Introduction
Some use global politics while some use world politics. The traditional term is international politics or international relations but we don't use these terms since they seem to limit global politics to relations between states or nations. Third world also called emerging countries, developing world and underdeveloped. While US,UK belong to modern, liberal, industrialized countries.
Particular wars kill fewer people. Cars also kill people. Collateral damage if its not the intention to kill people unless excessive. Instead, think of it as own family member. Yet don't lose sight in emotional response. Susan Meiseas, photographer produced a documentary Pictures of a revolution. While Antonio Gramsci was imprisoned by mussolini's fascist regime in Italy. Robert Cox has two ways of thinking, first, problem solving theory and critical theory. Problem solving is about common sense at a particular point in time while critical is about questioning the problem itself. Commonsense(Gramsci), regime of truth(Foucault), and language game (wittgenstein) are the relation between thinking about the world ad doing things in the world. Spontaneous philosophy are collection of beliefs and religion by Gramsci.
Questions:
Why are there wars when they cause destruction and misery, when it kills people?
How do we begin to think about the world?
Man's opinion about the world affects his day to day life. We don't just live on our own, that is why we need to find ways to accommodate each other. Ethics and politics are inseparable. Ethics is how we should live with other people in the world. Politics is about what kinds of living and ways of thinking about who we are are made possible. Language is public because it is accessible to others and relate with the world. Our thoughts affects what we believe, people on earth, what is important, possible and what we should think, etc. Several question are posed like how we make sense of the world, does the world exist independently of the thoughts we have about it, and is our thoughts only a representation. Finally we can find our ways complicit to ways we don't want.
Torture unmakes our world. Torture is defined as any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on such person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession...The convention continues: No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency may be invoked as a justification of torture. United States declared a war on terror after the twin towers was bombed. US has also been operating a policy of extraordinary rendition with the collusion of a number of European and other governments. A hypothetical scene provides only the kind of information we need to conclude that we might be justified in torturing the person in custody. We often find that people simply assume that saving lives is a good thing. But we don't always act to save everyone's lives. in fact, we routinely endanger some people's lives, and not always to save others. Soldiers and enemy civilians are the most obvious cases, the global economy also relies on putting some lives at immediate risk. We are more likely to be dealing with several possible knowers (even hundreds)who would need to be tortured to reveal the location of bomb versus hundreds of lives to save.
In my experience and please forgive my own personal biases, I think about the world as a wonderful place, a beautiful creation by God. I see it in a way where in people live happily and have simple needs in life like fruits, vegetables, fish, milk, meat, etc provided for us by our own hard work and creation of God. I see it where in people are different and unique from each other depending on their situations and experiences. Having faith in God is a choice, the way we live is also a choice, in short I felt happy to be a person, a human being born to have my own choices and own will to do things the way I like according to my own thoughts and decisions. I see it as a playing fields where in our stay in Earth is just for a while and we might not recognize it that the time is over. So make it a good stay in earth.
It is indeed very true that we must think of the world in good terms because the way we think about the world affects our lives. It affects our performance and relationships, etc. It is truly sad when a person is born poor or black, but there is a choice. It is by fighting and proving our worth which makes our lives worth living. Finally, it is our choice to whom we offer all our accomplishments, success, etc it may be to our loved ones or if one is religious, to God.
Globally, if there is war between countries, example is Iraq and United States, Iraq consider United States as the terrorist while vice versa applies to United States. One’s freedom fight is another country’s terrorist. The actions of either country are acceptable to themselves as long as it defends its own country, while the action of the enemy is considered a war. This happened because of the scarce resources and greed for money and power.
What if we don’t think in human terms?
Defining and Imagery
Nature is rural, culture is urban. We live in a single biosphere. Thomas Malthus’ research shows when resources run out, it will be coupled with pessimistic concerns on pollution and collapse of industries. Development had to deal with social and health ills without destroying the environment. Bird watchers, scientists, farmers, gardeners and snow removers are keeping in track of climate change. The progress to environment concerns is very slow and even not helped by the territoriality called states. Many cowboy movies portray Indians in the Wild West against colonizers. Nature cosmologies challenge the separation of nature and society that modernity is based upon. Long term consequences and ecological renewal primarily concerns natives. The mode of humanity continues to improve. There is the Kyoto Protocol and subsequent climate change negotiation in the last few decades. There is a focus on Atlantic conveyor and Gulf Stream. Bothe movies an inconvenient truth and The Day after tomorrow tackles climate changes. The Danish cartoon affair is about Muhammad’s turban as a bomb. Several acronyms were UNEP UN Environment Program, IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and UNCED United Nation’s Conference on Environment and development.
Negative Impact
The effects were noticed since Industrial revolution because of too much petroleum. Prices and rainfall are variables of human survival. These became symbols of modernity not as politics. CO2 concentrations’ current existing levels are far from last half a million years. There is warming of ocean and ice melting increases sea levels. Particular people are affected more severely. Europe might get colder while the rest of the planet heats up. Production and surplus grain will reduce in face of famine, especially if farmland was used in biomass to reduce CO2 emissions. Large low lying deltas are vulnerable.
Carbon Offsetting is neocolonialism. There is a continuing pattern of colonization and displacement of natives. Stern report indicated we are heading off to worse effects of climate change which will be costly 20-30 years from now. Because one must not export pollution and plant trees where labor and land are cheap but to deal with it directly. It is easier to act now than pay huge costs later called market failure.
Settlers assumed land as not being used when indigenous people instead, ensured it for the long term. The invisible hand is an informal had that determines what is produced and so on.
Recommendation:
Be a part of environment not masters of it. Ensure our children and those in distant places. More changes is required in areas colonized. Don’t just limit damage but change modes of living to not damage in first place.
Questions:
Is the planet indifferent to human survival? Is man in the center of universe?
To what extent do capitalist economies rely on growth? Is sustainable growth a contradiction in terms?
