese are well aware that the North Koreans have the technical capacity to fit nuclear warheads to its force of ballistic missiles that can reach all the major cities in South Korea and Japan. China is also anxious that the nuclear weapons programme of North Korea does not provoke a military confrontation between North Korea and the United States that would bring widespread destruction and shatter the peace and stability of the North East Asia region. China remains keen to continue its impressive economic growth rates and also hopes to maintain political stability in the region, a stability that North Korea has a strong propensity to disrupt. China is therefore willing to act as a go between to prevent conflict arising between the United States and North Korea that would be very damaging to the North East Asia region as a whole (Cheek, 2006 p.136). That also means t hat China is willing to back the efforts of the United States, South Korea, and Japan to reduce the North Korean threat to peace and security (The Guardian, February 14 2007). Russia, as the main successor state to the Soviet Union, on the other hand has attempted to maintain strong economic, military, and economic links with North Korea. Those links leave Kim Jong Il hoping North Korea has more leeway in its disputes with the United States and the United Nations over its plans to acquire nuclear weapons. Whilst Russia is caught between promoting its economic links with North Korea without harming its relationship with the United States that improved with the latters war on terror in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, it would normally put its relationship with the United States first. The Russians and North Koreans remain keen upon maintaining a strong relationship between each other, although that is based on pragmatism rather than a common ideological outlook. Whilst the Russian government believes that like the Chinese government it could help resolve the international disputes that currently mean that North Korea is regarded as been a threat to peace and s ecurity in North East Asia region (Meir, 2004 p. 417). North Koreas defence and foreign policy was seen and remains seen as a serious and increasing threat to the peace and security of the North East Asia region because of the nature of the Pyongyang regime itself. That is due to Kim Il Sung and his son and successor Kim Jong Il concentrating upon the maintaining of their personal hold on power. That hold on power is through a strong military with undoubted loyalty to the national leader, and via a system of forced labour and prison camps that detain political dissidents or opponents of the regime. The regimes internal position is also protected and promoted through a cult of personality for Kim Il Sung and now Kim Jong Il that rivals other cults of personalities witnessed in other communist regimes. It most closely resembles the cults of personality experienced in the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union, or China under Chairman Mao Zedong, especially during the tumultuous period of the Cultural Revolution (Castleden, 2005 p. 301). The Nor th Korean regime during Kim Il Sungs lifetime not only managed to copy Chinese and Soviet propaganda techniques; the North Koreans also managed to emulate their purges. Such pronounced levels of dictatorship have always managed to make the United States suspicious of North Korean intentions. The South Koreans and the Japanese tend to reinforce American concerns over the de-stabilising effects of North Korean defence and foreign policies. The South Koreans and the Japanese therefore have fears for their safety as without an American military presence in the North East Asia region they would not be able to defend themselves from North Korean attacks. As the United States and its North East Asian allies do not trust North Korea, the United States uses satellites to monitor North Korean military activity and its nuclear installations, whilst the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) constantly carries out surveillance operations (Lane McCormack, 1993 p. 178). Chapter Two Containing the North Korean threat to peace and security in the North East Asia Region To a large extent North Korea is widely considered to be a threat to peace and secu

History of the US and Mexico Border

History of the US and Mexico Border Tracing the Evolving Historiography of the U.S.-Mexico Border Introduction Regulating the border between the United States and Mexico is not a new issue. In fact, concerns over what to do with the border, what it should look like, and who should be allowed to cross have been prevalent questions since American and Mexican diplomats sat down to establish the border in the aftermath of the Mexican-American war in 1848. While the eastern half of the border is easily distinguished by the Rio Grande, the western border does not correspond to any recognizable geographic features and was instead made up of arbitrarily drawn lines through an uninhabited desert. It is along this permeable border that a borderlands historian like Rachel St. John’s monograph, Line in the Sand (2011), is concerned. While St. John’s work declares itself to be a history of the actual border, earlier historians like Clarence Clendenen and his work, Blood on the Border: The United States Army and the Mexican Irregulars (1969), is more of a military history discussing the Unite d States army’s involvement in border clashes with Indian and Mexican forces. In later years, economic and public policy history became the preferred methodology of examining the history of the U.S.