CRITICAL CONTEXTS of LAW- STORY( answer the questions) Essay

CRITICAL CONTEXTS of LAW- STORY( answer the questions) - Essay Example In turn, this conflict is further mirrored by the confusion regarding the difference between a civil liberty and a human right. It is submitted that the criticism of the philosophical concept of human rights as a reality centres on the dichotomy between the deontological â€Å"shared ethics† paradigm and the utilitarian approach (Donnelly, 2003, p.7). On the other hand, a â€Å"civil right† whilst related to human rights is completely distinct and specifically relates to a legal right which can be protected and exercised under civil law (Foster, 2008, p.10). As such, a civil right may include a human right but is completely distinct from a human right (Foster, 2008). For example, under the civil law common law jurisdiction in the UK, individuals have rights not to be injured or the victims of negligence or nuisance as part of a civil right (Foster, 2008). Whilst civil rights are exercisable and protected by the state, human rights on the other hand are not automatically exercisable, which in turn has perpetuated a debate as to whether the concept of human rights are in fact a â€Å"fiction† of modern, western liberal democracies (Reed, 2007, p.11). ... Indeed, this very point is the fundamental distinction between a civil right, which is enforceable and exercisable on the one hand in contrast to the individualistic concept of a human right on the other. Furthermore, Donnelly highlights the point that the â€Å"the ability to claim rights, if necessary distinguishes between having a right from simply being the (rights-less) beneficiary of someone else’s obligations. Paradoxically, then â€Å"having† a right is of most value precisely when one does not have the right† (Donnelly, 2003, p.8). It is submitted that this observation is arguably crucial to the practical success of the shared ethics paradigm in terms of the innate morality informing human adherence to basic fundamental rights. Moreover, Donnelly questions the notion of â€Å"shared† rights as in a â€Å"Hobbesian state of nature, rights would never be respected; at best disinterest or self interest would lead duty-bearers not to deny the right h older the object of her right (Donnelly, 2003, p.8). Accordingly, Donnelly’s points highlight the point that whereas ethics refer to the morality of human rights, this can contrast with the actual enforcement of morality as defined by ethical theory, which again highlights the fundamental distinction between an enforceable civil rights on the one hand and human rights on the other. Indeed, Donnelly highlights the point that â€Å"â€Å"Human rights traditionally have been thought of as moral rights of the highest order. They have also become, as we will see in more detail later, international legal rights† (Donnelly, 2003, p.11). As such, this has led to commentators questioning the concept of human rights in international

A comparison between Jean Rhys and Una Marson Essay Example for Free

A comparison between Jean Rhys and Una Marson Essay Voyage into the Metropolis: Exile in the Works of Jean Rhys and Una Marson. In Jonathan Millers 1970 production of Shakespeares The Tempest the character of Caliban was cast as black, therefore reigniting the link between the Prospero/Caliban paradigm as the colonizer/colonized. It was not a new idea, indeed Shakespeare himself envisaged the play set on an island in the Antilles and the play would have had great appeal at the time when new territories were being discovered, conquered, plundered and providing seemingly inexhaustible revenue for the colonisers. What is particularly interesting, however, is how powerful the play later becomes for discourse on colonialism. This trope of Caliban is used by George Lamming in The Pleasures of Exile where he likens Prospero in his relationship with Caliban, to the first slave-traders who used physical force and then their culture to subjugate the African and the Carib, overcoming any rebellion with a self righteous determinism. In The Pleasures of Exile Lamming sees Caliban as: Man and other than man. Caliban is his convert, colonized by language, and excluded by language. It is precisely this gift of language, this attempt at transformation which has brought about the pleasure and the paradox of Calibans exile. Exiled from his gods, exiled from his nature, exiled from his own name! Yet Prospero is afraid of Caliban. He is afraid because he knows that his encounter with Caliban is, largely, his encounter with himself. 1 The Prospero/Caliban paradigm is a very relevant symbol for the colonizer/colonized situation of the West Indies but it nevertheless remains a paternalistic position. Where does that leave women of the Caribbean? It could be argued that the Caribbean woman has been even further marginalized. That in making Caliban the model of the Caribbean man it is therefore providing him with a voice. Yet nowhere in the Tempest is there a female counterpart, rendering the Caribbean woman invisible as well as silent and ignoring an essential part of their historical culture. Another issue raised here, is that Caribbean literature has for many years been male dominated. Just as the colonizer sought to ignore and marginalize their savage Other so the Caribbean male has ignored their female counterpart. Opal Palmer Adisa, in exploring this issue, believes that it is out of this patriarchal structure, designed to make her an object, part of the landscape to be used and discarded as seen fit by the colonizer, that the Caribbean woman has emerged.2 It was out of such a patriarchal structure that Jean Rhys and Una Marson emerged. The writing of both women revise and expand theme and personae, subverting a colonial and patriarchal culture. Both women may exist in different ethnological and ontological realms but they both exist in worlds which have, at one time or another, attempted to censure, silence or ignore the ideals and interests of women3 Like many of their male Caribbean counterparts to succeed them, their writing was greatly influenced by voyaging into the colonial metropolis and living in exile. In this essay I will discuss the importance of that journey in seeking to find a voice, an identity, and even a language to challenge established notions of Self, gender and race within the colonial structure. But essential to their experience is their struggle. Naipaul recognised, in Rhys, the themes of isolation, an absence of society or community, the sense of things falling apart, dependence, loss.4 This could also be said