Belong: Charlie Day and Jasper Jones

Hello all, I am here to put forth my ideas about my perception of belonging via reading Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey, and The Happiest Refugee by Anh Do. But first off, what is Belonging? Belonging I feel, is when you have your mates around you, and you're having a good time, knowing who everyone is, fitting in basically. But there can be other parts of belonging when you don't really know people. For example, belonging to a school, but whilst belonging to it, you could still be bullied or harassed.Whilst I was reading Jasper Jones, I came to notice that Carlie, the main character and narrator of this story, belonged to his own world inside his head, where he stores words, as if it's a prize, but he cannot flaunt them, for the town is a mining town, and it would seem that he is trying to be better than them, just because he seeks education. But back to Charlie, he loves to read, and express his feelings on paper, where he can just dive into his own pool of creative ideas, and that's where he truly feels he belongs.Then I go over to The Happiest Refugee and delve into it's bindings, and try to find out if Anh belonged in the Australian culture, and whilst there was was some ups and downs for him, he finally came to. He met a girl, they shared intimacy and he had his local sports footy club, where he belonged to both. But did Charlie feel as if he belonged to his family? I didn't think so. His mother acted as if she she just had to put up with them, because of her secret love life from afar with another man.She didn't think they were worthy of her presence, and if you read the book, you could see the dialogue in which the mother and father had intensive arguments about not talking to each other, the father drifting away and just locking himself in his room. There is also a video which I think is interestign to watch, it was called Who do you think you are? And this episode was for Christine Anu's family, and her search for her family heritage.After she was famous and now considerably old, she is now just beginning to wonder who her other family members are, thinking she does not feel as if she belongs to anything, as she has no idea what her family was like. So they go off an an adventure, and discover the family members, and Christine get's emotional for each member found, and it is a fascinating watch. But to her, as I said, to belong was for knowing who her family members were, what they did, what they acted like.Now back to Anh, and his belonging to his football club, at first in school, some people tried to outcast him, make him feel bad, and that was one of the teachers for Anh's classes, where they were supposed to make posters about how they hated the asian race, despite Anh being there. But I don't think it phased him as much as the teacher wanted it to, in fact, he strived to make himself belong further, to make the teacher accept him, and he eventually did, but Anh didn't feel right about it.And there was one bit in the book, whe n a member from the other football side they were playing called him a ‘gook', and Anh's team mates heard him say that and went on to thump that player as much as they could every time he got the ball in his possession. So that showed his belonging to the team, whilst when they finish the match, they go off on their different ways a bit like Jasper Jones.Now I don't think Jasper Jones ever truly belonged to everyone, I don't believe he had any friends, the whole town hated him, perhaps for his race, or the fact that he steals, and they then push all blame onto him. Then when Jasper found the horrifying scene in the glades, and came to Charlie for help, I think that is when he genuinely had someone to belong to, to confide in, to tell him things, to let it all out.I mean, all the boys grudgingly admired his footy skills, and the girls were all wild about him in secret, but still nobody approached him, just as no one approached Charlie, and that is probably what compelled Jasper to knock on his window that night, to share with him all those things, to take the adventure together. This is my perception of belonging, and I will most likely never understand the concept of it completely, but I have typed out what I think of it, throughout the three texts that I have had to talk about.