Reflections
In my experience as a student, the environment is very important. Though I am really guilty because I use a lot of papers well, for convenience and because a lot of readings is required. Another thing was the use of cars, well it is really convenient to ride a car instead of walking and smelling stinky in the morning. But it is good thing that I ride a car only for 5 minutes then I will be using the train towards vito cruz. I am also guilty with the food I eat because like the beef or processed foods, it went through a lot of changes. That is why the climate before around the period of my great grandmother is still very clean. The people are even healthier because they walk; eat fresh and natural foods, no imminent use of aircons, cars, and refrigerators. But still I am thankful for the advent of technology because lives were more convenient and there are medicines to eat when one is sick unlike before.
Thinking globally, the rich people got to live their lives more conveniently. It seems like a rat race where in if one will not go along modernization, one will be left behind, so everyone is now competing to go with the flow, so as to prove themselves and not be poor. Because if one is poor, one will really be pitied, just to think of the heat that he will endure under the sun caused by climate change, the pollution to be inhaled, the dirty food to be eat and the sickness one might have plus the lack of money. In short, one must do it balanced and not abuse the environment that as much as possible, one must work for the care of the environment for the future generations and as taking responsibility of the wonderful creation we live in.
Who do we think we are?
We are always subjected to identity politics and its implications. Some interests benefits a group. Identity starts before even birth. Narratives are a primary way in which human experiences is made meaningful. Stories about who we are changes as we grow. Our stories relate to belonging in a nation and our picture of the world.
Who we are is always a matter of becoming rather than being. Identity limits who we can be yet unhelpful if without. We assume that language always exists. Visions of what is better are always informed by our perception of what is currently bad. If one is powerful, the advantage is higher impact of changing things and people.
Sometimes, having children means never having a leader position; nationality and religion may limit us. There’s a shared tradition if standards of identification are matched. As we’re inside a group, we’re also outside another group. While many people consider belonging at two groups that may be considered as separated by others is called Hyphenated identities. Homo fabulans are storytellers. The oppressed have traits associated with them.
Jacques Derrida stated the impact of dichotomies. Judith Butler on Performativity stated that we act out our own identity. Normative are being than how they are (positivist) which indicates things outside. It has various bases. Dynamic has no subjectivity. It is less certain. Brokeback Mountain are two cowboy’s love story.
Stability lies in clearly defined sex roles, family life and religion. Women and their concerns belong to a private sphere while politics belong to men which are a public sphere as in the book Public Man Private Woman by Jean Bethke Elshtain. Bell hooks said all men are not equal. Privilege is unearned assets taken for granted and considered normal. Orientalism is a prejudiced view of Eastern culture and people by outsiders. Peggy McIntosh stated that if some are privileged many re denied of advantages. Privileged have uncensored actions.
Black Power rise to be respected. Patricia Hill Collins wrote Intersectionality Black feminist though states that oppress are affected economically, politically and ideologically.
According to Carol Gilligan, girls develop differently because they have a different value system. Girls want relationships than setting and following rules. According to Betty Friedan wrote Feminine Mystique that portrays women as a housewife yet white and middle class experience which means more privilege. Morage and Anzaldua quoted that experiences divides middle class women. According to Jacques Laccir there is a role of unconscious psychoanalysis and semiotics (signs), mother and mirror. This Bridge called my bark tells that all women share no particular experience. John Gray wrote Men are from Mars Women from Venus are only common characteristics of few people’s experience and don’t lend itself to alternative options. Sometimes we tend to support observations after reading a book. R.W. Connell wrote Masculinities which is Positivism. Hutu and tutsi in Rwanda indicates Tutsi as cattle keepers while Hutu as farmers. European race is said to be superior. The Hutu Manifesto is anti Tutsi (foreign) propaganda.
Questions:
If who we are is determined by discourses that predate our existence, how can change occur that moves beyond these structures?
What if one is oppressing yet oppressed like a male and working class?
Recommendation:
Recognize them as temporary resting points and see in them the workings of power or struggles and challenge its effects.
Reflections
In my experience as a student, my identity as a Filipino- Chinese really affects my beliefs and practices. I can see that our family is hospitable to visitors, we help other people in need and we are there for our friends. Though our family is now not that much close since we stopped going out during Sundays because of cost- cutting. Some of the members of the family are thrifty, some are not. Some are independent while some are sensitive and sweet. We celebrate special occasions like birthdays, Christmas, anniversaries, Noche Buena, New Year, Chinese New Year, mooncake festival, tikoys, etc. Some of us are Catholics, some Christians and some Buddhists. It is more of a mix practices and beliefs.
Globally, we think that everyone has a way of celebrating its own identity through special occasions. It can be seen through their values and actions. The females are truly seen as a weaker sex because, women are created uniquely by God, though females are physically weaker, but females are the ones who bore babies. Even female brains functions differently and its lungs are smaller, etc. Though females from different countries and places have unique experiences but still they have a certain thing that every one of them shares. Just learn to accept ourselves and know where we belong to then everyone can communicate and relate with others excellently.
How does religion affect politics?
Assume that when we are talking about religion, we are referring to individuals and groups who base their identities and ethics at least in part on a tradition and set of beliefs about the creation of the world and order within it that locates the source of this creation and order outside purely human or natural agency. Often whether we hold religious beliefs or not is central to our picture of the world, war on terror. Religion is defined as a system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive, and long lasting moods and motivations in men by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic. It is a false consciousness which socializes us into accepting as normal certain historically and materially contingent relations of power. Whether people who subscribe to fundamentally different values can live together and how, has vexed many thinkers across centuries. The situation in Northern Ireland was long considered as intractable conflict but is now more stable. Understanding these conflicts requires an exploration of the politics of identity. The religious factor was important because it allowed the leadership of certain parties to raise the stakes by appealing to a greater cause. It is premised on affinities between belief in God and absolute faith in market capitalism.
It was not uncommon to find claims that Islam was problematic because religion and politics cannot be separated in its system. Umma is an Arabic term means world community of Muslim believers. Kemalism means Europeanization and secularism as proper way to be modern. While Muslim saw embraces a way to be modern without being Western. Jihad- strive is required for social change. Brotherhood serves as a strong social support and gaining control of leading associations and syndicates. Globalization- Islamist builds support within Egypt’s spaces. Shariah is interpretation of Islamic law. Pakistan is an Islamic state versus Israel a Jewish state. Wahhabism is a theocratic monarchy based on alliance between princely family highly austere and puritanical. Soviet’s invasion of Afghanistan was interpreted as atheist incursion into Muslim territories. Development and modernization in South Asia conflict with ideas of Islamic modernity.