-Mexico border like Douglas Massey’s Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Mexican Immigration in an Era of Economic Integration (2002) which examines the issue of managing immigration from Mexico through the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) in an era of increasing economic interdependence caused by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). When examined side by side, these three monographs are a good representation of just how drastically historians have changed the way they discuss they border in only the last fifty years. Since its inception, the ways in which historians discuss the U.S.-Mexico border have evolved significantly. Unlike earlier approaches, which were biased toward the United States and primarily concerned with the American point of view, newer works like St. John’s are beginning to take a more transnational approach to tracing the evolution of the boundary between the two nation-states from its inception as a meaningless line on a map to the complex system of barriers and strict regulation that allows for the easy passage of some people, animals, commodities, and goods, while restricting the movements of others. Given the controversy and politics that are deeply entrenched in discussions about the U.S.-Mexico border, St. John’s work is by no means the pinnacle of successful transnational history, however it does act as a step in the right directions for future historians to further expand upon. It is easy to assume that borderlands history would be inherently transnational because oftentimes borderlands are â€Å"crossroads where people and their institutions and traditions come together, creating distinctive ways of organizing space and transforming the seemingly fixed edges of empires and nations into fluid spaces†.[1] However that is not always the case, especially in the scholarship about the U.S.-Mexico border, which is heavily politicized in both nations. The best transnational histories examine the interconnections between political units, especially the flow of goods, people, and ideas across borders. These works trace how US involvement overseas shapes not only foreign peoples, but also Americans back home. The most successful works incorporate a variety of historical methods and draw on US and foreign archives while paying attention to the role of non-state actors and the agency of non-elites.[2] While each monograph discussed tend to only focus on a few of these qualifiers, there is a noticeable trend that scholarship is becoming more transnational, however maybe not as quickly as one would thing. The subject matter of borderland history lends itself well to transnational methodology, however historians are still more concerned with the elite actors, politics, and the American point of view for any of these works to be considered truly transnational. Blood on the Border Published in 1969, Clendenen’s Blood on the Border: The United States Army and the Mexican Irregulars is one of the earliest examples of borderland history and thus takes a more traditionalist approach to historical writing. As a graduate of West Point and the Curator Emeritus of the Military Collection at Stanford University, it is no surprise that Clendenen’s monograph is primarily focused on the tense history of border skirmishes that occurred between the U.S. and Mexican armies between 1848 and 1917.   Clendenen’s work chronicles a series of episodes where the U.S. and Mexican armies clashed with each other beginning with the activities of Juan Cortina who was a Robin Hood-like figure, later chapters also describes U.S. military activity during the Civil War, the campaigns against the Kickapoos and Apaches, and border problems during the revolutionary period. Clendenen then devotes over half of the book to examining General Pershing’s Punitive Expedition against the Mexican revolutionary general Francisco â€Å"Pancho† Villa in 1916. Clendenen’s main argument is that the Punitive Expedition was not a humiliating failure for the US military, however this period of U.S.-Mexico history has been greatly neglected by historians because it had been forgotten amidst the earlier wars with the Plains Indians and World War I. He argues: â€Å"General Pershing’s Punitive Expedition was soon so over-shadowed by the entry of the United States into World War I that historians have given it scant attention, and most of those who grant it a few sentences, or a paragraph or two, are amazingly misinformed about it. Yet the operations of small American forces in northern Mexico on numerous occasions constitute a phase of our military history that is well worth rescuing†.