King Leopolds Ghost Essay -- essays research papers

Book Review of King Leopold's Ghost, by Adam Hochschild   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  What some have considered to be the first international scandal of the modern era took place in the Congo from 1890 until 1910. King Leopold II of Belgium was at the head of this so-called scandal. Although Europe and the rest of the world seemed to have forgotten the victims of these crimes, there is a considerable amount of material to use when attempting to recreate the horror that took place in Leopold's Congo. This is exactly what Adam Hochschild is attempting to do by writing this book. By using the written words of mostly Europeans and Americans, which creates a distorted view of history, he wants to show that the Holocaust type event that took place in the Congo is something that should never be forgotten in our history. Hochschild also wants to show the heroism that took place afterwards in what became the first human rights movement of our time.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Hochschild does an excellent and detailed job of showing how clever and cunning (like a fox) Leopold was in obtaining and maintaining his hold in the Congo. Early on Leopold became obsessed with the idea of colonies and the profit that they could bring to his country. In the beginning he did not attempt to cover-up this ambition, but soon realized he needed to in order to have the approval of those countries around him. The metaphor Hochschild uses to explain Leopold's venture into the Cong...

Glendon’s criticism of current human rights discourse

Human rights are the basic rights that a person is entitled to by virtue of being a human being regardless of color, race, creed and country of origin. Many countries have been accused of violating human rights and it is for that reason that there has been put in place various watchdogs to oversee and ensure that basic human rights are not violated. Mary Ann Gledon is perhaps one of the most influential women in America as far as human rights are concerned. Besides her high qualifications as a Professor, Mary has been vocal and highly critical in the manner in which human rights laws are applied.The following discussion takes a brief overview of her criticism on the current human rights discourse . Glendon’s Rights Talk: The Impoverishment of Political Discourse is a book in which the author has criticized a great deal the application of human rights citing massive irregularities and thus abuse of human rights. Mary has in great depths criticized the courts arguing that by the ir unlimited authority to interpret the meaning of various human rights, the result has been that human rights have been individualized making people to lose responsibility for others.Besides this there is total detachment from moral standards and as an absolute right (as made to appear by the courts), is above all other considerations . Mary argues that looking at the property law many societal concerns are not put in place and thus workers and employees are left uncatered for. Mary’s general argument as far as human rights are concerned is that there is a lot deviation in implementation of these rights and thus the very purpose for which they were established is defeated . 2.What is the nature of Perry’s response to Glendon’s, and others, criticism of contemporary rights talk? Michael Perry a renowned scholar and a vocal human rights activist has in his book The Idea of Human Rights: Four Inquiries differed with Mary Glendon and has instead attempted to respon d to some of the issues raised in Mary’ book. This he has done by attempting to classify human rights in various categories . Firstly he argues that some rights that are classified under human rights actually do not apply to all but only to human beings in particular circumstances.For instance the right to vote only applies to those citizens in a particular territory but not to all human beings. Perry disagrees with Mary quite a great deal in many of the issues raised in her book and attempts to give a different approach to the same issue of human rights . 3. What refinements does Glendon suggest to current human rights discourse? Glendon feels that in order to bright order to the American system on human rights a lot of reference must be made to the European countries.She points out that the constitution and even decisions of courts of European countries are good examples of balanced human rights. This basically means that the scope would be expanded but only to the extent a nd limit where they do not interfere without concerns of the society. Conclusion To be able to arrive at the correct position we have to look at both authors critically since both have strong arguments but they also have some weaknesses in their arguments. Bibliography Glendon, Mary Ann. Rights Talk: The Impoverishment of Political Discourse:â€Å"Preface† (pages xi-xii, plus notes), and Chapter 7: â€Å"Refining the Rhetoric of Rights†, (pages 171-183, plus notes). Henry, J. Steiner. International Human Rights in Context, Oxford University Press US, 2008. Mahony, John. The Challenge of Human Rights, Wiley Black Well, 2007. Perry, Michael J. The Idea of Human Rights: Four Inquiries. Chapter 2 (pages 43-56, plus notes): â€Å"Rights Talk: What Does it Mean? And Is It Problematic? † Soohoo, Cynthia. Bringing Human Rights. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2008.

