Analysis of civil rights in Hard Times Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Analysis of civil rights in Hard Times - Essay Example However, an overview of human civilization would clearly show that people have always acted as the most important factors against ensuring equality to their counterparts and most of the time such deprivation of rights is done due to fulfillment of personalized interests. History of human civilization has witnessed brutal expressions of such deprivation. It is due to this reason, increasing amount of importance has been provided over protection of civil rights in modern times; however, the issue of protecting basic rights of common people received different manifestations in different periods of time. Charles Dickens’s famous novel Hard Times can be regarded as a brilliant example that encompassed within its scope the traits of violating what we call as civil rights in the recent times within the purview of Victorian Society. The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia defines civil rights as, â€Å"Civil rights are the basic freedoms and rights of people within a community. They are guaranteed by laws and customs that give everyone fair treatment† (446). Civil rights aims at ensuring fair and equal treatment of citizens, keeping aside the apparent religious, ethnic or gender differences. It also provides equal rights to all human beings regarding freedom of speech, expression, participation in social activities, development of community, participate in political aspects, right to fair trial and voting rights. Despite civil rights ensures complete enjoyment of all these rights to an individual but at the same time it also makes it clear that an individual should restrain himself from exercising any of these rights to such an extent so that other people’s freedom or liberty is hampered (The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia 446). Most of the democratic governmental structures provide a great deal of s tress on proper expression and protection of civil rights. Intellectual enlightenment during the

Closure of a large amount of mental hospitals

Closure of a large amount of mental hospitals There are many reasons as to why such a large amount of mental hospitals closed down, but to explore the reasons why they closed, we must look at the rise of the large institutions between the 19th century and the 1980s to understand its demise, why so many were built and why, for a small time period, they were successful. The mental hospital is defined as a hospital for the care and treatment of patients affected with acute or chronic mental illness. Between the 19th century and the 1980s, the mental hospital has been defined as the carer for mental illness. But after this golden age of care for mental illness, it has become a victim of decareration ever since leading to a decrease in mental hospitals and its admissions, but why? The discharge of a patient was once known as a good thing as it symbolised the success of that hospital through moral treatment (later replaced by psychiatric treatment) but even before this there was a much harsher system with the use of chains and straightjackets being the norm. As in the case of King George III who himself suffered from mental illness; patients were not seen as human beings, he was encaged, starved and beaten. The philosophy that therefore developed was the goal of a cure, to treat the patient in a therapeutic environment, To remove the patient from the midst of those circumstances under which insanity has been produced must be the first aim of treatmentà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦An entire change in the surroundings will sometimes of itself lead to recovery (Bean and Mounser 1993, 4 quoting Busfield, 1986) The mental hospital really began in Victorian times; hospitals were intentionally structured to be different from ordinary hospitals in terms of therapy, structure and location. (Rogers and Pilgrim 2010, 190). As where the general hospitals in the vicinity of a highly populated area, a mental hospital would have been deliberately built in a place that is not so populated. The mental hospital (or asylum as it was once known) is seen as a conventional and humane way with dealing with the mentally ill; one of the first legal acts to recognise this was the Lunacy Act of 1845 which made local counties build asylums and gave the authority to detain lunatics, idiots and persons of unsound mind. (Rogers and Pilgrim 2010, 190). It was enforced and regulated by the Lunacy Commission. At the time the only place for the mentally ill to go to were workhouses and private madhouses. As mentioned before this moral treatment was in reaction of the harsh treatment normally given. One of the first inst itutions to use moral treatment was the York Retreat, The York Retreat was opened in 1796 by the English Quaker community as a reaction against the harsh treatment used by other asylums. The belief at the time was that the mad were wild beasts. The retreat was opened from The consciousness felt by a small group of citizens of an overwhelming social evil in their midst (Rogers and Pilgrim 2010,198 quoting Jones 1960:40), although state-run asylums did not pick up this form of treatment for a while. Andrew Scull, an American sociologist argued that the mass amount of people detained in asylums was a product of urbanization, industrialisation and professional forces during the first half of the 19th century and that detainment in asylums was a way to control social deviance.