of Marson. Jean Rhys was born Ella Gwendoline Rees Williams on 24th August 1890, in Roseau, Dominica to a Creole mother of Scottish descent and a Welsh father who was a doctor. Rhys left Dominica in 1907, aged sixteen and continued her education in a Cambridge girls school and then at the Academy of Dramatic Art which she left after two terms. Rhys experienced feelings of alienation and isolation at both these institutions and these feelings were to stay with her for much of her life. Upon pursuing a career as a chorus girl under a variety of names Rhys embarked on an affair with a man twenty years older than herself and which lasted two years. It is broadly accepted that this early period of her London life formed the structure for Voyage In The Dark, and like all of Rhyss novels, explores homelessness, dislocation, the marginal and the migrant. The character of Anna, like most of her female protagonists exists in the demimonde of city life, living on the wrong side of respectability. What Rhy s does effectively in this novel is to centralize the marginalized, those subjects who belong nowhere, between cultures, between histories.5 Una Marson was born in rural Jamaica in 1905. Her father was a well respected Baptist minister and as a result of his standing within the community Marson had the opportunity to be educated on a scholarship at Hampton High School, a boarding school for mainly white, middle class girls. After finding employment as a stenographer, Marson went on to edit the Jamaican Critic, an established literary publication, and from 1928-1921, her own magazine The Cosmopolitan. Having established herself as a poet, playwright and womens activist Marson made the decision to travel to Britain. Her achievements in London were impressive; a social activist within the League of Coloured Peoples which led to her taking a post as secretary to the deposed Emperor Haile Selassie and later she was appointed as a BBC commentator. In reality, however, Marson, like Rhys found the voyage into the Metropolis very difficult. Facing blatant racial discrimination like so many West Indian women migrants of the 1950s, Una found herself blocked at every turn. She complained and cried; she felt lonely and humiliated,. 6 In spite of many literary and social connections she remained an isolated and marginal figure. Her poetry displays the uncertainty of cultural belonging where her language ties her to colonialism yet also provides her with a powerful tool with which to challenge it. In placing Rhys alongside Marson as pioneering female writers, it is important to explore the notion of nationality, of being Caribbean and to question the grounds upon which such ideas are constructed. Both women were writing at the same time, having been born and educated in the British colonies. Both these writers, whose lives span the twentieth century, are situated at the crossroads of the colonial and post-colonial, the modern and post modern, where the threat of fascism and war result in anti colonial struggles and eventual decolonisation across the world. Their voyages from the colonies into the metropolitan centre generate similar experiences. What is clear with both is that by journeying into the metropolis, as women, they occupy a double marginal position within an already marginalized community. Their journey can be seen as an exploration of displacement where, according to Edward W. Said, the intellectual exile exists in a median state, neither completely at one with the new setting nor fully disencumbered of the old, beset with half involvements and half attachments, nostalgic and sentimental at one level, an adept mimic or a secret outcast on the other.7 Rhys and Marson, having left the Caribbean are asking us to consider what it means to write from the margins. Within their work, both women challenge notions of womens place within society and womens place as a colonized subject in the metropolitan centre. The protagonist, Anna Morgan, in Voyage in the Dark, reflects Rhyss own multi indeterminate, multi conflicted identity. Anna, like Rhys is a white descendent of British colonists and slave traders who occupy a precarious position of being inbetween. Hated by the Blacks for their part in oppressing the slaves and continuing to cling on to that superior social position, they are also regarded by the mother country as the last vestiges of a degenerate part of their own history best forgotten. Moreover, 1930s England, still under the shadow of Victorian moral dicta, continued to judge harshly a young woman without wealth, family, social position and with an odd accent. Throughout the novel Anna is identified with characters who are usually objectified and silenced in canonical works: the chorus girl, the mannequin, the demimondaine.8 Much has been made of her reading of Zolas Nana and indeed there are many parallels between the two characters. Anna, like Nana becomes a prostitute and in the first version of Voyage in the Dark Anna like Nana dies very young. There is of course the obvious anagram of her name but, as Elaine Savory highlights, some interesting revisions by Rhys. Whereas Zola, in Nana, creates a character who brings about the downfall of upper class men not through power but with only the unsophisticated currency of youth and raw female sexuality9 Rhys, in Anna, creates a character who is herself destroyed by men. In Rhyss version the men who use her youth and beauty are for the most part evidently cowardly or downright disreputable: Anna herself begins as naively trusting, passes through a stage of self destructive hopelessness and passivity and ends, in Rhyss preferred, unpublished version, by dying from a botched abortion.10 If we are to see Walter Jeffries as the original European, existing in a world viewed certainly by himself as principally ordered and reasonable then Rhys is, through this character, highlighting the degenerate aspect of using power to commodify and even destroy, thereby subverting the colonizers position in relation to the colonized. Through the character of Anna, Rhys explores those oppositions of Self and Other, male and female, black and white. Even though she outwardly resembles the white European, enabling her, unlike Marson, to blend visually within London, her association with the Caribbean sets her apart as between black and white cultures and as an exotic Other. This ambiguity of Annas position results in slippage. Anna and her family would have been regarded in the West Indies as the white colonizers. In England and in her relationship with Jeffries she becomes the colonized Other. In