Hizbullah and HAMAS have at least 3 dimensions to their activities. First, to provide basic social services such as education and healthcare to the disenfranchised (deprived of citizenship rights) population of Lebanon and Palestinian, ensuring strong support. Second, they have political bodies that compete in parliamentary elections alongside other parties. Hizbullah control over Lebanese while HAMAS controls over Palestinian. Lastly, they maintained armed wings that permit them to employ violence when they find it expedient to do so. Intifada means uprising or shaking off. AlQaeda is sometimes seen as an entirely new terrorist threat because it is a network, but contemporary Western warfare also revolves around the idea of network. Many of members didn’t agree to carry out Bind Laden’s September 2001 attacks. Shiite is Muslims who are disenfranchised.
Secularism is the idea of a separation between church and state. Enlightenment is the how people thought about origins and status of knowledge. Truth was previously understood to derive from religion and faith through effort of human reason. This rational, thinking subject is modeled in male and therefore feminine qualities have been considered less significant or entirely excluded. David Hume- knowledge and understanding of the world came from human senses. Voltaire- power of human reason in shaping society. Immanuel Kant- dares to know. John Locke- individual and property central to modernism. Adam Smith- modern capitalism in Wealth of Nations. Being confined with private realm means being excluded from public sphere where decisions were made as to who gets which resources. This is why feminists have challenged within the boundaries of private and public. Religion is seen as a private matter and voluntary associations. Government shifted from being the preserve of monarchs to the rights of the governed hence res (concern) publicus( of the people). There is also Samuel Huntington’s clash of civilizations. Huntington paints a picture of the world that seems to provide an easy explanation for recent terrorism and the responses to it. But the pictures actually make the world we see. They also make invisible what does not fit to the picture. Orientalism affirms to a particular world order. Examining representation is a different way of saying you are interested with the picture that a particular view generates. Do you consider that your political world view was informed by religion? Look beyond religion to understand political identities and too often categorize only in terms of religion. Religion and ideology seems to be the same. Environmentalism does not place human in center.
Reflection
It seems that religion does not affect politics because both subjects must be separated. Because religion is private while politics is fro public. It was said in the Bible that one must be separated from matters of the world. But politics is worldly proven by the greed and want for power, money, and knowledge, etc. Therefore, religion does not affect politics.
Religion only affects politics if a religious leader wants to interfere with the nation’s affairs which was not encouraged by the Bible because men are by nature wicked and prone to temptation. It only happens when the priests seek for power to control but one cannot do it in the name of the Lord because he is just human and people will only continuously attack that religious leader which may became revolts and wars.
Why do we obey?
Is it because we have to, the easiest, conscience or faith? We let government get on with taxes or withhold and challenge. Our action makes no difference, the decision we disagree with doesn’t change. Agents of government are entitled to use force for obedience. Students fleeing before the advanced soldiers, injured rushed away, tanks crushing everything. Berlin wall during cold war to separate communist from west. During 1989 revolution, there’s unwarranted intrusion into a border area and shoot to kill policy. 3 types is legal rational. Second, a transcendent being or god seems to be heaven and hell. Charismatic authority is belief in extraordinary quality of a person. Traditional authority is presumed always existed. Society is reality and generis (has own characteristics). A society is to its members what God is to faithful. We depend and do things because of society. Leviathan is a giant man made up of bodies of small individual men with a scepter and sword. People with power can do things, so we can tell which are powerful at what people do. Power in someone else’s hands is something that prevents us in doing what we want to do. But there is wrong connotation of power relations where one side is more powerful than the other. It must be power is a productive network that runs through all interaction that traverses and produces things, induces pleasure, knowledge and discourse not just the joy of conversation. It is not fixed like a body or building, but a way of transformation and rebuilt. The most important is the relations of power and its movements. We just need a symbol to fill its emptiness.
It seems that each person obeys with a different perspective and motives. Some obey because of their religion, some because of their gender, some reasoned because of race, etc. People obey as long as there is the territory and there are people initiating to be leaders. Personally, I obey because of my faith. It was in the Bible that the people must obey the government in order to live peacefully with everyone. I also want to obey the leaders because they are more experienced and am willing to serve though they have their personal interests as well. I want a government so that there will be rules to follow and consequences if did not obeyed, to avoid unjustifiable events like wars, killing and slavery, etc.
Why some people are better off than others?
According to the required textbook, the more years a person is educated, the more income he has. Females are generally more illiterate but according to an economic study, more females finish higher degrees than males. Because most males are contented in finishing high school and because of their masculine built, they are more apt for physically challenged jobs like construction, plumbing, etc.
Gender and race matters. That is the reason people does not choose Hispanic and black. It was said that it was more preferred to be a male and has Asian schooling because Asians tend to pursue higer degree after college.
As a U.S. citizen, income of the richest people(10% of population) grows doubly (100%) every year while there is only a 8% growth with the average men.
Why internet affects our lives?
Internet greatly affects our lives. From my own experience and knowledge acquired, internet is the current trend especially of the y generation. The baby boomers must catch up with the trend and many of them are into the internet because it is more convenient to do so. Internet makes business transactions easier, messages to loved ones are through emails, business operations use internet to contact clients, suppliers, distributors, advisers, brokers, etc. The stock exchange can also be contacted and checked frequently through the internet. Additionally, business record and detectors, academicians find the use of internet very useful. Lastly, it provides easier access to information and finds people easier.
The power of web development can be maximized through using it for convenience and with the right balance of usage. It can be harnessed positively through connecting with people, business and formal purposes and entertainment.
We can close the digital divide through providing or raising foundations that will serve the poor and provide livelihoods so as to give them a stepping stone to be freed from poverty.
The positives of social networking are connecting with distant friends and updating with the lives of friends and loved ones. Additionally, it provides entertainment to us through the services it provides like the games and convenience. Lastly, communication is more shared and many knowledge can be acquired.
