Friday, January 24, 2020

Catholicism in Eighteenth-Century England Essays -- European Europe Hi

Catholicism in Eighteenth-Century England February hath XXVIII Days Rouze, Protestants, the Year of Wonder’s gone, Great George is now establish’d on the Throne; A Mighty Prince, by God for us prepar’d, Us to preserve from Dangers greatly fear’d; From Popery the Devil’s great Master Fear, Where Men are Slaves, and Priests their Gods do eat . . . (Mullan and Reid 2000, 173) This poem, published in John Partridge’s almanac Merlinus Liberatus for 1717, shows the common feeling amongst the English Protestants towards Catholics. The term â€Å"Popery† was actually a hostile term for anything relating to Catholicism (Popery). Although many other countries in Europe were moving toward more modern, secular governments, the English were not prepared to let go of old prejudices so easily. One of the problems between Protestants and Catholics in England was that the â€Å"self-image of the protestant elite comprised not only religious doctrine and providential history, but constitutional theory and a concern for cultural and economic improvement; the Catholic case represented a challenge in each of these areas† (McBride 2003). During the eighteenth century, Protestants in England felt that they had endured persecution from the Catholics and so justified their resentment and intolerance. This sentiment can be seen in anti-Catholic literature published during this period. The Kalendar, of the Cruelties of the Papists to Protestants also from 1717, reports: July. Altho the Weather in this month was hot, yet the Persecution of poor Protestants by the Papists was much hotter, as you may see by following List of Martyrs who underwent fiery Trials, because they would not turn Papists and ... ... 1882. MacCaffrey, Rev. James. From the Renaissance to the French Revolution. History of the Catholic Church, 2000. [cited November 19, 2003]. Available from World Wide Web: (http://catholicity.elcore.net/MacCaffery/HCCRFR2_Chapter%2005.html) McBride, Ian. The Language of Liberty 1660-1822; Anti-Catholicism in 18th-Century England; and Catholicism in a Protestant Kingdom. History Today, 2003. [cited November 18, 2003] Available from World Wide Web: (http://www.historytoday.com/index.cfm?articleid=16961) Mullen, John and Christopher Reid, Ed. Eighteenth-Century Popular Culture. Oxford: University Press, 2000. Popery. Oxford English Dictionary [online], 2000. [cited on November 17, 2003]. Oxford: University Press, 1989. Woloch, Isser. Eighteenth-Century Europe: Tradition and Progress, 1715-1789. Norton and Company Press: New York, 1982.