being read as the colonized subject Anna is continually having to adapt her world view and sense of identity to the perspective being imposed on her. A good example of this is the chorus girlss renaming her as the Hottentot aligning her more with the black African and demonstrating the homogenizing of the colonized peoples by the colonizers. This is similar to Spivaks belief that so intimate a thing as personal and human identity might be determined by the politics of imperialism.11 Interestingly, Hottentot is the former name for the Nama, a nomadic tribe of Southern Africa. A somewhat apt comparison which reflects Annas own nomadic existence as she moves from town to town as a chorus girl and from one bed sit to another. The term Hottentot developed into a derogatory term during the Victorian era and became synonymous firstly with wide hipped, big bottomed African women with oversized genitals and then with the sexuality of a prostitute. Jeffries is fully aware of the implications of the name Hottentot. In response to hearing Annas renaming he says, I hope you call them something worse back.12 Elaine Savory makes a strong connection between Annas renaming and her relationship with Jeffries, her eventual seducer. Whilst not looking at Annas body in an obvious way, eventually the transaction between them is understood fully on his side to be a promise of sexual excitement from a white woman whom he perceives as having an extra thrill presumably from association with racist constructions of black females in his culture.13 Franz Fanon, in his book Black Skin, White Masks perceives these complex colonial relations as being in a state of flux rather than fixed or static. In his introduction to Fanons text, Homi Bhabha highlights this point, stating that the familiar alignment of colonial subjectsBlack/White, Self/Otheris disturbedand the traditional grounds of racial identity are dispersed.14 So it is in the relationship between Jeffries and Anna. In transposing the colonizers stereotypical images of a black woman onto Anna he is disrupting and dispersing those traditional grounds of racial identity. Moreover, Anna is subconsciously enacting a mediated performance, aware of her impact upon him and the implications of her actions, in an attempt to adhere to his preconceptions of her. The relationship cannot be sustained on these fundamentally unstable preconceptions. Anna, both as a female and racial Other is penetrated by Jeffries and with the exchange of money is commodified. Without independent means Anna becomes that purchasable girl who is at the mercy of and eventually becomes dependent upon the upper middle class Jeffries. The relationship between these two characters reflects Rhyss own location in the world where the West Indies was at the time still a commodity of the British Empire. In another analysis of the colonial stereotype, Homi Bhabha challenges the limiting and traditional reliance of the stereotype as offering, at any one time, a secure point of identification on the part of the individual,15 in this case Jeffries and Hester. Bhabha does not argue that the colonizers stereotyping of the colonized Other is as a result of his security in his own identity or conception of himself but more to do with the colonizers own identity and authority which is in fact destabilized by contradictory responses to the Other. In order to maintain a powerful position it is important, according to Bhabha, for the colonizer to identify the colonized with the image he has already fixed in his mind. This image can be ambiguous as the colonized subject can be simultaneously familiar under the penetrable gaze of the all seeing, all powerful colonial gaze and be incomprehensible like the inscrutable Oriental. The colonized can be both savageand yet the most obedient and dignified of servants; he is the embodiment of rampant sexuality and yet innocent as a child; he is mystical, primitive, simpleminded and yet the most worldly and accomplished liar , and the manipulator of social forces.16 In short, for Bhabha, the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized is riddled with contradictions and inconsistencies which, when imposed upon the colonized Other, cause a crisis of identity. So it is with Anna. Jeffries upon first meeting with the very young Anna can see that she is as innocent as a child and is most obedient sexually, but by her association with the Caribbean and the Hottentot as I have previously explored, she is subsequently attributed with being the embodiment of rampant sexuality resulting in his taking of her virginity, abandoning her to prostitution but also leading to as Veronica Clegg observes a loss of temporal referents17 Annas stepmother, Hester, also attempts to impose an identity upon Anna which not only conflicts with Annas own sense of identity but is also based around stereotypical perceptions. . Hester, whose voice represents a repressive English colonial law18 believes that Annas fathers troubles resulted from his having lost touch with everybody in England19 and that these severing of ties with the Imperial motherland is a signal to her that he was failing,20 losing his identity, reduced to the level of the black inhabitants of the island. This idea of contamination and racial reduction is explored by Paul B. Rich who explains that there was a belief in the early twentieth century that white people in the tropics risked in the absence of continual cultural contacts with their temperate northern culture, being reduced to the level of those black races with whom they had made their unnatural home.21 In Hesters eyes this apparent loss of identity is also experienced by Anna. She continually criticizes her speech, her relationship with Francine the black servant, and also insinuates degenerative behaviour on the part of her family, particularly Uncle Bo. Hesters views reflect the growing disapproval in England at that time, of relationships between white people and the black population in the West Indies. Inter-racial relationships were discouraged for fear of contamination of the white Self. In voicing her disapproval of Annas friendship with Francine along with her continual use of the racist and derogatory term nigger, Hester is alluding to the fact that, in her opinion, Anna, especially through her speech, has indeed been contaminated and reduced racially and that Annas association with Francine thwarts her attempts to reconnect her with the colonizers cultural contacts. Hester rails that she finds it impossible to get you [Anna] away from the servants. That awful sing-song voice you had! Exactly