While on the other hand, too much usage of internet can cause health problems to addiction to the internet. It may also cause the teenage to be compulsive with their wants because of the experience people have with the internet. It may cause cyber-bullying and spams. People can easily gossip about a certain person, so be very careful with the postings in facebook, friendster,etc because it also gives rise to legal disputes through foul or improper language.
How do we find out what’s going on in the world?
This article is written by Debbie Lisle. We thought that we have exclusive knowledge that we must convey to others. It is what happens as information is moved through the media. The everyday stuff happens because people could attend to them, can include them and in their daily lives. Most of us do not form our opinions about global politics by going directly to Baghdad, or Pentagon. It is always biased. As Neil Postman stated, in amusing ourselves to death. Television favors image friendly sound bites; we ignore viable and sane political ideas that may not be easily communicated through an image conscious medium. It tries to advocate a particular agenda. It is the dominant picture of the word that privileges some while exclude others. We all have strong views on particular issues, which are either partial or biased. This is because even beginning to think on the world we operate with, we already established pictures of the world that influence and shapes our thinking, without realizing it. When we go to war, the media must get in line, stop asking difficult questions and act as a mouthpiece for the government’s decision.
Don McCullin, a war photographer has turned his lens on wider social issues such as AIDS in Africa. The Vietnam War shows a young girl named Phan Thi kim running down the street fleeing a Napalm attack. Television brought the brutality of the war into sala. Vietnam was lost in the living rooms of America. So America learned to never allow media unrestricted access to the battlefields and always practice news management by controlling the stories that are given to media and public. While the Gulf war is a formal security review. CNN effect is the ability to provoke major responses from domestic audiences and political elites to both global and national events. People identified the CNN effect in which the military no longer works in an pre-emptive mode (control and censor) but now at reactive mode focused on respond sometimes militarily to issues raise by media. September 11, 2001 was followed by the war on terror and Iraq war is part of that. James Der Derian’s Miminet (Military industrial media entertainment network), practices killing fake enemies when you kill very realistic computer generated ones. But there’s a high risk that one learns how to kill but not to take responsibility for it.
There are two perspectives: freedom and control, media and power, pluralist and Marxist. Pluralist perspective informs the public and acts as a watchdog on those in power. There’s balanced accusations which demonstrates that the media is getting it right and keeps the government always on their toes. Pluralist always emphasizes the range of media products available to consumer. It is founded on consensus. Media that promote different views don’t offer a simple choice as we are not necessarily aware of the picture of the world which informs what we can see and think. The Greek city state or polis was one of the earliest forms of political unit in Europe. Bill Clinton was President of the US from 1993- 2001. While for Marxists, the ruling class uses the media as a tool of persuasion: they try and convince everyone that the hierarchical structure of society is serving everyone’s interests, not just their own. * Media give the impression of a check on government power but it actually controls so that the foundations of the system are never questioned. An example was Robert GreenWald’s documentary Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism. But the limitations were on the power of audience.
Stuart Hill stated, hegemonic elites intervene in the circuit of culture to produce and stabilize dominant meanings. Any critical reader is to identify, analyze and resist those moments of domination by offering independent and critical readings. First, all media are polysemic, a TV show, a photograph, a novel contains a number of possible interpretations. Second, there’s no guarantee that the preferred meaning will be read in the intended way. People who watch and read the media uncritically are in Dominant-Hegemonic position: they decode and accept preferred meaning because it accords with their own political views. If with some critical awareness are in the negotiated position: accept the story but may disagree on some points. If with critical eye, Opposition they understand but reject it and try alternative values. One may wonder why people can’t choose where to live. How we should remember wars is a question. Stephen Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan shows WWII as a noble and just battle against enemy-preferred meaning. But critic Zinn takes and oppositional view, no war not even WWII is worth of sacrifice of life and all patriots shall be resisted. * When media tries to convince us, they don’t do it rationally.
Questions:
If we live in an egalitarian society, how come so many families still live in poverty?*
Is it a bad thing that all media info advances someone’s agenda? Is it bad if they pretend to not have an agenda?*
Does the media facilitate a genuine expression of emotion? Or does it deliberately manipulate our emotions for political ends? Can you think of a film that has appealed to you emotionally in theses sort of ways?
What can we do to stop people harming others? And what issues arise when we believe that we know what is good for them?
Think about where the questions we ask come form. Are they neutral or do they come from who do we think we are and what we think is important.
Reflection:
Personally, I realized that the reading is true. Because I just learned about the war on Iraq because of media. I felt that the Iraq was the terrorist because of the pro US media. Applying the effects of media in choosing to vote for the upcoming elections, it is really important to not even consider the TV commercials but to be updating as much as possible with the news everyday. Even though if Marxist was the trend of the elites, just learn to be able to discern (Bible) what is right and wrong and what one thinks to be globally correct. Though it is hard to be in an oppositional position because sometimes it is easier to go with the flow and to agree with everything, still one must think. The film that I can think about was the Passion of Christ, it caters to my emotions deeply but all it seems was that it wants to show the Majesty of Christ and spreads the Word and to convert the people to believe in God.
Why is people’s movement restricted?
Globalization has been accompanied by increasing numbers of people moving across borders for various reasons. Such as international tourism which is the world’s largest export earner and sources of employment and education. Some people argue that changes are exaggerated others see it as a key change in the contemporary world. Economically motivated migration is called push and pulls factors. The lack of job opportunities, low wages and poverty push people to leave. They are pulled to places with high employment and salaries. *The ways citizenship has been granted and denied involves social and political phenomena that involve power and struggles over meaning and identity. Life stories of those who are exiled from home and those who are uneasy with their allegiance to the nation state in which they live. UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has suggested that the free migration of peoples should be welcomed as a way to tackle problems such as poverty.
La Linea as the line separating Mexico from US a third world and first world. Binational Migration Institute (BMI) reports the funnel effect as the primary structural cause of death. NAFTA is trade agreement between the US, Canada and Mexico. It promotes that free trade and economic integration was the best long term strategy for unwanted immigration, but in the short to medium immigration would increase also called migration hump. In many parts of the world there is no right to citizenship of a country as a result of birth within its borders alone but parent’s citizenship counts.