Je tu il elle on vous - Singular French Subject Pronouns

To replace a noun, French uses a word called â€Å"a pronoun†. You choose this pronoun according to both the grammatical value of the word it replaces and the meaning of the word it replaces. Anne est au marcheÃŒ . Elle est avec Mary.Anne is at the market. She is with Mary   To replace â€Å"Anne† in the second sentence, I used â€Å"elle† (she). â€Å"Elle† is a subject pronoun: it replaces a noun subject of the verb, and its a third person singular to match Anne which is a person about whom I am speaking, feminine, one person, so she. What is a Subject? The subject is the person or thing that does the action of the verb.   How do you Find the Subject of a Sentence in French? There is an easy way to find the subject of a sentence, and its important in French you learn this grammatical question in order to be able to find the subject of a verb without any doubt. First, find the verb. Then ask: â€Å"who verb† or â€Å"what verb†.  The answer to that question will be your subject. A subject is a noun (Camille, flower, room...) or a pronoun (I, you, they...). It can be a person, a thing, a place, an idea...   Examples:  I paint.Who paints?Answer: I paint. â€Å"I† is the subject. Camille is teaching French.Who is teaching?Answer:  Camille is teaching.â€Å"Camille† is the subject.   What is happening to Camille?What’s happening?Answer:  What is happening.â€Å"What† is the subject (This one was trickier, wasn’t it?)   French Subject Pronouns Replacing One Person In French, the list of singular subject pronouns is: Je (or j’ vowel or h, its called an elision) I  Ã‚   Tu (never t’) you singular informal   Il it, he - long â€Å"ee† sound​ Elle it, she - short clip â€Å"L† sound On - this one is more difficult to understand. It used to mean â€Å" one â€Å", but nowadays is used in casual French to say â€Å" we , instead of the now more formal/written form â€Å" nous â€Å". So although its listed as a singular pronoun, nowadays its mostly used to replace several people, so for a plural. See my lesson on on. Vous you, one person, formal. Note that vous is also the pronoun we use for you plural, when you say you to talk to more than one person (yous guys :-) Traditionally, vous is listed as a plural subject pronoun, although it can and does often refer to only one person. Its confusing, I know, so I wrote a whole lesson on tu versus vous. ​French Subject Pronouns Replacing Several People In French, the list of plural subject pronouns (replacing several people) is: Nous we - S is silent, but becomes Z when followed by a vowel or an h. (Nowadays, â€Å" nous â€Å" is used in a formal context and in writing mostly. In conversation, we tend to use â€Å"onâ€Å"). Vous you plural, both formal and informal - S is silent, but becomes Z vowel or an h. Ils they masculine or they masculine and feminine - S is silent, but becomes Z vowel or an h. Elles they feminine ONLY - S is silent, but becomes Z vowel or an h. ​Important : In Pronunciation Il ils / elle elles â€Å"Il† and ils have the same pronunciation, sort of an English eel, and â€Å"Elle† has the same pronunciation as its plural form â€Å"Elles† sort of an English   L sound . Do not pronounce the S to remember the spelling; it would mess up your pronunciation! Oh, and since Im talking about pronunciation, you will soon see that most verbs will take an silent ent to match with ils and elles - Im not explaining the whole French conjugation concept here yet, just planting a seed: this ent matching ils and elles will always be silent. Its not pronounced an, its not pronounced at all. Never in a verb. Its a very bad, but very common mistake French student make. No it Subject Pronoun in French There is no â€Å"it† form in French. Everything: objects, concepts, animals etc. are either masculine or  feminine in French, and are therefore referred to as â€Å"il† or â€Å"elle†. So dont think of il and elle as being only he and she, they also mean it. It will be weird at first, but you will get used to it, I promise.   What Do First, Second, Third Person Singular and Plural Mean? This concept is often baffling to student of French, but its a standard for grammatical jargon. Subject pronouns are often referred to as persons and this is how most grammar books will present a French verb conjugation : a table, with 3 lines, and two columns. As an example, I will take the verb chanter, to sing, in the present indicative tense. Singular Plural Je chante Nous chantons Tu chantes Vous chantez Il, elle, on chante Ils, elles chantent Je is often referred to as the first person singular or 1ps, tu as second person singular or 2ps... can you guess nous? 1st person plural. Which makes ils and elles both third person plural. This presentation is super confusing if you ask me since vous for example could replace BOTH a singular or a plural... But its very common to talk about verbs this way in French, and most French teachers are so accustom to it that they wont even understand that its weird...   French Subject Pronouns in Detail So now that you get an overview of the singular French subject pronouns, lets look at them individually. There is a lot to be said on each. Singular French Subject Pronouns Je Tu Il Elle (what about moi, me, mon...?) Plural French Subject Pronouns Nous, Vous, Ils, Elles (please dont say the s)The Misunderstood French Subject Pronoun on. Finally, before you can go ahead and start conjugating your French verbs, I will encourage you to learn more about Tu versus Vous - A French Dilemma.   I post exclusive mini lessons, tips, pictures and more daily on my Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest  pages - so join me there! https://www.facebook.com/frenchtoday https://twitter.com/frenchtoday https://www.pinterest.com/frenchtoday/