Wednesday, January 15, 2020

Kindred: A neo-slave narrative Essay

Often, man resorts to story-telling as a way of reconciling with a formidable incident in the past. By re-telling the story to another party, he comes to accept that this is a reality to be faced. He realizes that acceptance, rather than denial, is the best way of going about this trouble. Aside from the rehabilitating ability of story-telling with its contributory effect in dealing with a painful memory, others simply do this as a way of remembering. Concretizing the past as a piece of literature would ensure that the incident would not just be buried in the recesses of the memory; that it would be kept alive and the pains and suffering would not be without significance. In this light, it would come clear for readers how and why the proliferation and the presence of slave narratives came about. One may think that with the end of the painful era of slavery, all dialogues and discussion about the subject would also desist. For the African-American slaves and their descendants, this was not the case. The words of Robert Crossley of the University of Massachusetts rerated the thought: â€Å"First-person American slave narratives should have ceased being written when the last American citizen born into institutionalized slavery died. But the literary form has persisted, just as the legacy of slavery has persisted, into the present. † To be more specific, the birth and popularization of the slave narratives started in the nineteenth century. James Olney stated that each narrative â€Å"a unique production† as an autobiography, and â€Å"is not every autobiography the unique tale, uniquely told, of a unique life? † (148). Therefore, the uniqueness of each narrative from the others is a trait of this genre, as it narrates the experiences of the writers which are unique to another’s. However, certain characteristics are evidently similar in the work to be considered a part of the genre. For one thing, it has to tell the story of a black slave’s struggle for literacy and freedom, while testifying against the â€Å"peculiar institution/’ which in practice meant human bondage and humiliation (Gates, â€Å"Introduction† ix). By the second half of the twentieth century, a sub-genre of the slave narrative has arisen; called the â€Å"neo-slave narrative,† it is a fictional mutation of the slave narratives of nineteenth-century Americans (Crossley). This sub-set of the slave narrative genre is very similar with its umbrella genre in the sense that it presents personal accounts of slavery. However, the difference lies in the choice of the author to fictionalize existing accounts, and not his own personal experiences. The authors base the structure of their fictional work on the oral histories and existing slave narratives to make sure that the story would still echo true events in the historical sense. The birth of this sub-set of the slave narrative genre may be attributed to the void that it fills, or attempts to fill. Anita Wholuba in her paper said that the chasm which is attempted to be explored and filled is the ironic presence of silence in slave narratives, despite of the voice earned by the slave narrative writers. Wholuba said that â€Å"while a significant number of scholars have established that certain silences exist in the traditional narrative of history, neo-slave narrative authors have committed themselves to the task of identifying and sounding those silences where the representation of the American slavery era is concerned. † A novel titled Kindred, penned by Octavia Butler, is among the body of neo-slave narratives published in the last century. It was published in the year 1979, and speaks of an African-American woman’s sojourns to the past. The character Dana, lives in contemporary California, but is transported back in time to the antebellum South. In her involuntary travels to the past, she understands how difficult the situation for people before her ancestors actually was. As I was reading Kindred, I had the initial impression that it was just to be appreciated for its science fiction values. Although the science element in this novel was not so much as it was felt in other novels from the same genre, her meshing of science fiction and history was an innovation that should be noted and lauded. In any case, what caught my attention more was the similarity Kindred has with other novels we have read subsequently in the class, which were the Narrative of the Life of Frederic Douglass, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, and Up from Slavery. Evidently, there were characteristics of a slave narrative in the novel Kindred. However, the text didn’t meet the five criteria for it to be called a slave narrative, the genre which the other works fell under. As Kindred is a work of fiction, it would naturally be categorized as a neo slave narrative, a concept I came to be familiar with after research. Kindred as a neo-slave narrative With the plot and simple and direct language employed by Butler, Kindred could not be missed as a neo-slave narrative. Characters that are actual African-American slaves and Caucasian American masters and violence inflicted on slaves are presented in the novel. On a deeper sense, on the other hand, the novel follows the same pattern present in other slave narratives. Wholuba in the same paper added that although the text refers to other slave narratives such as the work written by Douglass’, in an effort to explore existing themes, the novel still manages to introduce new themes. The new themes that this novel presented, according to Wholuba still, include a more blunt â€Å"analysis and depiction of the slave’s struggle for sexual autonomy, the experience of middle passage, and the concept of memory. † As was mentioned, the novel Kindred follows the typical pattern for a slave narrative, and this will be the thesis of the paper. It will attempt to discuss and prove the characteristics of a slave narrative present in Butler’s popular piece of art. Another writer mentioned some of the other patterns commonly found in neo-slave narratives. Lysik mentioned in her essay that neo-slave narratives portrayed the â€Å"vital slave culture† in a positive light as it could serve as a means of surviving the brutal reality they are subjected to (Lysik). What this implicates is that the writers of the neo-slave narratives provide a new perspective in terms of viewing the arduous tasks and obligations slaves have to fulfill. Most authors show how slaves then turn this otherwise appalling condition to something that they could actually seek refuge in. First and foremost, the novel carried a prefatory statement by a person from Caucasian American race attesting to the authenticity of the author. The second criterion which has to be satisfied is the movement from slavery to freedom. Kindred has been classified under slave narratives by critics as leans toward the freedom narrative category. This concept will be further discussed in the following paragraphs. Aside from this, the most obvious criterion which the novel has to satisfy is that the story should portray the physical, emotional, and spiritual deprivation of slavery. Kindred, undeniably, does not fall short on this end. As the journey through time and space allows Dana to witness the events during the period of slavery firsthand, the novel is rich with narration regarding the struggles of the African-American slaves. Through Dana’s experiences, the tales of the different forms of deprivation and coercion were regaled to the readers. James and his contemporaries talked of this in a paper, saying that many forms of violence and intimidation were observed to be used to maintain white dominance in the slave economy through the eyes of the character of Dana. These â€Å"preservation† measures, so to speak, included the sexual violence against black women that was common during slavery, the assault on black families, the difficult choices that black people were compelled to make in acts of love, survival, and resistance, and the outcomes of internalized oppression (James, et. al). A specific scene in the novel would be that time when Dana personally witnessed the beating of a slave. The slave was hunted by white patrollers because of a crime that would seem absurd for people of the modern times: the slave was found spending time with his wife in their own bedroom without the slave master’s permission.