The anti immigration legislation was started in approving 1000 dollar fines for landlords who rent to undocumented migrants. In September 2006 US Immigration and Customs Enforce (ICE) targeting migrants. The Sensenbrenner bill after its sponsor representative James Sensenbrenner was also made. Every year with the approach of spring and summer season of death begins because of vigilante groups.
The nation consisting of citizens who share a national identity is generally assumed to be naturally connected to the state. The notion of a unitary identity for both individuals and collectives. Given sufficient money, enough border patrol agents, and military troops, high enough walls, sophisticated enough technology and the political will of leaders, territorial borders can be fortified and secured. Some have been here most of their lives, some yesterday. The society also sacrifices something when restrictive immigration laws are enacted. Citizenship tackles legal, identity and geographical territory. Neo racism suggests that it is natural for antagonisms (hostilities) to develop between members of a bounded community. Such a book is State of emergency… by Pat Buchanan.
Questions:
Why can some move freely across borders while others face struggles? Why the world is divided this way, by its borders?
Why might people find the name Operation Blockade offensive? Is the changed name any better? Why?
What do the names Operation Gatekeeper and Operation Safeguard suggest?
How is race and culture relevant in restricting the movement of people?
Reflection:
The third world countries face more struggles on becoming citizens because of the notion that our labor is cheap, etc. It seems that to have a US passport, one must be elite to easily process the documents and visit the place. While to be a citizen, a very large amount is required and needs a lot of savings to prove that the family can provide for their own. Operation Blockade is offensive because in a way it shows that blocks means unwanted. While gatekeeper and safeguard are better. Race and culture is relevant to the poor because due to their status, they are looked down and all negative notions on them are thought to agree with initial perception.
Why is the world divided territorially? By Stuart Elden
Two maps of the world are physical and political. This division of states seems like a norm but has issues on climate change. This division also means not everyone can live as he chooses resulting into difficulties. States is the division of the world into territorial units is artificial and arbitrary. The San or Basarwa people or Bushmen are the oldest people in the world. Colonialism impacts in various ways. Protecting the environment has emerged and changed. Kalahri Game Reserve in Botswana was created by British to allow them as colonizers to remain in lands. The desire of resources is the source of conflict. Jean Gottmann notes that while Terra’s Latin is land or earth, territory means an organization with centrality. It is a bounded space referred to by Anthony Giddens as bordered power container.
Max Weber was involved in the Treaty of Versailles and works such as The Protestant Ethic and Spirit of Capitalism and Economic Society stresses four things: community, legitimacy, violence and territory. Its authority is absolute because it is undivided (no other body has that power) and unlimited (state can do what it wants, without reference to other bodies). States are held to have internal sovereignty (jurisdiction within) and equal external sovereignty. Equal external sovereignty means no state should be a puppet of another and that there’s no hierarchy of states. International agreements do put limit on state sovereignty including environmental actions, nuclear power and treatment of refugees. Why is the world divided territorially? Why should geographic dictate citizenship, rights and responsibilities?
The polis and political though have an impact on political imagination. Terra nullius was used by European conquerors in relation to American continent means empty or no man’s land. Power being less strong as we move away from center. While cuius regio. Eius religio means to whom the rule or region, his religion. The Peace of Westphalia brought to an end the thirty years war and stresses the free exercise of territorial right. A state predates a nation and has two problems. First, when one is a grouping of people while the other is a political unit. Second, fails to note the historical and contingent development of each term. It is also good to interfere inn other states. Nations are challenged by alternative stories of community. Uti Possidetis means that what you will have is what you possess.
Territory is now much less central to thinking about security. Perry Anderson in his books Passages from Antiquity to Feudalism and Lineages of the Absolute State offers political control revolves around possession of land, people were much less important. Michael Foucault studies that, madness, medicine, punishment and sexuality has an impact on range of disciplines or through other terms such as authority and sovereignty. Michael Mann detailed that military and strategic interest’s change. Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesioan War or Julius Caesar’s Gallic War or Civil War.
New technology impacts organization of our lives and how we relate to the world. Geographer edward soja suggests cartographic ones alongside purely economic factors. Some of the borders in ME and in Arabian Peninsula after Ottoman Empire and WWI. Territory is land and terrain and social/spatial organization. Boundary making are allocation (lines, latitude and longitude), delimitation (SPECIFIC BOUNDARY SITES), and demarcation (pillars, vistas fences, etc.). Cavalier attitude towards borders colonial due to indifferent attitude or technical difficulties. Gottmann assumes the modern or legal sense of territory as a portion of geographical spaces under jurisdiction of certain people.
Statistics are important to how we govern the world and understand. Statistics is knowledge of states. Ethipia- eriterea border is tool of discussion in Israel/Palestine peace process. This concentration on reason relates to enlightenment. Sovereignty is important relating to conflict and resolutions. Globalization is understood as deterritorialization or supra- territorialization. Deterritorialization means not fixed territory and supra- territorialization means that space of interaction is not only within the borders of states. EU brings peace, stability, and prosperity to Europe. It is developing a common foreign and deference policy. Remaking of spatial relations is called reterritorialization rather than just assuming relations have been superseded. US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke described as bombing for peace or protecting civilian populations. Territorial sovereignty held contingent or dependent on particular behavior can territorial preservation remain unchallenged?
Reflection:
Indeed, the world is divided territorially because of the want for scarce resources. Before, it was the greed for lands proven by wars and colonialism, then it was the greed for resources such as mining and oil, etc., and then it was the seeking for cheap labor. It continues to change as different needs arises, a country is asserting for more power and control over another. It does not care if the industries and manufacturing and technology one country have harms the other countries. It was divided because a country felt that they are more privileged and wants to maintain the control.
Personally, I felt bad about the fact that a country seeks to control another. It is unfair in my part that I live in Philippines compared to industrialized ones like Japan, US and Europe. People are more privileged because they are treated better, given free education, access to higher education and scholarships, have a higher lifestyle, can buy anything they want, can pay for anything, able to travel around without difficulty, has better protection in times of war, etc. But there are still negatives in being powerful, such as more stressful lifestyle, issues and problems, etc.