Police Brutality Essay Essay

Introduction: Studies has shown that police are more likely to abuse blacks rather than whites and this is caused by racial profiling. But through the history of police brutality, police brutality was first used after a police officer was described beating a civilian in 1633. Police brutality is the abuse of force and it is usually through physical. But there are other ways to abuse which are verbally and sometimes psychologically and this is done by a federal or state authorities which are the police officers. The history of police brutality has been a cycle and the phrases are actually violence, corruption and improve on what is wrong. These has been a cycle for many years through police brutality. Police brutality exists in many countries and not only in the US. African American are always targeted as â€Å"bad† people and this also proves that there are inequality within the black community and the world. There are also certain misconducted forms of brutality but some of these are reall y common in our society which are racial profiling, corruption, false arrest and inserting fear into civilians. There are many other cases that were actually targeted mainly on blacks and this causes unfair justice. Police’s agenda is to basically fight and protect civilians as well as being the peace keepers and never being the one that harm any civilians without proper approval or warrant to an arrest or to an even greater extend which is physically, verbally or psychologically harming the opposed civilian on the mistake he/she has done. Police are the ones that set an image towards the society so that people can actually follow them and think they are doing the right thing, however it is a really disturbing matter knowing that police does racial profiling especially compared to whites and blacks. And therefore, this research paper is about police will most likely be more crucial to blacks compare to whites and this is known as racial profiling. Police brutality and racism in the US Police brutality and racism has played a big role in degrading the safeness of US as well as degrading the reputation of the authorities through these problems, there are significantly huge amount of statistics reports on police brutality. Even though these cases are brought up to court, out of  5986 reports only 33% went through conviction and 64% received prison sentences. American police officers have used lethal weapons to kill more than terrorist did since the Vietnam War. And at least once a year, there is always a person beaten by a Police Officer. And this is always shown as abusive of authority. Although committing a crime is illegal, police have no rights to abuse their rights through physical or verbal actions. Although physical abuse brings physical pain and such but verbal abuse has actually proved that it would be more harmful to that victim. As in one of the cases, a police officer actually insulted the victim till the victim killed himself out of anger. Words can actually mean a lot towards a human being and police officers think that they won’t be charged with any offense through insulting verbally instead of physical abuse can actually cause problem towards these police officers. According to a research, every year about 261 police officers are involved with police brutality and only about 27 percent of these victims are involved in law suits. In many cases, majority of these victims are actually African Americans that were abused by the law that are supposed to protect them. And the research also shows that there is a result of 382 deaths out of 5986 reports. Other than the statistics, there is also a few groups of people which are elderly, drug addicts, female and weak people. Police would take advantage of this to brutalize them while inserting fear in them through threatening for an example, police officers might threaten them about their family members and if they were to report anything the police officer would arrest or treat their family members the same way they were being treated and this would definitely insert fear into the victims. That is why some cases were reported as fake issues because victims themselves do not want to admit the truth being worried of being physically or verbally abused again. Overall, if a police officer was found abusing a victim, their rights as a police would probably be revoked and only prison sentence up to 14 months averagely and this is unfair to all the other crime offenders as well as the victims because 14 months is a really short time which these victims might be abused once again when these police officers are discharged from their duty and/or the prison. Racial profiling in the US among police officers There are a lot of known cases of police brutality especially on blacks on racial profiling. But according to an article in 2012, a black person is killed by a security officer every 28 hours. As it was also stated in this article, that African-Americans are about 13.1% of the nation population but it has nearly covered 40% of the prison’s population. Also, blacks sometimes do sell drugs and is the same as white but they have a higher percentage of getting arrested for drugs than whites and this is racial profiling. Black offenders also definitely receive a longer sentence compare to white offenders. Other than that, most of the blacks killed were unarmed, which according to the report, 44% of blacks was killed even though there was no sign of weapon. 27% deaths are claimed that the suspect had a gun but there was no prove to this. 2% had small weapons such as knifes, big scissors and cutters or any other similar weapons, and only about 20% had guns or deadly weapons. Most off icers that killed blacks claim that they were afraid and they were trying to protect themselves so they have been force to open fire. These police officers open fire if they feel like they are being threaten, for an example, the suspect running away from the cops, driving towards to cops or getting something from their waist. Police officers do not conclude if the suspect does have a weapon or not and yet just use deadly force to solve the issue. In one of the known cases of an African American getting shot by a police officer, the suspect name is Oscar Grant 22 year old, and was shot by Johannes Mehserle a police officer. The police officer claimed that Grant had a gun even though Grant was subdued by other officers which is not justified because Oscar Grant was already being subdued by other officers and yet Johannes Mehserle still fired his weapon at Oscar Grant. A few other examples of African American being assaulted without justified reasons are Rodney King, Sean Bell, and many other more. Rodney King was drunk on that night on March 2, 1991. He was speeding on the freeway