[3] To support his argument, Clendenen relies on a variety of sources including interviews, diaries and autobiographies of American soldiers, as well as U.S. archival sources. However Mexican sources are nearly nonexistent. He justifies that the exclusion of Mexican sources was intentional because his goal is to describe the basis on which American commanders formed their decisions. Clendenen argues that his research deliberately presents only the American perspective on the border conflicts because that is the nature of military history. â€Å"A military history written from the point of view of a participant nation is necessarily one-sided; it cannot be completely objective regarding the enemy†¦ the commander of a military unit must base his decisions upon the information he actually has at a given moment—not upon what a scholar or historian may know half a century later†¦ Hence, I make no apology for having cited very few Mexican sources†¦Ã¢â‚¬ .[4] Clendenen is also reluctant to include Mexican sources because, he argues, it is very difficult for an American to obtain firsthand information regarding events and activities. â€Å"Mexicans, for some reason or other,† he says, â€Å"are reluctant to discuss border events with Americans†.[5] This type of justification for focusing on the American narrative falls in line with most of the early scholarship about the U.S.-Mexico border. Very little, if any, of Clendenen’s work can be considered transnational even though its subject matter is about the US and Mexican army’s movements throughout the borderlands. Aside from examining the interconnections between political units (in this case, the militaries of two countries), Clendenen does little to examine the flow of goods, people, and ideas across borders, or focus on the role of non-state actors and the agency of non-elites. Little attention is also paid to tracing how the United States’ involvement overseas affects those back home. Beyond Smoke and Mirrors   By the early 2000s, scholarship on the U.S.-Mexico border was starting to become more willing to discuss the non-state, non-American actors, though it still tended to have a strong American perspective. Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Mexican Immigration in an Era of Economic Integration (2002) by Douglas Massey et al. examines the economic and public policy history of the U.S.-Mexico border—specifically the opposing effects of the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)—to draw conclusions about the complexities of how the border operated between 1965 and 1986. Massey et al. argue that the migration system between Mexico and the United States is similar to a complicated piece of machinery and that their monograph is meant to troubleshoot the problems of immigration by describing the dramatic impact that immigration policies have had on those living in Mexico as well as the United States. The monograph operates as a sort of owner’s manual and describes how the migration system was built, how it worked until immigration policies first passed in 1986 disrupted it, and how the system changed as a consequence. Subsequently in its repair manual, the authors offer a specific set of proposals designed to fix the damage caused by these policies and make migration efficient and predictable again. The authors argue, Just as it is not advisable to take a wrench to a precision clock if one is not a qualified clockmaker, it is not wise to pull policy levers if one has no real conception of how the underlying system functions. Yet this is exactly what happened beginning in 1986, when the US Congress and successive presidents presided over a series of legislative and bureaucratic changes that fundamentally changed the rules under which the Mexico-US migration system operated†¦we seek to provide policymakers and citizens with a more accurate blueprint of the nuts and bolts of the Mexico-US migration system. We offer a kind of ‘owner’s manual’ to explain how the system works theoretically, how it was built historically, and how it functions substantively, or at least how it did function until the 1986 IRCA threw it out of synch.[6] To support their arguments, Massey et al. utilize an economic history  methodology by using a variety of  historical methods, statistical methods, and  economic  theory to  closely examine the relationship between immigration and U.S. public policies. Similar to Clendenen’s work, Massey et al. also do not look beyond the American archives for source materials. However their sources do show a greater amount of variety than Clendenen’s and even includes published articles from Mexican scholars, which is something Clendenen specifically avoided. The authors gathered information from a diverse set of sources including official statistics from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service and the U.S. Bureau of the Census, the Mexican National Statistical Institute, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the United Nations.[7] Most notably, the authors rely on data compiled by the Mexican Migration Project (MMP), a bi-national research project compiled by the University of Guadalajara and the University of Pennsylvania and directed by two of the authors, Jorge Durand and Douglas S. Massey.[8] Compared to Clarence Clendenen’s work, Beyond Smoke and Mirror shows a significant transformation in how historians study and write about the U.S.