In the positive view, Philippines is very rich in natural resources. It is excellent for tourist with our opportunities and wonderful places. I still appreciate that this country Philippines is only a form of existence and though it may seem philosophical, at the end everything is vanity and is nothing.
How does the nation state work? By Michael J. Shapiro
State is violence, control and recruiting of armies. Citizen subjects receive Jurgen Habermas class a double coding, having both territorial and historical identities, a myth of prepolitical fact of a quasi- natural people. Eric Hobsbawn and Terence Ranger have referred to as invention of tradition. Centripetal force is a force pulling towards the center to national coherence and other genres or forms reflect the centrifugal forces moving away from center. Certain ways of thinking about gender and sexuality play a role in nation building and territory and sovereignty is also related and the importance of home workers and feminization of labor. The modern nation state relies on a particular picture of the family. Hanif Kureishi and Stephen Frears film Sammy and Rosie Get Laid is a national allegiance In the UK. Kincaid became a writer as a servant (an Au pair).
Thomas Bernhard’s novel Alte Meister Komodie is a hyperbolic doubt. Pierre Bourdieu’s notion of the genesis and structure of social space in which creativity is possible is useful because a writer who resists or complicates nation- state allegiance is socially situated. It views social fractions as a fractal field, diverse life assembled by nation building and its forms of political economy. Memories of violent conflict and picture of political space in state’s way of thinking are also related.
Free enterprise is about role of language in controlling homeland. While no telephone to heaven is about alternative ways of imagining the emergence and existence of life. Michelle Cliff noted about aphasia which is an inability to speak or understand speech by resisting colonizing forces of language. Sherman Alexie noted about Low Man who is not supposed to be anywhere. Encounters of colonizers and colonized are also related. Toni Morrison has a novel Paradise about race exclusion that Bourdieu noted as antidote to state thinking that challenges symbolic violence by control over mental structures to appear natural. Significance of race to community, role of religion, those with exclusive knowledge to enlighten others “exceptionalism” or “special missions” are also related.
Sir Walter Scott notes cultural integration. Benedict Anderson noted imagines communities through media are accepted by politics and international studies. Media in war and also not a citizen of the country you want to live in are also related. Partha Chatterjee noted that struggles for spiritual media and colonialist. Transactional citizenship is the bargaining between state and societal actors. Hobbes’ claims of authority and sovereign as war of all against all and flow of immigrants are also related.
Banlieue parisienne noted exclusion of prison- industrial complex and ethnic minorities. Jacques Ranciere wrote on aesthetics as the way to many lived differently worlds. Milan Kundera’s novel ignorance about experience of exiles that shares Kundera’s experience.
Friedrich Nietzsche wrote The Unbearable lightness of Being about eternal return renders being heavy. The inattentiveness ofPrague acquaintances to Irena’s life deprives her of confidence in the identity narrative she has adopted. Disinterest in Irena’s other life reflects unwillingness to sympathy beyond national boundaries. Memories affect politics and wars are also related. Memory is the perpetually active phenomenon and history is the reconstruction no longer existing incomplete and problematic.
Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari noted state as a machine of capture and lines of flight. David Hume noted about human nature and creating relationships between sensible and intelligible. Our challenging allegiances and cosmopolitanism are also related. Pass from a limited sympathy to an extended generosity. The qualities of the mind are selfishness and limited generosity.” Confined generosity of men along with scanty provision nature has made for his wants”.
Reflections'
It seems that we must look at the nation state differently through our social orientation. Looking at it viewing the feminist movements, poor and oppressed, violence and problems between states. It is more of a centrifugal force, moving the power away from center and considering the less powerful. The government is greedy for selfishness. While people itself is also greedy for own desires that is why the citizens are at apathy, revolutions and receives bribery because many are poor.
Personally, our family sometimes "minds my own business" and spent lesser time together because we have different needs and wants. We are greedy for our own achievements and prioritize ourselves more than the family as a whole. This also happens in relationships between girlfriends and boyfriends that is why some couples fight because of lack of time priority while some fight because their partner has many wants and is not satisfied. That is why it is important to know these things so that we will know how to adjust to improve our human relations.
Do colonialism and slavery belong to the past? By Kate Manzo
Colonialism means command, control whether or not settlers are present. Slaves such as prostitutes and debt bondage register as apprenticed laborers and continue to work. Think of abolitionism as a process rather than abolition as a finished achievement. Abolition is to eliminate the principle of ‘property in man’. Marxist theory distinguishes slavery as a mode of exploitation by unpaid work and proletarianisation as exploitation by wage labor. Examples of capitalism are export dependence, forced labor for agriculture, supply chain controlled by colonialist. In Ivory Coast, crops were coffee and cocoa while in northern savannas cotton was the crop. Food production increased but food deficit worsened leading to dependence on grain and rice imports. Wood is also a significant earner. Felix Houphouet Boigny is the sage of Africa and president from independence.
Abolitionism is not elimination of slavery but against property in man. According to Abrahamsen Rita, colonialism is defined as settlement and control of other’s land and goods though it is over, but many of its structures and relations of power are still in place. In the African post independence, Mbembe states that credit with the people stems from a combination of financial means, administrative power and distribution of goods. Only Ethiopia and Liberia of Africa were not colonized. Cash crops are channel of payments using “caisse de stabilization” or crop marketing board (price stabilize). Slump means to provide livelihoods and boom means sub market prices. Governement benefit from good years where Caisse surpluses. Amin Samir said that production rose for all crops, bananas, etc. Abolished forced labor but increased plantation. Anti slavery International is a human rights org and campaigners. Armajaro headed by Anthony Ward (Chocolate finger) brokers between African exporters and Western cocoa makes fortune in speculative buying and selling.