and that was when the police officers attempted to pull him over, but Rodney King resisted. Once they manage to get Rodney King out of the vehicle, a group of officers tried to subdue Rodney King and used taser as well. Rodney King was kicked at the head and also was beaten with nightsticks. But lucky enough, King’s injuries wasn’t really serious but it left him with a couple of bruises and also a facial fractured bone. Sean Bell was killed by a police undercover team which fired 50 times at the car Bell and his friends  were riding in, it happened outside a strip club because he was having his bachelor’s party on that night. A police officer actually overheard that the friend talking about getting his gun, so in order to prevent the shooting from happening, the police officers opened fired at the car. And that was when Sean Bell passed away immediately on the scene. The detectives were not charged guilty of manslaughter on that night. And these are some of the cases African American’s are actually facing and this is why US should enforce a heavier rule on racial profiling. Actions of police brutality on selected victims through racial profiling The actions that were used on blacks were more crucial compare to whites such as verbal persuasion, unarmed physical force, force using non-lethal weapons, force using impact weapons and deadly force. There was a case which verbal persuasion actually lead the victim to committing suicide out of anger that has stated and it was cause by a police, these African Americans were often called nicknames like â€Å"nigger†, â€Å"negro† and many other nicknames. This can cause an impact on how they feel, it will never be shown through physical but always inside them. That is why verbal persuasion is really negative towards a victim. Unarmed physical force can cause external damage but actually, also internal because you would feel the depression on African American are seen as a minority and they know that their race will be discriminated against. As seen in some cases, African American was treated more crucially than whites, in one of the case, the black refused to go into the officer’s lunchroom and the next thing he knows is his head smashing through a plate glass window. If it was a white, it is really obvious that the police would allow him to stay outside the lunchroom and wait for other procedures. Non-lethal weapons that were used on blacks are more crucial, blacks were Taser multiple times which causes a great pain to them and in one of the cases recently, the victim was Taser to death. Force using impact weapons has also been an issue towards African American, in Walmart US, an African American went to pick up a bb rifle and he was just waving the gun around, after that the police came and ask him to disarm the gun as not knowing that was just a bb rifle. Regardless, the disagreement from the police, the police shouldn’t have fired a fatal shot on the victim and why  is the victim shot holding a bb gu n in a bb gun store. Conclusion In conclusion, the research has shown that police are more likely to be crucial towards blacks rather than whites and this is caused by racial profiling. As from the research above, we can conclude that police has been crucial towards African American. But we should also improve the systems that US is using which is actually people’s mind set. A simple thing can become a great problem, especially in racism police should not be bias about a crime which is done by a certain race but putting all the races together as one. Police’s job description is to fight justice and bring peace to civils and not being the one breaking the law. It will never be a good image towards civils. Solutions can be implemented through federal authorities, by ensuring that abuses such as torture, excessive amount of force will not happen and these officers that had broken the law should be accounted for and be brought to justice. Like some of the cases, the jury would say that the police is at his/her rights and only have a prison sentence up to 14 months average. This encourages police to not be afraid because it would only be a short time for sentence and be daring to do what is right. This would also influence the new police candidates that assaulting would not get them into a really big problem. The federal authorities should also implement solutions such as recording the actions a police officer used through a camera or being supervised by the team leader. Street cameras are really important for this matter which they can always refer back to the scene and watch how the victim was treated by police officers and this would definitely make US a better place instead of discriminating the minorities which is the African American but these solution applies to all the races but specifically for African American in order for them to be able to live equally like all the other races without any misjudgment or discrimination through racial profiling. References 99 Percent Of Police Brutality Complaints Go Uninvestigated In Central New Jersey: Report. 2014. 99 Percent Of Police Brutality Complaints Go Uninvestigated In Central New Jersey: Report. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/07/police-brutality-new-jersey-report_n_4555166.html. [Accessed 26 October 2014]. 4 Unarmed Black Men Have Been Killed By Police in the Last Month | Mother Jones. 2014. 4 Unarmed Black Men Have Been Killed By Police in the Last Month | Mother Jones. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/08/3-unarmed-black-african-american-men-killed-police. [Accessed 26 October 2014]. How Often are Unarmed Black Men Shot Down By Police?. 2014. How Often are Unarmed Black Men Shot Down By Police?. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/08/24/1324132/-How-Often-are-Unarmed-Black-Men-Shot-Down-By-Police#. [Accessed 26 October 2014]. Ferguson police committed human rights violations during Michael Brown protests | Daily Mail Online. 2014. Ferguson police committed human rights violations during Michael Brown protests | Daily Mail Online. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2806085/Ferguson-police-committed-human-rights-violations-Michael-Brown-protests-Amnesty-International-claims.html. [Accessed 26 October 2014]. Police brutality | Law Teacher. 2014. Police brutality | Law Teacher. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.lawteacher.net/criminology/essays/police-brutality.php. [Accessed 26 October 2014]. The Color of Justice – Constitutional Rights Foundation. 2014. The Color of Justice – Constitutional Rights Foundation. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.crf-usa.org/brown-v-board-50th-anniversary/the-color-of-justice.html. [Accessed 26 October 2014]. Presentation to Hearing on Police Brutality & Misconduct – Richie Perez.