-Mexico border though the approach only hits on a few of the key qualifiers of a truly transnational work.   For example, Clendenen was solely concerned with recording the experiences of Americans who served in the army in the borderlands and justifying the United States’ involvement in various border skirmishes. On the other hand, Massey et al. have expanded the scope of their research in order to examine the broader picture of the immigration of non-state, non-elite actors and the influence agricultural employers and American politics had on the ebb and flow of people across the border. Massey et al. also attempt to address how the implementation of IRCA and NAFTA have interrupted the stable circular flow of Mexican migrants who arrived in the United States, quickly found jobs, and returned to Mexico for several months bef ore migrating back to the United States again. This steady immigration system â€Å"minimized the negative consequences and maximized the gain for both countries†. [9] In this aspect, the authors attempted to explain how United States involvement in Mexico reshaped the lives of not only Mexicans, but also Americans back home. Line in the Sand One of the most recent works of scholarship about the U.S.-Mexico border is Rachel St. John’s Line in the Sand: A History of the Western U.S.-Mexico Border (2011). As part of Princeton University’s America in the World series, this monograph is meant to represent the newest transnational methodology historians are using when writing about U.S-Mexico border history. St. John does employ a transnational methodology in her examination of the history of the U.S.-Mexico border, displaying a tremendous amount of change in the field, however the degree to which she utilizes key aspects of a true transnational work are somewhat disappointing for a monograph published in a transnational history series. This appears to be a problem concerning the subject area rather than the author, as other historians such as Mae Ngai and her work, Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America (2004),appear to suffer similar shortcomings. Regardless, St. John’s work does create a very useful stepping stone to guide future historians away from nationalistic, America-centered histories and towards studies not confined to political units that are more concerned with the role of non-state actors as subjects of an incredibly complex system. St. John attempts to differentiate her work from earlier scholarship about the border by immediately asserting that she is writing about the history of the physical border from its conception up to its modern form in the 1930s. She argues that the actual border itself is often ignored in scholarship that is supposedly about the border: â€Å"As borderlands historians have emphasized historical processes that transcend national boundaries and have expanded their focus to include zones of interaction outside of the US Southwest and Mexican north, they have often treated the border itself as in irrelevant or incidental part of the borderlands. By contrast, I emphasize the centrality of the boundary line in the processes of market expansion, conquest, state building, and identity formation with which many borderlands historians are concerned†.[10] St. John examines the transformation of the border chronologically from its origins in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, to a prosperous economic crossroads, and finally into a heavily policed series of checkpoints intent on keeping certain people and goods from crossing. St. John breaks her research up into chapters that can almost be viewed as a series of vignettes or snapshots throughout time of how the western U.S.-Mexico border quickly began to change. From its inception as well as the actual attempts by surveyors to map out the border, St. John argues that simply drawing a line on a map does not automatically guarantee territorial authority for a nation, especially one that is not marked by any distinct geographical features like the western border. Essentially, she writes, the creation of the western border â€Å"conjured up an entirely new space where there had not been one before†.[11] This is significant because for many years, the border remained a porous boundary that actually encouraged border residents to move freely. This idea of a porous border was especially beneficial for commercial development and bi-national cooperation, especially with the arrival of railroads in the 1880s. With the creation of railroads, St. John notes that a capitalist revolution had occurred, â€Å"grasslands became ranches, mountains became mines, and the border itself became a site of commerce and communities†¦ by the early twentieth century the border had become a point of connection and community in the midst of an emerging capitalist economy and the center of a transborder landscape of property and profit†.[12] However with the development of transnational capitalism came the creation of state border control, which was intent on protecting investors that profited from this economy by controlling the passage of goods and people across the border. By this time, military power was no longer the primary concern along the border. Instead, the U.S. and Mexico’s sovereignty was â€Å"measured in customs collected, immigrants rejected, and bandits arrested†.