(Rogers and Pilgrim 2010,190) The increase in wage labour meant that services were not good enough to deal with this new form of social deviance meaning that the mentally ill could not be looked after by the family or local community, and around this time the stigma of how mental illness was a loss of humanity changed to the loss of self -control among the public. Meanwhile the French sociologist Michel Foucault sees that this new found market economy promotes rationality, surveillance and discipline'(Rogers and Pilgrim 2010,190) But with this change of direction in the treatment of the mentally ill, many institutions began to fill up with patients rapidly overfilling local magistrates estimates, which lead to several extensions to a mental hospital. An example of this is the Conley Hatch mental hospital in London which opened in 1851 and shut down in 1993 and at its peak it held 3,500 patients. Many institutions promoted that they had the cure for mental illness, which led to a great surge in patients. In 1998, Gittens produced research into a mental hospital in Essex and followed the lives of staff and patients in the hospital and found many contradictions about mental hospitals. He found In relation to women patients it is clear for example that the hospital, based as it was on men-only and women-only wards constituted a women-only space and true asylum in a social context in which there was little such space in external community life (Rogers and Pilgrim 2010, 191) He also found that there needs to be a restriction against outside forces such as social, economic and political conditions as they affect peoples abilities to deal with such material. As mentioned, its primary ideals were to treat patients with moral treatment yet this was forgotten about early on in its life, with the exaggerated numbers which local magistrates didnt expect and such serious illnesses, political bodies were urging to keep costs down. Legal acts such as The Mental Treatment Act 1930 which allowed voluntary admissions to mental hospitals, it was also the act that got rid of the term asylum, and many mental hospitals found that it was not necessary to keep voluntary patients institutionalised. This led to a slight decrease in patients but it wasnt until the 1950s that its fall became apparent. Goffman (Rogers and Pilgrim 2010, 192) found that there were four types of institutions because of this: Nursing homes, where the incapable are cared for Sanatoriums for those who have who have an unwanted threat to the community. Prisons, where the welfare of the inmate is not of paramount importance Monasteries and convents for those who volunteer to be away from the world In 1948 the NHS was created, this led to all mental institutions being free for everyone, psychiatrists wanted this to broaden their field of study. The Mental Health Act of 1959 aimed to provide informal treatment for mentally ill patients with the possibility of detaining a patient against his/her will One of the starting points of the crisis was in 1961, Enoch Powell, the minster of Health at the time, believed that mental hospitals were doomed institutions, so in 1961 he drafted The Hospital Plan where he planned to build thousands more hospitals and abolish certain mental institutes. The discharge of patients had become the policy of the demise of the asylum, subsequently the Community care blue book was published which offered an alternative system to the mental hospital; where mentally ill patients would see a specialist for an appointment just like a regular doctor, the patient could then carry on with their lives and live at home. The patient could live a fairly regular life and would stop the segregation from normal society; it would entail the patient receiving treatment in a non-asylum setting such as in a district general hospital psychiatric unit. However it is argued that it is society that made the patient mentally ill in the first place, within the institutions there is a guaranteed market for experts services where specialists could hone their skills, yet the asylum grew out of a need to establish a social order. The asylum had many problems as Goffman points out, he believes in the mortification of self when being admitted to a mental hospital, with self being defined as being constructed by the pattern of social control which exists in an institution.(Rogers and Pilgrim 2010,192) The persons past identity is completely stripped, their movement is restricted, hospital issue clothes are given and any personal belongings are taken away, they are then obliged to disown their former selves through confessions with the staff, there is no such thing as privacy and freedom of choice is extremely limited with all activities on a schedule. Wings (1962) research shows that feelings of withdrawal and apathy in patients was caused by their length of stay in a ward and the lack of a stimulating environment, good medical leadership is not enough to reduce these feelings in patients, as he says it is unlikely that the functions of am energetic reformer can be built in to the social structure of an institution. As John Connolly points out once confined, the very confinement is admitted as the strongest of all proofs that man must be mad. by 1990 the average asylum held 961 compared to in 1930 which held 1221. Once the asylum had reached its peak size, it realised that the patient was losing their individuality through being guided by the institutions rules; this resulted in a problematized re-entry into society. Originally the asylums were urged to be built by humanitarians, today the opposite is true, community care is now seen to be therapeutic and humanitarian, their return to the community legitimised community care as it deflected attention away from the demise of state responsibility for the seriously mentally ill and the current crisis of abandonment. (Bean and Mounser 1993, 8) During the time where many large institutions were on the brink of collapse Martin (1985) conducted research into what they were failing, he found that many of the failures were with the nursing staff whom participated in inhumane, brutal and threatening behaviour and committed mass