Bales Kevin defined slavery as indentured labor and child fostering. It is like debt bondage and prostitution. It doesn’t highlight slavery as a means to trafficking (means to that end) by agents and transporters. Bretton woods institutions (IFI) consists of IMF and WB making structural adjustment to lend to underdeveloped countries on predetermined conditions. CFDT( Compagnie Francaise De Developpenent des textiles) means unequal and uneven exchange, a French textile Devt Company. Enslavement comes from labor exploit by unpaid work. Proletarianization is labor exploit by wage labor. There is cocoa, cotton and coffee production in Ivory Coast. Colonialism is a foreign command and political control whether or not settlers are present. ESAF (Enhanced Structural adjustment Facility) provides loan for low income countries.
Reflection
Globally, colonialism and slavery exists up to now some countries are visibly seen colonized like Iraq and U.S. (colonizer). But some countries are hidden controlled by another especially post colonized countries like our very own Philippines which is colonized by Spain, Japan, and U.S.I am not against colonialism when it does not hurt the rights and the people of the one colonized. As long as there is good trade and relations, it is alright. But if there are wars, abuse or killings in the country colonized like Iraq, I am really against it. Because the colonizer U.S. in this case is abusive when they get the resources of Iraq and oil and even kill and harm even the innocent citizens and people. It is truly unjustifiable.
In our individual lives, speaking from a working class perspective, though there is a form of slavery, still I choose to obey the authority, the government or my future boss. Because we are given the freedom to choose what we want to do. I am thankful that we are not in an authoritarian and communitarian form of government. Just being mindful that to give according to what each one deserves.
How is the world organized economically by V. Spike Peterson
Advanced industrialized countries AIC are from middle class emerged due to enhanced production, union organizing and liberal capitalist welfare state. Capitalist markets depended on political power of states. Economic development is AIC dominated and economic development models sustained western supremacy. Informal sector activities is a transition from a centralized state planning to neoliberal as long as it is not criminal, it is positive according to liberal economist. Lower income is only for survival and few resources to stimulate the economy. Economics is the study of resources are scarce, human wants are unlimited and rational ordering of preferences determines how individuals and firms optimize their self interest. Economics and politics is the study if scientific methods. Subjective factors are television, youtube, videos, films,etc. Economics is the study of production (make) and distribution (divide) of goods and wealth such as stocks, bonds, money and riches. Feminism signifies reproductive labor, formal economy and surplus accumulation. Capitalism is related to women's work according to Marxism.
Reflection
Personally, our country is now in the information age. There is a boom of call centers because of the vast human population in the Philippines. Philippines average labor is slightly cheap and affordable. Industrialized countries are now investing in third world countries because of its vast resources may it be natural resources, human capital, etc. That is the reason that many of us need to work in order to survive because if not, it is very hard to live the life of a poor. Especially to black, to the women, because those people are more discriminated and underpaid. Because of our vast resources, we can maximize it in unity and faith.
Why are some people better off than others? By Paul Cammack
8 of the 11 million according to 2000 who declared themselves Asian Census are immigrants, in search of a better living, still poor, migrating to U.S., Mexico, and Central America. A better investment climate for everyone urged all governments around the world to pursue liberal reforms in order to promote opportunity and entrepreneurship among their citizens. According to Brandolini though US enjoys the highest living standard, it has absolute inequality between the rich and the poor among developed countries. BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) accounts 40% of the population are the favored new destinations for foreign direct investment.
Contemporary patterns of inequality includes: primitive accumulation, exploitation of labor, profit motive, constant revolution of production and competition on global scale. Primitive accumulation is the process which the proletariat is constituted in expropriation of peasantry and accumulation of resources in the hands of minority. Exploiting of labor means paying workers for a part of surplus their labor creates and the rest to themselves. Profit motive is the orientation of the capitalist towards accumulation of capital rather than social purpose. Constant revolution of production is the pressure to compete with each other to reduce the price of production by obliging workers to accept lower pay or work longer hours or by increasing the productivity of worker. Competition on a global scale is the tendency of the production to spill out beyond national borders and operate globally.
Reflection
Personally, a lot of Filipinos nationwide are in call centers because it offers high paying jobs though it is beyond their normal capacity of working night shifts. Because there is scarcity in jobs through competition of the well off and privileged people. It is important to give back to the country by providing jobs that are humane and helping the poor. The powerful enjoys its extensive power because the people controlled allow the powerful to do so. It is good that there are interventions by the state like the World Institute for development economics research, UN, OECD, etc.
How can we end poverty? By Mustapha Kamal Pasha
Poverty was recognized as a major concern by the G8 countries Canada, France, Italy, Japan, IK, U.S. and Russia. A sharp break from the uses of the poor in the moral economy is seeing the poor as a productive resource. Conventional banking means the more you have the more you get, while Grameen bank means the one who has less gets the priority in making loans. It is owned by the poor women. Giorgio Amben argues that sovereign power as two life forms: politically qualified life and bare life. Example is the Nazi concentration camp and now to capitalist consumerism. As Kirsten Hastrup describes hunger as one of the hardest facts of life is that living is so painful to a large number of people. The poor is classified as such only by the authority to classify them. Outside the sphere of classification, poverty is not a problem.
Reflection
Everyday, as I go up the train of LRT station, I always see poor like children, old grandmother and grandfather, babies, mothers, etc. I try to give those snacks and candies for their hunger. I try to avoid giving money. But thinking about it, there is still prejudice in me because I see them as lower class, to be pitied and also human that needs love and material needs. In school, there is the COSCA, blood donation, community services, tree planting that helps foster in us the value of charity. As young as we are, we can change the world in the simplest ways.
Why do some know what is good for others? By Naeem Inayatullah
Francisco De Vitoria opposed Protestantism. The Just war tradition is concerned when it is permissible to fight (ius ad bellum) and how it is permissible to fight (ius in bello). War is fought only with the right sorts of aims in mind right reasons (cause), by the right entity, significant causes and when no other means are available (last resort). Dawson defined that how one knew that he words are from God. Guyuk Khan and Innocent IV believed the other to be the leader of a relatively inferior people. Michael Walzer argued that Iraq war is unjust. The Euston Manifesto discusses how to differentiate politics from anti war movement and the general politics in UK. Robert cooper’s” the modern state “claiming of what is good for others. The tendency to claim exclusive knowledge comes from superiority need.