like a nigger you talkedand still do. Exactly like that dreadful girl Francine. When you were jabbering away together in the pantry I never could tell which of you was speaking.22 Hesters constant criticism only serves to undermine Annas real identity and dislocate her further from the Caribbean world she once inhabited and the alienating London world she is now experiencing. Her accent sets her apart, drifting between two worlds. Annas difficulties in negotiating these two worlds is a result of the return of the diasporic to the metropolitan centre where the perplexity of the living is most acutely experienced.23 This can certainly be seen in her response to the weather which, according to Bhabha, invokes the most changeable and imminent signs of national difference24 The novel opens with; It was as if a curtain had fallen, hiding everything I had ever known. It was almost like being born again. The colours were different, the smells different, the feeling things gave you right down inside yourself was different. Not just the difference between heat and cold; light, darkness; purple, grey. But a difference in the way I was frightened and the way I was happy. I didnt like London at first. I couldnt get used to the cold.25 And later upon arriving in England with Hester she describes it as being divided into squares like pocket-handkerchiefs; a small tidy look it had, everywhere fenced off from everywhere else 26and then in London where the dark houses all alike frowning down one after another27 Throughout the novel Anna continually experiences feelings of being enclosed. Many of the bedsits are restricting and box-like. On one occasion she remarks that this damned rooms getting smaller and smallerAnd about the rows of houses outside gimcrack, rotten-looking and all exactly alike.28 The many small rooms between which Anna moves emphasize her disempowerment through enclosed spaces. These spaces, in turn, serve as metaphors for the consequences in voyaging into the metropolitan centre. She is at once shut inside these small monotonous rooms and shut out from that world which has sought to colonize her. It is perhaps ironic that the further she moves into the centre of the city, ending up as she does on Bi rd Street, just off Oxford Street , the more she is shut out and marginalized by that imperialist society. Her memories of the West Indies are in sharp contrast to her impressions of England. The images of home are always warm, vivid and exotic, Thinking of the walls of the Old Estate House, still standing, with moss on them. That was the garden. One ruined room for roses, one for orchids, one for ferns. And the honeysuckle all along the steep flight of steps.29 When comparing the two worlds she remarks to herself that the colours are red, purple, blue , gold, all shades of green. The colours here are black, grey, dim-green, pale blue, the white of peoples faces like woodlice. 30 Her memory of home is experienced sensuously as she recalls the sights and smells: Market Street smelt of the wind but the narrow street smelt of niggers and wood smoke and salt fishcakes fried in lard and the sound of the black women as they call out, salt fishcakes, all sweet an charmin, all sweet an charmin.'31 Anna attempts to convey this richness to Jeffries. His failure to appreciate the beauty she describes merely underlines the differences between the two. He expresses a preference for cold places remarking that The tropics would be altogether too lush.32 Jeffriess reaction to the West Indies in fact reflects the colonizers view that the ruined room for roses and orchids portray a disorder, a garden of Eden complete with its implications of moral decay and as Bhabha states, a tropical chaos that was deemed despotic and ungovernable and therefore worthy of the civilizing mission.33 Annas association with this world sets her up, in Walters eyes, as a figure representing a secret depravity promising forbidden desires. Anna, like the West Indies is something to be overpowered, enslaved and colonized, where the colonizer seeks to strip their identity and impose their own beliefs and desires. It is significant, therefore, that following this scene Anna loses her virginity to Jeffries and recalls the memory of the mulatto slave girl, Maillotte Boyd, aged 18, whose record Anna once found on an old slave list at Constance.34 Like Maillotte Boyd, Anna is now merely a commodity and Jeffries has no intention of ever seeing her as an equal. Her purity, in his eyes isnt worth preserving as he already considers her the contaminated Other. By his actions he succeeds in maintaining that patriarchal imperialism which relies on institutional forms of racial and national separateness. Anna, as a twentieth century white Creole, is no freer than the nineteenth century mulatto slave. Just as Maillotte Boyd is, as racially mixed, suspended between two races, so Anna as a white Creole is suspended between two cultures, leaving her dislocated. Annas voyage into the imperialist metropolis leads to boundaries and codes of behaviour, language and dress being constantly imposed upon her. She is aware for example of the importance of clothes as a means of controlling her social standing and also her standing as a woman. Through her dress Anna almost becomes that elegant white lady, mimicking Londons female high society. For Jeffries, Anna represents the menace of mimicry, which , according to Bhabha is a difference which is almost nothing but not quite and which turns to menace- a difference that is total but not quite.35 This mimicry serves to empower Anna as it ultimately destabilises the essentialism of colonialist ideology, resulting in Jeffries imposing upon Anna the identity of the West Indian Other This in turn leads to feelings of loss, alienation and dislocation, a rejection of being white and a desire to be black. I always wanted to be black. I was happy because Francine was there.Being black is warm and gay, being white is cold and sad.36 Annas association with Hester meant that she hated being white. Being white and getting like Hester, old and sad and everything.37 Yet the warmth she expresses in her memories of Francine are always tempered by her realisation that Francine disliked her because I [Anna] was white.38 Her feelings of being between cultures and feeling dislocated are never fully resolved. Annas voyage in the dark, reflects Rhyss own sense of exile and marginality as a white West Indian woman. Teresa OConnor remarks that Rhys, herself caught between places, cultures, classes and races, never able to identify clearly with one or the