Imperial Rome and Mauryan/Gupta India Essay

The most significant difference between Imperial Rome and Mauryan/Gupta India was the structure of their governments, yet both empires were heavily influenced by religion and both had similar causes of their eventual downfalls. Imperial Rome and Maurya India were both run as centralized systems of bureaucracy because it kept their empires strong and more organized. The Gupta India, however, was decentralized and maintained their strong central government with an emperor and by strictly enforcing the caste system and other Hindu beliefs. Not having a centralized government made it increasingly difficult to keep the empire strong and clear of invasions from neighboring regions. However, Rome, contained an empire and a senate, which allowed lower class people to be apart of and have a say in their written law code. Religion played a large role in Imperial Rome and Mauryan/Gupta India. The Gupta’s government was organized mostly by the caste system because of their lack of centralization and dependence on religious beliefs to set laws. Confucian and Buddhist ideas also were spreading around India at the time. In Rome, Christianity was taking over. Emperor Constantine created the new capital, Constantinople, and segregated the empire in two halves. He used his great influence to spread the word of Christianity. Imperial Rome and India fell because of disorganization and chaos within their empires. They both went through political discontinuity, problems with their taxes, over-expansion, and political corruption. When Constantine divided Rome into two empires, he claimed all of the eastern side, causing the western side to lose any previous power and economic prosperity. This led to disorder within all of the Roman Empire. Because India was uncentralized, it was difficult to keep the empire correlated and steady, leading them to subsidize. As both empires continued to expand, the military had trouble keeping their borders under control, giving neighboring countries easy access to attack and conquer.