negligence on their patients. He asked two questions. How do trained carers become to behave contrary to professional standards? And how have hospitals been arranged in such a way that abuse and neglect have not been prevented? To answer he found 6 points: Large institutions were situated outside mass populated areas meaning they were cut off from the community Wards were isolated from each other, and were almost their own little world Un trained and un experienced staff were left to deal will large amounts of unruly patients, The worst wards were the ones rarely visited by a specialist, leaving the junior staff to do the work leading to a lack of leadership There was a lack of staff development through staff training courses etc There was a huge lack of privacy for the patients (Rogers and Pilgrim 2010, 194) These factors led scholars to doubt that the large asylums could be put right and doubted that they could be reformed. They believe that there is a huge corruption of care. Ultimately every single patient will leave a mental institute whether they are ready to return into society or not and the goal is to cease contact with the hospital afterwards, scholars believe that the hospital, now in a community based system, has less of an importance it once had and is only one institution among others. The community based system is where the patient makes their first and last contact with treatment, they will enter the hospital for a short time and continue their treatment in the community as their treatment does not require hospital admission. This process is known as deinstitutionalisation as patients will not be treated by hospital based treatment and instead will be by community based psychiatrists. However this is not new, in the old system the patient may have made his/her first contact with a G.P and then sent to a mental hospital for treatment, although this has not changed there are now community psychiatric teams to send the patient to the hospital an d to treat them inside and outside the hospital, The old system had a sole focus on the hospital, today it no longer directs, controls nor dictates the pace of treatment or care (Rogers and Pilgrim 2010, 196) There is a whole array of reasons discussed as to the demise of mental hospitals, one reason is the pharmalogical revolution which suggests that the advances in medical treatments, such as tranquilizers let patients be discharged in mass numbers, the introduction of chlorpromazine in 1952 made it easier to manage disturbed behaviour, and therefore easier to open wards that had been locked, to engage patients in social activities, and to discharge some of them into the community Rogers and Pilgrim 2010,197 quoting Gelder et al 2001,769) Scull blames economic determinism and decareceation for this massive decline in the use of mental hospitals, he believes that it was state sponsored policy of closing down asylums, with the emergence of the welfare state, segrative control mechanisms became too expensive. Inflation contributed by unpaid patient labour and cost of employees, ex-patients also required care which had considerable costs, community care was the cheaper option. Another reason would be the shift of focus from chronic conditions to acute conditions such as depression and anxiety which has been described as the common cold for mental health specialists, these acute conditions were once treated by mental hospitals but it has shifted to the GP and is easily treated by them meaning that the majority of people with mental heath problems never seek specialist treatment. Additionally, as mentioned before community care played a significant role in the downfall of asylums, many specialists found that a change of sce nery was very beneficial to the patient, even patients with long-term chronic illnesses can return to society and live in community residences with good results making the mental hospital useful for a short period yet quickly and easily disposed of at point of departure; no longer serving any purpose nor use to the ex-patient. However many studies have found that many psychiatric wards are non-therapeutic and that they share the same problems as they did in the Victorian era, mainly because , according to Goffman, they act as a repair garage; a problem is brought in, fixed and then sent out. Only medication is given, total care is not. A study conducted by Braginsky, Braginsky and Ring (1973) found that the minor patients all wanted to go home, while the more serious cases had no interest in leaving and instead maximised their comforts in the hospital as theyd rather stay in the hospital than become a victim of poverty outside . The focus has also shifted to the cause and solution of mental health, epidemiology (the study of patterns of health and illness in public health) and treatment were separated in the era of the mental hospital, today they are much closer, the hospital has disappeared leaving the attention to the inequalities in mental health prevention and positive mental health To conclude, the mental hospital has made leaps and bounds in the field of mental health with its aim to understand mental health scientifically and tried to cure mental illness, even though that was deemed impossible. Its failure was mainly due to costs and the shift of attention to other fields of treatment. Yet two types of institution has been created due to this, community mental health centres and district general hospital units both modern in their treatment. Although there are still many similarities, high risk patients are still held against their will. Overall the care is much more professional, information is available over the internet, telephone or even the television, but more importantly there is a focus on the patients life and freedom, many may argue that the government still no longer offers a complete care system, but its a start.