[13] The latter half of St. John’s work examines the use of the border to manage immigration. The ultimate challenge for both countries was the creation of a conditional border that allowed for the passage of desired migrants and commerce but obstructed the flow of those who were not welcome.[14] This conditional border was incredibly inconsistent and depended largely on the discretion of immigration officials, changes in law, and fluctuating economic conditions.[15] St. John attempts to address each of the key aspects of a transnational methodology with varying degrees of success. Most obvious is her examination of the interconnections between political units and the flow of goods, people, and ideas across borders because this is the entire basis of her research. Unlike Clendenen and Massey who only focused on the one-way flow of people and goods from Mexico to the United States, St. John actually expands on this idea in her work by examining the flow of people from Mexico to the United States and then back to Mexico at different points in time in the early twentieth century. She spends a considerable amount of time discussing the effects that immigration policy changes had on immigrant laborers, their families, and their communities—aspects of immigration that the earlier historians had all but ignored. Similar to St. John, Massey et al. also discuss the idea that the economy in the United States played a significant hand in influencing the ebb and flow of Mexican immigration, however they fail at investigating what happened to these people once they emigrated back to Mexico. St. John discusses the fluctuations of immigration, but she also attempts to tell the other side of the story by including the Mexican government’s response to deportations and increasingly strict immigration laws.[16] In this way, St. John does a much better job than earlier historians at tracing how U.S. involvement and policies shaped not only Mexican citizens, but Americans as well. This becomes increasingly apparent as she examines the sharp increases in policing of the border in the 1930s as â€Å" government officials not only made it more difficult for new migrants to cross the border but also criminalized Mexicans as â€Å"illegal aliens† and encouraged, coerced, and forced hundreds of thousands of Mexican nationals and US citizens of Mexican descent to move to Mexico†.[17] Changes in U.S. policy in attempts to protect its economy and citizens clearly affected deported Mexican citizens and people of Mexican descent, but it also fed into the growing anti-Mexican sentiment that many Americans were feeling at the time, essentially treating Mexican laborers as scapegoats for the lack of jobs leading up to the Great Depression. One aspect of St. John’s work that could use improvement is diversifying the sources that she uses. Again, this appears to be a problem inherent in this subject area rather than any fault of the author. While Clendenen intentionally used only American sources, later historians of U.S.-Mexico relations like Massey et al. and even Mae Ngai appear to have trouble including a fair amount of sources from foreign archives. This could be for a variety of reasons including language barriers, lack of access to the archives, or simply because perhaps the majority of scholarship on this subject could be published in the United States. St. John seems to have been more successful at including Mexican scholarship in her work compared to earlier scholars, however for a monograph specifically about the border between Mexico and the United States, her sources are still notably one-sided. Out of all of her research, St. John only visited three archives in Mexico to complete her work. These include the Archivo General del Estado de Sonora, the Archivo Histà ³rico Genaro Estrada, and the Instituto de Investigaciones Histà ³ricas.[18] In comparison to the numerous American archives she visited, it is hard to understand why she chose to include so few Mexican sources when a significant portion of her work is dedicated to the communities located on the Mexican side of the border. The vast majority of St. John’s research was conducted within the United States and she uses a variety of American archives to complete her work using a large assortment of books, photographs, manuscript collections, microfilm reels, government documents, and newspapers. St. John’s use of source materials is comparable to Massey et al. who used similar documents to complete their work only a decade earlier. The fact that scholars have yet to utilize Mexican sources to their greatest potential is somewhat disappointing for a work of transnational history but perhaps the next generation of historians will be able to improve the situation if the controversy and politics that are deeply entrenched in discussions about the U.S.-Mexico border ever simmer down. Rachel St. John’s Line in the Sand is the latest attempt by borderlands historians taking a transnational approach to their work. It may not be successful in all aspects of a truly transnational methodology however it does set the stage for future historians to build off of and think outside of the borders of traditional U.S.