Energy politics and Security in Kazakhstan Essay

Energy politics and Security in Kazakhstan - Essay Example Energy Sector in Kazakhstan The infrastructure of energy production in Kazakhstan is underdeveloped as a result of being part of former Soviet Union which strived to â€Å"optimize energy supply within member states rather than to achieve self sufficiency in the energy supply of each member state†. Post independence Kazakhstan had to depend heavily on energy exports for economic development. However, this dependence on energy sector caused wide disparities of income between the rich and the poor. As part of solution, Kazakhstan is bringing the oil and gas sector under the ownership of the government (Doi, 2-3). Oil Industry Restrictions from Russia Kazakhstan faces a major problem regarding the full development of its oil export industry. The oil from this country can be exported only on routes through other countries. Currently, the only route that is economic and viable goes through Russia. Russia has however imposed partial restrictions through its Transneft pipeline system . One-third of Kazakhstan’s current oil export capacity cannot move through Russia. The oil industry of Russia has also demanded a share in the profit by 30 percent from all oil exporting countries in the former Soviet Republics. The development program for Tengiz field has been postponed because of such demands and restrictions imposed by Russia. There have been considerations of using pipelines of other countries like Iran and Russia, but they are politically unviable and will take a long time. Also, Turkey will not allow movement of larger number of oil tankers that are necessary for utilization of full export capacity of Kazakhstan. In addition, oil industry requires high amount of capital investment so positive results cannot be achieved in the short run (Office of Technology Assessment, 139). China as export route China lies in the eastern border of Kazakhstan and is a major market for its oil reserves. China has introduced a ‘non-commercial element’ in the field of oil export competition for Kazakhstan. In 2004, China constructed its first oil pipeline to encourage exports from other countries. In August, 2005, China signed a deal for acquiring PetroKazakhstan for the valuation of $4 billion. It is an oil company that is based in Canada and has all its activities within Kazakhstan. Since then China holds the second position of being the largest oil producer in Kazakhstan after the latter’s national oil company. With China as an oil export route, Kazakhstan has faced positive evolution in its oil industry as supply to the world market has increased (Committee on Foreign Relation, 44). Natural gas There has been a steady increase in the production of natural gas which has transformed Kazakhstan from net gas exporter to a net gas importer. Development in the natural gas sector has been lagging behind oil because of insufficient ‘domestic gas pipeline infrastructure’ that links the gas production countries in the West to industrial region in the East. Also, there have been insufficient export pipelines. This has been a major issue as Kazakhstan does not have access to seaports. However, in 2014 when Kazakhstan-China gas pipeline will be completed, gas can be transported to the industrial region of Kazakhstan. This will also enable Kazakhstan to export gas to other countries. China and Russia are the important export partners of

The significance of the veil in Islam. Why has it become so popular Essay

The significance of the veil in Islam. Why has it become so popular - Essay Example Two forms of niqab styles exist, including a full niqab, which leaves thin slits on the eyes and a half niqab, which exposes the eyes as well as a portion of the forehead. These veils are popular among Muslims, especially those residing in Gulf States (Murphy 2009). Within Europe and other Western states, on the other hand, the use of niqab has raised major debate. Various politicians suggest it should be banned while others stipulate that it raises concerns about security as well as restricts communication. Furthermore, the chador is a veil having the length of a full body. Although it covers a person’s head, the face is visible entirely. These kinds of veils are mostly black and found in the Middle East, especially in Iran. In addition, the burqa veil covers the entire body of the wearer. An individual can only see through the mesh screen left for the eyes. This kind of veil is dominant in Pakistan and Afghanistan (Women in World History, 2013). Veils characterized by diverse shapes and colours were customary in diverse cultures even before Islam was introduced to the world. Up until today, for instance, coverings on the head play a major role in diverse religions, such as Catholicism, and Orthodox Judaism. Nonetheless, Islam has emerged to serve as a dominant religion in the world since the seventh century. As the religion, grew, it adopted veiling customs also influenced other religions. Nonetheless, in the recent years, various Islamic states including Iran have implemented measures where all women must wear the veil (Why Islam, 2011). Most individuals who criticize the veiling tradition by Muslims argue that women are coerced to wear the veils rather than making their choices. By contrast, young Muslim immigrants found in the West stipulate that a veil should serve as a symbol of piety and devotion where one chooses whether to wear one or not. They argue that a veil represents self-expression and religious identity.