Salvatore La Puma Essay -- Literature, Cakes

Confucius once said, â€Å"The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the home.† Many people across the world deem family as the most important aspect of their life. Family is something that often teaches us moral values and helps shape the individuals we become later in our lives. The values taught by family are not only essential, but will help develop the moral character of an individual. In the short story, â€Å"Cakes,† Salvatore La Puma conveys the prominence of family values in Italian-American immigrant culture in the 1940’s industrial era. La Puma utilizes the first paragraph as mini-ethnography to portray the unity of the Vitale family. The introduction states, That summer he sweated from the humidity which in 1940 everyone in Brooklyn sweated from; then he sweated from the hot ovens at Carlo Amato’s pastry shop in Bensonhurst four or five nights a week; then he sweated from the hot ovens at a pastry shop Downtown every day of the week except on Sunday, when he usually slept until noon. From Downtown, Giovanni Vitale came home at the end of the workday on the BMT subway to his wife, Lisa, to their three kids Anna, Steve, and Johnny. After dinner they would all listen to the Philco. Then Giovanni and the eldest kid, Johnny, eleven, walked three long blocks and two short blocks, past the old people who fanned themselves on the stoops, to Carlo’s shop on Seventeenth Avenue (4). The first paragraph evokes the normal and typical structure of the Italian-American immigrant family in this era. In the Vitale family, everyone has their own role. The father, Giovanni Vitale, has the duty of working long hours to provide for his family. The mother, Lisa, has the role of a homemaker, making dinner for the family, and takin... ...llels the image where mother Mary is holding baby Jesus. Although Martina is not related to Johnny, her caring and nurturing behavior illustrates her thoughtful, kind, and hospitable personality. The use of Martina as a mother-like figure, allows La Puma to convey the essence of family values in Italian American culture. Although many families today are dysfunctional and fragmented, â€Å"Cakes† serves to show the importance of unity within a family. No matter what we do or where we go, family is something that will carry us and define who we are. Family serves as a building block or blueprint for success. The values that a family instills allow the â€Å"strength† of an individual to prevail. In this short story, La Puma is able to highlight the role of family as an educator, and protector, and depict the importance of family values in Italian-American immigrant culture.

Companies and the education Essay

It is no denying the fact that globalization is evil, in the real sense of the word, for countries like India, Pakistan and many other developing countries. Globalization is good among the developed countries- like America, Canada, Europe etc. because here the competition is on equal terms. Globalization is also fair among the developing countries, like India, Pakistan etc. But it cannot be said that globalization or competition is fair and on equal terms between developed countries on the one hand and the developing countries on the other hand. It does not make sense that Pakistan will be able to compete on equal level with America. The outcome of this competition can be forecasted easily i. e. all the benefits will definitely go in the pockets of the multinationals of the developed world and the developing ones will suffer greatly in this bargain. It can be said that globalization is a modern method of enslaving the third world countries. In the name of globalization the Western world is dictating the developing countries to open their markets and reduce expenses on social causes, the likes of education and health, while on the other hand the developed countries themselves are subsidizing their farmers, multinational companies and the education. This kind of globalization does not make any sense. But yes it can be called as Westernization. Globalization is the modern face of colonization. In globalization the poor and developing countries are to provide cheap raw materials for the developed world in return for expensive manufactured goods. Thus the developing countries will never be able to produce goods as cheap goods as the all-pervasive multinationals will be producing. They will just provide cheap labor. The supporters of globalization say that globalization has actually decreased the global poverty. They say that no doubt most countries have seen lower income growth but the world’s two largest countries china and India have experienced the opposite. They also say that it is only those countries that increasingly integrate them with the world economy that have managed to grow fastest and reduce poverty the most. Thus it is suggested by them that only those countries who open themselves very much to the world can be benefited in this bargain. Now let us check these arguments of the supporters of the globalization. â€Å"Economists agonize about capital flows but often overlooks the social disruptions, cultural clashes and political changes that globalization brings. † (Mott. 2004. p. 33) It is no doubt that exports and foreign investment played integral role in China’s development. China is able to buy the capital equipments and the other modern tools for its modernization by selling its home-made products in the length and breathe of the world. The managerial and technical expertise of china is also increased by the increase in foreign investment. Now take a close look and we discover that china’s economic policies violated almost all the rules and regulations according to which the supporters of globalization want to play their game. China joined the World Trade Organization only a year or two back and they also did not liberalize their trade policies to a great extent. Their economic policies are the most protected policies in the world. China opens its financial markets to the world just a little time back. Chinese know that the solutions to their problems must be the one suitable to the local conditions. Thus they developed and progress immensely not by following the hard and fast rules of globalization but by will, dedication and nicely built policies suitable to the local environment. On the other hand many countries that open themselves up to the world without taking care of the local demands and conditions suffer financially and functionally. For example, Latin America followed the principles of globalization with great zeal and gusto in the 1990sis suffering from increasing inequality, low economic growth rates, and heightened.