other, gives the same marginality to her heroines, so that they reflect the unique experience of dislocation of the white Creole woman.39 The language used to express feelings of exile and loneliness, destitution and dislocation is both sparse and economic. It is neither decorative nor contrived, devoid of sentiment or without seeking sympathy. In commenting upon an essay written by Rhys discussing gender politics, Gregg writes that It is important to note her [Rhyss] belief that writing has a subversive potential. Resistancecan be carried out through writing that exposes and opposes the political and social arrangements.40 Helen Carr, in her exploration of Rhyss language believes that: Rhys in her fictions unpicks and mocks the language by which the powerful keep control, while at the same time shifting, bending, re-inventing ways of using language to open up fresh possibilities of being.41 Una Marson, another Caribbean to voyage into the metropolis, also experienced loneliness, isolation and a struggle with the complexity of identity. Like Rhys, Marson fought with these feelings throughout her life, resulting in long periods of depression. Her belief in womens need for pride in their cultural heritage established Marson as the earliest female poet of significance to emerge in West Indian literature.42 She not only challenged received notions of womens place in society but also raised questions about the relationship of the colonized subject to the mother country43 There was a considerable amount of poetry emerging out of the West Indies around this time but most of it was dismissed as being not truly West Indian,44 the reason for this being partly because many of the writers were English but also because many of the styles used by these writers mimicked colonial forms. Many of Marsons early poetry reflects this mimicry showing a reliance upon the Romantics of the English poetic tradition, particularly Shelley, Wordsworth and Byron. The poem Spring in England reveals this indebtedness to the Romantics, including as it does a stanza where, having observed the arrival of Spring in London, the poet asks: And what are daffodils, daffodils Daffodils that Wordsworth praised? I asked. Wait for Spring, Wait for the Spring, the birds replied. I waited for Spring, and lo they came, A host of shining daffodils Beside the lake beneath the trees (The Moth p6)45 Clearly there are echoes of Wordsworths Daffodils throughout the stanza, reflecting the drive by colonialism through education to eradicate the West Indian selfhood. Yet for Marson this harnessing of English culture not only posed few problems but indeed was, I would argue, a necessary step in her voyage of self discovery. As seen with Rhys, mimicry was a subversive threat to colonial ideology, especially through language. Homi Bhabhas notion of mimicry seeks to explore those ambivalences of such destabilizing colonial and post-colonial exchanges. The menace of mimicry is its double vision which in disclosing the ambivalence of colonial discourse also disrupts its authority. The ambivalence of colonial authority repeatedly turns from mimicry a difference which is almost nothing but not quite to menace a difference that is almost total but not quite. And in that other scene of colonial power, where history turns to farce and presence to a part can be seen the twin figures of narcissism and paranoia that repeat furiously, uncontrollably.46 Bhabhas essay in recognising the power, the play and the dynamics between the colonizer and the colonized offers an alternative to the pessimistic view held by V.S. Naipaul who believed that West Indian culture was doomed to mimicry, unable to create anything original. Marsons mimicry of the Romantics could be seen as a preparation to enter the colonizers metropolis, and to attempt to assimilate into the colonizers world. In making that voyage to the metropolis, Una Marson succeeds in taking that step from the copy to the original. By remaining in Jamaica Marson risked remaining in an environment too rigidly ingrained by colonial prescriptions. Una Marsons voyage into the heart of the Empire, however, resulted in intense disappointment. For the first time, Marson experienced open racism and according to Jarrett-McCauley The truth was that Una dreaded going out because people stared at her, men were curious but their gaze insulted her, even small children with short dimpled legs called her NiggerShe was a black foreigner seen only as strange and unwanted. This was the Fact of Blackness which Fanon was to analyse in Black Skins, White Masks(1952), that inescapable, heightening level of consciousness which comes from being dissected by white eyes. 47 Unlike Rhys, Marson was finding it impossible to blend visually within London. Consciousness of her colour made Marson conscious of her marginality. This consciousness led her seriously to question the values of the mother country. Marsons work moved from mimicry to anti-patriarchal discourse, seen in her poem Politeness where she responds to the William Blake poem Little Black Boy with: They tell us That our skin is black But our hearts are white We tell them That their skin is white But their hearts are black (Tropic Reveries p 44) The poem demonstrates Marsons growing resentment at being alienated by the colonial power. There is an uncertainty in her desire to both belong and to challenge, echoing Rhys in her sense of cultural unbelonging. Those anti-patriarchal feelings are present once more in her poem Nigger where she communicates the anger she feels at being abused and marginalized as the racial Other. They call me Nigger Those little white urchins, They laughed and shouted As I passed along the street, They flung it at me: Nigger! Nigger! Nigger! She retorts to this abuse furiously with: You who feel that you are sprung Of earths first blood, your eyes Are blinded now with arrogance. With ruthlessness you seared My peoples flesh and now you still Would crush their very soul Add fierce insult to vilest injury.48 In its repetition of the shocking term Nigger, Marson is confronting the white colonialists use of the word to exert power over and oppress the colonized. The violence of its use reflects the violence of their shared history where Of those who drove the Negroes / To their death in days of slavery, regard Coloured folk aslow and base.49 In highlighting this history of violence, oppression and slavery, Marson is attempting to invert this oppression and dislodge the notion of white supremacy, whilst attempting to negotiate a position from West Indian to African and in doing so, fashion an