Reflection:
Others tend to proclaim that they know what is good for others. They want to feel superior. But the reality is every one of us knows a thing or two about anything and everything. An anecdote of that is between the master and servant. The master claims to know what is good for the servant while the servant allows himself to be subject to the master because there arises a need to do so. Between countries, United States feel superior over almost all nations because they are currently powerful and other nations get their rain of blessing like loans, second hand equipments and machines but all these are just trashes of United States.
Why does politics turn to violence? By Joana Burke
Carl von Clausewitz has a dictum that war is an extension of politics by other means. Collateral killing describes killing that goes beyond what is intended. Milgram experiment shows how aggression can be induced in humans. This observes the effect of punishment in memory and to administer in obeying orders. The results show that men obey and are willing to increase the electric shocks for every wrong answer. Th duty to remember remains strong to move to a brighter future.
Reflections:
We kill because of economics because we need resources. People kill because of the territorial ambitions and because of an evil leader like Adolf Hitler. People kill because of competing ideas such as different political parties, individuals in the same line of business, because of instilling fear to the aggravated party, even in competing winning the hearts of a boy /girl, etc. Whatever the reason violence is seen as a way to express the emotional hurt felt inside the mind and expressing it especially if one has the perceived power. We kill because of our prejudice versus another race, we are obliged to do so as in the case of the army, etc. In the brighter side, killing lessen the population :D But the fact is, the one who decides for our national celebrations is the government such as the president, senators, congressmen, etc. That is why it is important to vote wisely and exercise our rights as citizens.
What makes the world dangerous? By Michael Dillon
In expressing our fears one way than the other, in prioritizing certain dangers over other dangers, we become organized by the fears and dangers. Fear and danger are also like money. Everything in sense is dangerous to us because humans die. The techno scientific and social scientific truth telling practices of knowledge: of what we know, of how we come to know it and of how our knowledge is validated and distributed so that it becomes common knowledge. The information revolution not only transformed the equipment that we use but also the ways in which we inhabit and think about the world. The Revolution Military Affairs is now Military Technical Revolution.
It is Arthur Cebrowski that invented network centric warfare. It has four themes namely: he shift in focus from the weapons platform to information network, a shift from individual military actors or units to radical relational, to interpret complex military operations, and the conviction that information is the prime mover in military. The critical infrastructures are government operations, gas and oil storage delivery, emergency services, telecommunications, and electrical energy, transportation, banking and finance, and water supply systems.
Reflection:
Truly, information age is very rampant. It is very important for people especially teens nowadays because facebook, friendster, myspace, multiply, etc provides connection with friends but it invades our privacy at the same time. It is a form of stress because it affects our lifestyles. One cannot read everything in the internet because information is found everywhere. One is nly pushed further to do everything to cope with the rapid changing technology. It is important to be careful to use information and communication technology at a pace to avoid killings and mishaps.
What can we do to stop people from harming others? By Anne Orford
The idea that force should be used to relieve the suffering of others of course predates the 1990s. The UN Security council has proved itself willing to interpret the phrase threats to the peace broadly to include situations of civil war or crisis. Timor was colonized by Portugal in the sixteenth century and remained under Portuguese occupation until 1942 when it was invaded by Japan. The most popular among these groups was the pro independence FRETILIN or revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor.
In 1998, Indonesia granted that East Timor be granted limited special autonomy within the Republic of Indonesia. In April 2006, violence between military factions, the police and militias broke out in Timor Leste. Realist account of law resists any assertion of a place for legitimate authority in the international order. Decisionist account of law is the claims that the primary role of the state is to protect its citizens and that the state depends for its survival upon the existence of a sovereign who can guarantee the values and law of the state. Lastly there is the metaphysical and democratic account of law.
Reflection:
In my opinion I choose the decisionist account of law because that is the role of government. What the people can do was to exercise its rights as citizens of the country. Then some interventions may also be made. Saving Timor Leste was an example of stopping people from harming others. In our current days, we must try to stop U.S. from harming others like Iraq and the Arab nations not just because they are powerful, they can now abuse the nations. Individually, we must try not to harm people just to gain an upper hold or just to manipulate them but try to do things in the best we can to uphold the moral virtues and justice.
Can we move beyond conflict? By Roland Bleiker
The nature of a conflict is situated in a unique political, social and historical setting. It can only be understood in the context of its unique environment. Although each conflict is unique, one can still learn from how particular societies have dealt with their political challenges. The Korean Armistics Agreement of July 1953, which was never signed by South Korea, constitutes only a ceasefire. A clause called for a political conference on the bases of which the terms of a peace treaty were discussed.
The more conciliatory approach during cold war was the so called détente. China retained communist policies but started to distance itself increasingly from its communist ally and superpower Soviet Union. But the U.S. emerged as the most powerful state. There are only two approaches to conflict: confrontation and engagement. Confrontation means that the world must act to lessen its negative impact. U.S. and its allies invaded Iraq to prevent the regime from further developing and using weapons of mass destruction. Through providing economic sanctions upon disobeying like the sanction with North Korea by the UN Security council in its nuclear tests.
The opposition between good and evil is not negotiable. But it fails to account the nature of conflicts. While another approach was to engage North Korea into a community. It includes dialogue and negotiations. Face to face encounters are the best opportunity to create true dialogue and to trash the hostiles. To deal with antagonism, one must remember. Nietzche believed that the search for truth always contained a will to power, knowledge is power. The push towards reconciliation comes from everyday people. Poet Ko Un brings everyday language to poetry.
Reflections:
It is indeed important for the nations to engage in often dialogue like confrontation and engagement to avoid the balloon of antagonism. One must be head on with problems with regards to economic, financial conditions of our own state or other states. While on the other hand, if the problem is already very big such as the case of U.S. and Iraq War, the oppressor must do more work to confront and engage. The colonizer must not even try to take advantage of the country because there are living people and even children. It is good that there are everyday people that helps us and make us see the world as a better place to live in such as our parents, friends, teachers, special partners, mentors, etc and together hand in hand, the country will be better in unity.