Freedom Writers vs the Outsiders

Comparing Freedom Writers and The Outsiders Taking place in Long Beach California, Richard Lagravense directed an amazing movie titled â€Å"Freedom Writers. † Freedom Writers came out in 2007 and has inspired many teenagers all over the world. Not only do I consider this to be one of my favorite movies, but many others do too. Freedom Writers was a movie with many interesting characters. Hilary Swank stars as Erin Gruwell (Mrs. G), a high school teacher who realizes that teaching is her passion and who doesn’t know what she would do without her students.Scott Glenn plays the role of Steve Gruwell, Erin’s husband. The rest of the stars of the movie are Patrick Dempsey as Scott Casey, Imelda Stainton as Margret Campbell, April L. Hernandez as Eva Benitez, Mario as Andre Bryant, Kristin Herver as Gloria Munez, Jaclyn Ngan as Cindy, Sergio Montalvo as Alejandro Santiago, Jason Finn as Marcus, Deance Wyatt as Jamal Hill, Vanetta Smith as Brandy Ross, Gabriel Chavarri aas Tito, Hunter Parrish as Ben Daniels, Antonio Garcia as Miguel, Giovanne Samuels as Victoria, John Benjamin Hickey as Brian Gelford, Robert Wisdom as Dr.Carl Cohn, Pat Carrol as Miep Gies, Will Morales as Paco, and Armand Jones as Grant Rice. I feel that each character played an important part in this movie and I loved each and every one of them. Due to the fact that this is one of my favorite movies, and how much I enjoyed watching it, I would rate this movie a 4. 5 out of 5 stars. The only reason I felt that it didn’t deserve 5 stars is because I found some of the parts in the movie to be rather confusing. At times, scenes were hard to follow and truly understand what was happening. For example, Eva and Paco went to the convenience store.When they arrived they unexpectedly bumped in Cindy and her boyfriend. Paco tries to shoot the guy in the orange sweatshirt (the guy who beat him up in school) because he wanted his money back on a game he was playing and was giving the cashier a difficult time. Paco also wanted revenge. When Paco took out his gun and fired it at the guy in the orange sweatshirt, he accidentally ended up hitting Cindy’s boyfriend because the other guy ducked. After watching this part a second time I more clearly understood what was happening. The first time I really didn’t know who each character was or the point of the scene.I would still highly recommend this movie to kids all ages. Some parts are violent but this movie does teach valuable lessons. The movies, Freedom Writers, and The Outsiders, are both spectacular movies. Even though these two movies are quite different, they do have some similarities. Both Freedom Writers and The Outsiders are about two extremely violent gangs. All of the gangs in the two movies stuck up for all of their fellow gang members and each member stands by whatever another member does. This is true for all gangs. Personally, I think that Freedom Writers was a better movie. Hey, do you w ant some fries with that shake? † says a male student to Mrs. Gruwell on the first day of school. That type of rudeness was pretty much the way things always were in Long Beach California where the movie Freedom Writers takes place. Hillary Swank (Mrs. Gruwell) stars in this gripping story of inner-city kids raised around drive-by shootings and hard-core attitudes. Whenever you step out the front door of your house, you have to beware because anythitwo gangs in Freedom Writers fight for their territory, race, respect, and what’s theirs.In this movie, the music played throughout the scenes was always different. At the beginning of this movie, the two gangs wouldn’t even sit next to each other in school, let alone talk to one another. At the end, the gangs made peace and everyone ended up getting along all because of Mrs. Gruwell. Even though the gangs, The Greasers and The Socials, are violent in The Outsiders, they are not quite as violent as the gangs in Freedom Writers. The Greasers are more caring and respectful whereas the gangs in Freedom Writers don’t really care about anything.The music played during this movie is always the same song; it is just different parts of the song being played or the same part repeated. Taking place in the 1960’s in Tulsa, Oklahoma makes this movie older which contributes to some of the differences in the gangs. Although The Outsiders is a thrilling and well directed movie, I didn’t find it to be as exciting as Freedom Writers. My recommendations for these movies would depend on the age of the viewer. I would recommend The Outsiders to pre-teens and Freedom Writers to teens because it is more violent.