identity. By writing the poem in the first person singular and moving from They to You when addressing the white colonizers, Marson succeeds in centralizing herself and reversing the binary system of Self and Other. Nigger marks Marsons sharpened perspective on issues such as racism and identity. Her voyage into the metropolitan centre triggers those emergent identifications and new social movements[being]played out.50 It was a time in Marsons life where she was made to feel inadequate, lonely and humiliated but it also roused her to resist the corrosive force of her oppressive world.51 Nigger reveals this sense of belonging and not belonging felt by Marson, of being part of the empire but never part of the Motherland, yet it simultaneously challenges the very essentialism in which the colonial Self is rooted. Moreover, the hostility she experiences in many ways acknowledges the success of Marsons performance as a hybrid. Marsons frustration and anger was compounded by the fact that in being middle class and educated she possibly saw herself as a notch above the poor, black working class women from the old communities in Cardiff, Liverpool and London52 Marson explores this question of how middle class West Indians negotiate being educated and yet marginalized and even considered inferior in her play London Calling. The play, based on the experiences of colonial students in London charts the story of a group of expatriates who, upon being invited to the house of an aristocratic English family, dress up in outlandish native costume and speak in broken English. The play, a comedy, takes a light hearted look at the stereotypical images held by the British, at the same time countering the myth of black inferiority. There is, in the play, a curious twist as the students from Novoko are presented as black versions of the British in their dress and behaviour, mimic men and yet they themselves attempt to mimic their own folk culture. They are eventually discovered by one of the family, Larkspur, who then proposes marriage to Rita, one of the Novokans. The play ends with Rita declining Larkspurs proposal in favour of Alton, another Novokan. This rejection of Larkspur places Rita in a powerful position. Rita is no longer the undesirable Other, she has resisted the oppressive world of the colonialists and placed herself as the centralised Self. Rita is Marsons fantasy where the black woman is recognised as beautiful and an equal. Marsons activities in the League of Coloured Nations gave her purpose, direction and the opportunity to advance her political education whilst introducing her to the Pan African movement a sort of boomerang from the horrors of slavery and colonialism, to which Una, like many of her generation, was being steadily drawn.53 Marsons work around this time reflects a desire to reclaim and restore that Other cultural tradition, a difficult task as the Caribbean was not an homogeneous agency and it was not easy to establish a pre-colonial culture. The ethnic mix was large and hybrid making the notion of Caribbeanness less easy to define. The Pan-African movement provided links with an alternative body to European colonialism and offered Marson a platform to renegotiate and redefine her idea of Caribbeaness and race, an option not offered to Rhys. Having established a sense of being a black person in a white imperialist centre, she now needed to make sense of being a black woman within this paternalistic centre. The poem Little Brown Girl attempts just this, constructing a dialogue of sorts between a white Londoner, whose gender is unclear, and a little brown girl. The poem begins with a series of questions put to the child: Little brown girl Why do you wander alone About the streets Of the great city Of London? Why do you start and wince When white folk stare at you Dont you think they wonder Why a little brown girl Should roam about their city Their white, white city? (The Moth, p11) The questioning of the little brown girls presence in London suggests a linguistic imperialism. It may be construed as the speaker challenging her right to be in the city, establishing her as the nameless, black Other. Her feeling of difference is emphasized in the repetition of the word white on the final line of the second stanza. The third stanza plays out an interesting reversal in notions of blackness. The speaker asks why she has left the little sunlit land / where we sometimes go / to rest and get brown54 alluding to the desire of white skinned people to tan which for the white colonialist signifies wealth, for the black Other being inferior and uneducated. From here there is a subtle shift of speaker and London is seen through the eyes of the little brown girl. Her perception of the city is distinctly unattractive where There are no laughing faces, / people frown if one really laughs and: Theres nothing picturesque To be seen in the streets, Nothing but people clad In Coats, Coats, Coats, (The Moth, p11) If the poem began with the strangeness of the brown girl to the white gaze, here it teases out those feelings of alienation felt by the little brown girl at being in such a cold, drab place, so different from her own home. Once more Marson creates a reversal in the stereotype as she seeks to objectify white people observing that the folks are all white -/ White, white, white, / And they all seem the same.55 In homogenizing the colonizers, the hybridity of the West Indians are then celebrated in the many varied skin tones of black and bronze and brown which are themselves homogenized by the label Black. The vibrancy, colour and friendliness of back home where the folks are Parading the city wearing Bright attractive bandanas contrasts with the previous stanza of the dour images of London. The dialogue is handed back to the white speaker who attempts to establish the origins of the little black girl but succeeds in once more re-establishing the homogeneic white gaze indicated in the speakers inability to distinguish between many distinct nations : And from whence are you Little brown girl? I guess Africa, or India, Ah no, from some island In the West Indies But isnt that India All the same? (The Moth, p13) More than anything the poem conveys that sense of isolation felt by the little brown girl in the city. She never answers the white speaker directly and is positioned in the middle of the poem, again centralizing the colonized. In asking the question Would you like to be white/Little brown girl? there is a sense of the colonizer attempting to manipulate and dominate the colonized, to Europeanise, ultimately leading to mimicry. Yet the questioner responds himself with I dont think you would / For you toss your head / As though you are proud / To be brown. 