-centric histories. Conclusion Concerns over regulating the U.S.-Mexico border, what it should look like, and who should be allowed to cross it are issues as relevant today as they were when the border was first established 170 years ago. Tune into any news network today and information on the latest immigration policies and border control will surely be hotly debated between policymakers, citizens, and corporations who all have differing opinions on how the border should operate. While obvious geographical features like the Rio Grande easily delineate the eastern portion of the U.S.-Mexico border, the western border cuts through uninhabitable desert that is barely marked with more than a few fence posts in some areas. It is along this permeable half of the border that borderlands historians situate their work. Borderland histories have transformed significantly over the course of the century as historians are beginning to leave behind the nationalistic, pro-American sentiments of historical writing behind in favor of a better-rounded transnational approach that situates America in the context of the greater history of the world. Published in 1969, Clarence Clendenen’s Blood on the Border: The United States Army and the Mexican Irregulars represents the ways in which earlier historians often used military history when discussing border issues. In later years, economic and public policy history became the preferred methodology of examining the history of the U.S.-Mexico border like Douglas Massey’s Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Mexican Immigration in an Era of Economic Integration (2002). In recent years, historians like Rachel St. John are attempting to examine the history of the actual border itself without tying themselves down to writing specifically from the perspective of any one nation state. When examined chronologically, these monographs show just how drastically historians have changed the way they discuss they border in just the last fifty years. Unlike the earlier approaches to writing about the border, which were primarily concerned with the American point of view, newer works like St. John’s are beginning to take a more transnational approach to tracing the evolution of the boundary between Mexico and the United States from its inception as an unclear and undefined political boundary to the complex system of border patrols and strict regulation that allows for the easy passage of some people, animals, commodities, and goods, while at the same time restricting the movements of others. In many other fields of study, the transnational approach to history was specifically sparked by changes in how we examine and write about history in a post-9/11 world. However, discussions over the U.S.-Mexico border do not seem to follow this trend quite as closely as it is still a subject the general public is hotly divided over. This could be attributed to many reasons such as current events involving recently elected U.S. leadership fear mongering that it is imperative for the safety of American citizens and the economy to build a two thousand mile long wall along the border. This feeds into a deep-seated distrust of the immigration system after using Mexican immigrants as a convenient scapegoat for the better half of a century. As long as U.S. citizens, our government, and policies continue to vilify our neighbors to the south, any sort of progressive transnational scholarship will not be possible. Bibliography Clendenen, Clarence C., Blood on the Border: The United States Army and the Mexican Irregulars. London: The Macmillan Company, 1969. Hamalainen, Pekka and Benjamin Johnson. â€Å"What is Borderlands History?† In Major Problems in the History of North American Borderlands, 1-40.Wandsworth Publishing, 2011. Accessed May 1, 2017. http://inside.sfuhs.org/dept/history/Mexicoreader/Chapter8/borderlands/borderlandsch1.p df. Massey, Douglas S., Jorge Durand, and Nolan J. Malone. Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Mexican Immigration in an Era of Economic Integration. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2002. St. John, Rachel. Line in the Sand: A history of the Western U.S.-Mexico Border. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011. [1] Pekka Hamalainen and Benjamin Johnson, â€Å"What is Borderlands History?†, in Major Problems in the History of North American Borderlands (Wandsworth Publishing, 2011), 1. [2] Class notes. [3] Clarence C. Clendenen, Blood on the Border: The United States Army and the Mexican Irregulars (London: The Macmillan Company, 1969). Xvi. [4] Ibid., xvii [5] Ibid. [6] Douglas S. Massey et al., Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Mexican Immigration in an Era of Economic Integration (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2002). 2. [7] Ibid., 165. [8] Ibid. [9] Ibid., 71. >[10] Rachel St. John, Line in the Sand: A history of the Western U.S.-Mexico Border (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011). 5-6. [11] Ibid., 2. [12] Ibid., 64. [13] Ibid., 90. [14] Ibid., 175. [15] Ibid. [16] Ibid., 188. [17] Ibid. [18] Ibid., 249.