Thinking Through Religions 5 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Thinking Through Religions 5 - Essay Example This creates a rift between the root and ground of being; hence, people should not be in awe of an image of God such as God the father since the projected image may be faulty and not representative of God (Watts 55). The root of the difficulty lies within the nature of God and the projections made by the image of God. The images of God can be perceived to generate compensating protestations of absolute certainty regarding matters that are inherently unknowable. As such, the images of God can be considered as representing competing models that are not helpful (amounts to promoting exclusive access) and consistent with the human understanding of God. Consequently, the images of God can be regarded as projecting a God who can be described as severely handicapped, which, in reality, is not the case (Columbus and Donadrian 46). Attempting to learn from the images of God is misleading as the images projected and that people follow may be flawed as the images of God may be deficient. Moreover, no two people can ever draw the same thing, which makes a picture a no substitute and accurate presentation of God. Moreover, how the god is visualized hinges on the cultural context. ... f opposites is commonplace and represents a perfect way of the way of approaching an understanding of God, given that the more that one ponders about God, the more it becomes strikingly peculiar. The notion of unity of opposites presents interesting moral reasoning as it implies that the dark and the light (negative and positive) are all necessary parts of the overall whole (Eversole 55). In the notion of unity of opposites, Alan Watt furthers the idea that two contradictory truths are possible simultaneously. The notion of unity of opposites represents a perfect way of approaching an understanding of God whose ways may not be logically consistent, but profoundly paradoxical. The fundamental nature of God is not something that one can get too precise about as the basis of both life and death remains inherently undefined. # 3 Sir Kenneth Clark writes about Abbot Suger, who can be considered to be the father of the gothic architecture. Suger asserted that individuals only come to under stand absolute beauty-that is God, through the impact of precious and beautiful things that appeal to individuals’ senses. Abbot Suger used beautiful objects to furnish the church symbolizing God, in which the radiant beauty draws an individual’s attention up and beyond earthly matters to elevated heavenly things (Gardner and Fred 341). Suger’s assertion represented a more rational view of God in which he saw God as encompassing numerous things such as reason, light, and proportion, all of which make up beauty. The Gothic church embodied a visual attempt to generate a setting drawn towards purity and light that could embody an image of heaven (Sullivan 304). The Celestial Hierarchy is transmitters of Providential Life to all below and comprises, for the aspiring soul that joins itself

Is direct military action the best way to deal whith problems of Essay

Is direct military action the best way to deal whith problems of terrorism - Essay Example The reality is experience informs that any conceptualization or definition of terrorism reveals that it is vastly similar to peacetime war crimes.7 Today there is a growing perception that terrorism is growing more and more dangerous particularly with the aid of new technologies. Terrorists today are said to be more disorganized than in previous years and more inclined to use weapons of mass destruction and to bring about more catastrophic consequences. Moreover, it is largely believed that terrorists are comprised of â€Å"amateurs†, ad hoc and â€Å"transitory groups† with the result that â€Å"state sponsorship† is no longer necessary.8 In other words, the new structures of terrorism today make it more difficult to use traditional counterterrorism strategies to combat terrorism today. Counterterrorism Strategies Conventional Counterterrorism Strategies Before and After September 11, 2001. The complex and dangerous nature of terrorism today was demonstrated by the terror attacks in the US on September 11, 2001. Internationally, countries have come to the realization that traditional counterterrorism mechanisms are insufficient for preventing and deterring terrorism. As a result, there has been a proliferation of counterterrorism reforms, particularly in Western jurisdictions.9 Many of these reforms however, merely involved the expansion of laws that were directed at defining and prosecuting terrorism.10 Since September 11, 2001, and particularly since the terrorist bombings in Madrid in 2004 and London in 2005, counterterrorism has been among the European Union’s (EU) top policy concern. For the EU this involves balancing security against human rights. 11 The EU’s legislative measures taken in the aftermath of the... From the research it can be comprehended that the 21st century has ushered in a new dangerous strand of terrorism. The death toll in the US on September 11, 2001 demonstrated that conventional methods of treating terrorism as a crime and dealing with it within the criminal justice system were futile. Obviously, terrorist were not deterred, but rather reenergized and committed to their political causes. Internationally, governments reformed counterterrorism approaches, but largely left terrorism within the criminal justice system. While the US and its coalition waged war against state sponsors of terrorism (Afghanistan and Iraq), terrorists and insurgents have continued to relocate and complicate the efforts of the US. The Israel experience with direct military action has also proved to be just as counterproductive as the US’s indirect military action. It would therefore appear that counterterrorism cannot be satisfactorily deterred by military action. It might be wise to focus attention on programmes that redirect the youth who are susceptible to recruitment. Providing young people with viable and legitimate alternatives appears to be the best approach to counterterrorism at far less expense to innocent civilians. Military action has proven to be just as costly to civilians and perhaps more so than terrorism. It would therefore appear that military action as an alternative counterterrorism strategy is counterproductive.