56 Marson, here, signals a move away from being a mimic man seeking to challenge that whole Eurocentric paternalistic world and centralise the black women, the most marginalized figure in society. The themes central to Little Brown Girls themes echo Rhyss own negative reactions to London seen in the opening page of Voyage in the Dark. Like Rhys, Marson succeeds in capturing that colour and warmth of the West Indies contrasting greatly with the misery of London, experienced by both and which reinforce that racial and national separateness. Those differences prove for both to be irreconcilable, making it impossible for both Rhys and Marson to integrate, leaving both women dislocated from the metropolis. Little Black Girl serves as a useful reminder that many immigrants were women. This encounter between the city and a woman (in Marsons case, a black woman) echoes Annas encounter in Voyage in the Dark albeit as a prostitute. Both walk the streets of the city and as women-as-walkers encounter the metropolis, negotiating its spaces. Denise deCaires Narian suggests that certainly Marson could be considered as a flaneuse.57 Neither Rhys nor Marson, however have the confident panache of the flaneuse and neither fulfil the requirements of flanerie originally set out by Baudelaire. The flaneur, he asserted, saw the crowd as his domain, His passion and his profession is to merge with the crowd.58 The flaneur and therefore the flaneuse is engaged in strolling and looking but most importantly merging with the crowd. For Marson this is impossible as she is a black woman in a white city. Moreover, Baudelaire expands upon the idea of the flaneur as having the ability to be away from home and yet to feel at home anywhere, to be at the centre of the world, and yet to be unseen of the world.59 Again this is problematic for both Marson and Rhys as their wanderings around the metropolis seek only to reinforce those feelings of Otherness, isolation and marginality. For Marson these feelings of alienation gained her the reputation of being a true loner who didnt exactly seek out company60 leading to a heightened level of bodily consciousness which comes from being dissected by white eyes.61 In her struggle with being marginalized as a black women always at the mercy of the white metropolitan gaze, Marson was always aware of that Europeanised sense of beauty being white. This idea of beauty was so entrenched, even within the black community that they themselves set beauty against the paleness of their own skin. The importance of popularly disseminated images is tackled in Cinema Eyes where a black mother in addressing her daughter attempts to challenge the idea that Europeans still provide the aesthetic reference point.62 The speaker urges her eighteen year old daughter to avoid the cinema fearing that it might reinforce the idea that white is beautiful causing the girl to lose sight of her own beauty: Come, I will let you go When black beauties Are chosen for the screen; That you may know Your own sweet beauty And not the white loveliness Of others for envy. (The Moth, p88) By growing up with a cinema mind the mother has allowed herself to be at the mercy of those tools used by the colonizer to marginalize and indoctrinate, promoting their own superiority. Once again the mimic man re-emerges when black women reject their own in seeking an ideal man. No kinky haired man for me, / No black face, no black children for me.63 This rather melodramatic narrative within the poem tells of the mothers fair husband shooting her first suitor whom she had initially rejected for being too dark, and then committing suicide. The shooting scene, a re enactment of a gun fight in a western, presents the cinema as a racist and degenerate institution. By the end of the poem, the speaker acknowledges her mistake in rejecting the first lover and finds a sense of self, previously denied by the saturation of cinematic images. In shaking off the colonizers indoctrination, which seeks to marginalize her, she addresses the question posed by Franz Fanon which is to what extent authentic love will remain unattainable before one has purged oneself of that feeling of inferiority?64 Black invisibility in the cinema results in white ideology being forced upon a black body and essentially commodifying it and it is this which Marson seeks to deconstruct. Another poem which tackles the reconstruction of female identity is Black is Fancy, where the speaker compares her reflection in the mirror with a picture Of a beautiful white lady.65 The mirror serves to reclaim the idea of black as being beautiful and a rediscovery of self: Since Aunt Lisa gave me This nice looking glass I begin to feel proud Of my own self (The Moth, p75) The speaker eventually removes the picture of the white woman suggesting that black worth and beauty can only really exist in the absence of white colonialism. The poem ends in a victory of sorts as she declares that John, her lover has rejected the pale skin in favour of His black ivory girl.66 Kinky Haired Blues represents Marsons quest for a more effective and authentic poetic voice in its use of African American speech.. The poem explores the rhythms and musical influences found in Harlem and gathering momentum about this time. Kinky Haired Blues like Cinema Eyes and Black is Fancy criticizes the oppressive beauty regime of white colonialism which seeks to disfigure and marginalize the black woman. The poem opens with the speaker attempting to find a beauty shop: Gwine find a beauty shop Cause I aint a belle Gwine find a beauty shop Cause I aint a lovely belle. The boys pass me by They say Is not so swell (The Moth, p91) The speaker seeks to Europeanise her black features in an attempt to make herself more attractive. Male indifference experienced in the metropolis forces the speaker to see herself as an aberration, thrusting her onto the margins of a society which is continually projecting the idea that white is right. The beauty shop contains all the trappings of the colonizers idea of beauty, ironed hair and bleached skin. Yet she is caught between being left to die on de shelf 67 if she doesnt change herself, or eradicating her ethnic features and therefore her inner self if she does. By using blues within the poetry she is able to communicate this misery felt within her, that male perceptions of beauty projected by the colonizers dictate that she must distort her own natural beauty in order to fit in and