Tuesday, January 7, 2020

Business Essays - Child Labor in Guatemala - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 4 Words: 1195 Downloads: 9 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Law Essay Type Analytical essay Did you like this example? Justification of Child Labor in Guatemala for Safefields Using a supplier within an impoverished nation will always have complications. Developing nation’s laws are normally not as strictly enforced as first world nations and the majority of human rights violations come from within their societies. The reasons for this is the populations of these countries are normally in positions where they can be exploited as their goals for living standards can be to just survive. Many cases have been seen where this has resulted in the exploitation of children in the work force which at current has resulted in over 16% (over 1.9 million) of children aged five to seventeen are working. Although this is morally wrong in the long run, it can be justified if the right policies are put into place to ensure that the children are being educated for the future while being able to fend off poverty and starvation for the present. This is what Safefield needs to consider when developing a strategy for their plant in Guatemala. Issue Analyse the cu rrent issue of using a supplier in Guatemala who is using child labor to produce Safefields low cost clothing line and make recommendations. Effects on Guatemalan Society Employing children will always have an adverse affect on their ability to develop into productive members of society. By working a job they will not be able to attend school or if they manage to maintain attendance their ability to learn will be greatly diminished as their responsibilities will be too large for a child to manage. This creates a cycle of an uneducated work force who’s chance to progress their standard of living is hindered. End result is future generations of children need to continue working to fend off poverty and starvation. The goal for any country in this state is to eventually increase the skills and therefore the earning power of it’s populace so that their children will be able to grow up with enough opportunities to develop as any first world nation. Effects on Guatem alan Economy Having an outside organization generating work within an impoverished country will normally have a positive effect on its inhabitants. This is not to say that it is morally right as the organization is still exploiting cheap labor to generate a higher profit margin.   What needs to be done is to establish a free trade of labor agreement between both parties so that the organisations will still gain advantage by operating in developing nations while returning enough into the countries economy to see a positive gain. Effects on UK society/ consumer relation Safefields needs to be aware that even if the managing bodies can shrug off the moral issues of exploiting children for cheap labor, it is becoming more and more obvious that the consumers will not. Global communication with technology such as the internet allows for consumers to be completely educated on a company’s business practices and they have proven that they care. Free trade has become such an issue that it has become a staple for cafà ©/ coffee shop franchises to promote it or lose business. Fair labor movements on the other hand is an issue which most of the population knows very little about and businesses are usually condemned before the situations are researched. Safefields could use this movement to not only have a positive effect on a developing nation but gain market share by promoting their actions. End result is a stronger and loyal brand identity with it’s customers. Effects on Safefield earnings On a short term, cheap labor will allow Safefields to generate more profits while being competitive with the expected price wars with ASDA. On a long term Safefield’s will risk damages to their reputation and therefore business as child right’s activists attack their policies and bring it to the public eye. Legal Implementations Poorly regulated manufacturing sites could enable Safefields to be in violations of Guatemala’s chil d labour laws. Within current legislation it is illegal to employ a child under the age of 14 without a special permit. Currently the attitudes towards child labor within Guatemala is not very strict and these laws are rarely enforced but that will soon change. International actions such as IPEC (International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor) is encouraging nations to adopt stricter enforcement of their laws in return for the implementation of social programs for education which will develop a long term advantage for Guatemala’s progress as a country. Safefields would not want to be involved in a situation like this when the enforcement starts as their actions will become globally known very quickly and the charges could be severe. Recommendations Withdrawing your manufacturing from Guatamala would be costly to both the country and company. A more effective approach would be to implement a new policy structure that would be mutually beneficial. I propose to fi rstly do an audit on the suppliers current operations to ensure no current laws are being broken then institute an employment package that can help the current situation.   A staple idea that should be incorporated is to pay according to production on a scale which would be similar to the United Kingdom. Savings for the company would continue as living costs within Guetamala is far lower then England but employees should be able to earn enough to support their families. Another initiative that I recommend is to develop an education systems for all the employees to ensure that as they age they will be developing skills which can increase their opportunities in the future. The key for Safefields is to realize that child labor is unfortunately a requirement with the state of Guatemala’s economy. These children work so that their family’s can survive. The best thing that can be done in these situations is to invest in them currently to gain for the future. Employing and educating the youth will give the company a boost to their brand identity, help a developing nation, continue to have cost advantages from operations, and develops a loyal more dedicated work force then you would have in your home country.   The justification of child labor is hard to imagine when comparing the youths of a first world nation to a developing country. For Guatemala to reach a developed country’s living standard it needs either a massive investment from the world governing bodies or an investment must be made from the private sector; Safefields could capitalise on this. If implemented, Safefields will be in a position to gain considerable competitive advantage over ASDA through comparable cost leadership along with having a platform of being socially responsible which ASDA may not be able to contend with. Bibliography â€Å"Child Labor Issues and Directions for World Bank†World Bank Homepage. 10 March 2005. 11 March 2005. https://www.worldbank.org / Bachman, S. L. (2000). The political economy of child labor and its impacts on international business. Business Economics: The Journal of the National Association of Business Economists, 35 (3), 30-42. Swedish, Margaret Central America/ Mexico Report. 3053 Fourth Street Publishing (Washington, DC) 13 â€Å"U.S. Department of Labor Report†Guatemala Report. 9 March 2005. 11 March 2005. https://www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/sweat/guatemala.htm Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Business Essays Child Labor in Guatemala" essay for you Create order