conform. The poem highlights the struggle Marson experiences in trying to preserve her selfhood against such oppressive cultural forces. Marson defiantly attempts to stand against this patriarchal order. She proudly announces that I like me black face / And me kinky hair. Inspite of this brave stand Marson eventually succumbs and admits that she is gwine press me hair / And bleach me skin. She, like Rhys can only resist internally to the colonialists ideals imposed on them. As writers voyaging into the metropolis both Rhys and Marson share in their writing a pervasive sense of isolation where, from the location of London, their particular voices and concerns are, at the time, not recognised. Both writers, from this isolated position on the periphery of the centre. explore issues of womanhood, race and identity,. Marsons experiences bring about an acute awareness of her difference and Otherness as a Black woman. Her work is a defiant voice against this marginalisation and isolation. She was, as Jarrett MaCauley claims the first Black feminist to speak out against racism and sexism in Britain.68 She was a pioneer in a growing literary culture which was to become the new postcolonial order. Rhys, by contrast, a white West Indian from Dominica was experiencing a declining white minority status against a growing black population, itself an isolating factor both at home and within the metropolis. Kenneth Ramchard suggests that the work of white West Indian writers is characterized by a sense of embattlement: Adapted from Fanon we might use the phrase terrified consciousness to suggest the White minoritys sensations of shock and disorientation as a smouldering Black population is released into an awareness of power.69 It is this terrified consciousness which contributes to the struggle experienced by Anna in Voyage in the Dark . Located simultaneously both inside and outside West Indian socio cultural history, her journey to the mother country seeks only to exacerbate these feelings of in-betweenness and to suffer feelings of dislocation and alienation. Both writers, therefore, in their voyage into the metropolis endure different kinds of anxieties in their sense of unbelonging to either or both cultural worlds. Both use their writing to speak for the marginal, the hegemonic, the dispossessed, the colonized silenced female voice situated as they were within the cold, oppressive, hierarchical colonial metropolis attempting to impose an oppressive identity upon the exiled women. 1 George Lamming The Pleasures of Exile (London: Alison, 1960) p15 2 Palmer Adisa De Language Reflect Dem Ethos in The Winds of Change: The Transforming Voices of Caribbean Women Writers and Scholars ed. By Adele S. Newson and Linda Strong Leek. (New York: Peter Lang 1998 p23) 3 The Winds of Change: The Transforming Voices of Caribbean Women Writers and Scholars ed By Adele S. Newson and Linda Strong-Leek. (New York: Peter Lang 1998 p6) 4 V.S. Naipaul New York Review of Books 1992. Quoted in Helen Carr Jean Rhys (Plymouth: Northcote House Publishers Ltd., 1996) p15 5 Helen Carr Jean Rhys (Plymouth: Northcote House Publishers Ltd., 1996) p. xiv 6 Delia Jarrett-MaCauley The Life of Una Marson (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1998) p51 7 Edward W. Said Representations of the Intellectual (London: Vintage 1994) p49 8 Molly Hite The Other Side of the Story: Structures and Strategies of Contemporary Feminist Narrative Quoted in Joy Castro Jean Rhys in The Review of Contemporary Fiction Vol. 20, 2000. www.highbeam.com/library/doc.3.asp p6.Accessed 1 December 2005. 9 Elaine Savory Jean Rhys p92 10 Elaine Savory Jean Rhys p93 11 Gayatri Spivak Three Womens Text and a Critique of Imperialism in Henry Louis Jr. Gates Race, Writing and Difference (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987) p269 12Jean Rhys Voyage in the Dark (London: Penguin Books 1969) 13 Elaine Savoury Jean Rhys (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1998) p 95 14 Homi Bhabha Remembering Fanon, forward to Franz Fanon s Black Skin, White Masks (London: Pluto, 1986) p ix 15 Homi Bhabha The Other Question Location of Culture (London: Routledge 1994)p69 16 Ibid p69 17 Veronica Marie Gregg Jean Rhyss Historical Imagination: Reading and Writing the Creole (North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press, 1995) p115 18 Sue Thomas The Worlding of Jean Rhys ( Westport: Greenwood Press 1999) p106 19 Jean Rhys Voyage in the Dark p53 20 Ibid 21 Paul B. Rich Race and Empire in British Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986) p19 22 Voyage in the Dark p56 23 Ibid p320 24 Homi Bhabha DissemInation: Time, Narrative and the margins of the Modern Nation The Location of Culture p319 25 Voyage in the Dark p7 26 Ibid p15 27 Ibid p16 28 Ibid p26 29 Ibid p45 30 Ibid p47 31 Ibid p7 32 Ibid p46 33 Homi Bhabha The Location of Culture p319 34 Voyage in the Dark p45 35 Homi Bhabha Location of Culture p85 36 Ibid p27 37 Ibid p62 38 Ibid p62 39 Teresa OConnor The Meaning of the West Indian Experience for Jean Rhys (PhD dissertation, New York University, 1985)cited in Caribbean Woman Writers; Essays from the first International Conference. p19 40 Taken from Rhyss non fictional analysis of Gender Politics. Veronica Gregg, Jean Rhyss Historical Imagination p47 41 Helen Carr Jean Rhys, (Plymouth: Northcote House Publishers Ltd, 1996) p 77 42 Lloyd W. Brown, West Indian Poetry (London: Heineman, 1978) p 38 43 Denise deCaires Contemporary Caribbean Womens Poetry: Making style (London: Routledge, 2002) p 2 44 Ibid p4 45 Una Marson The Moth and the Star, (Kingston, Jamaica: Published by the Author, 1937) p24 46 Homi Bhabha The Location of Culture, (London: Routledge, 1994) pp85-92 47 Delia Jarrett-MaCauley The Life of Una Marson pp 49, 50 48 The Routledge Reader in Caribbean Literature ed. Alison Donnell and Sarah Lawson Welsh (London: Routledge, 1996) p140-141 49 Ibid 50 Homi Bhabha Location of Culture p 320 51 Jarrett-MaCauley The Life of Una Marson p51 52 Ibid p51 53 Ibid p54 54 Una Marson Little Brown Girl, The Moth and the Star. (Jamaica: The Gleaner. 1937) p11 55 Ibid 56 Ibid p13 57 deCaires Narain puts forward an interesting link between Marson and Sam Selvons The Lonely Londoners highlighting external identity in her book Contemporary Caribbean Womens Poetry p 21 58 Baudelaire The Painter and the Modern Life cited in Keith Tester The Flaneur (New York: Routledge, 1994), p 2 59 Ibid p3 60 Jarrett-MaCauley, p53 61 Ibid p50 62 Laurence A. Brainer An Introduction to West Indian Poetry (Cambridge: CUP, 1998), p154 63 Una Marson Cinema Eyes The Moth and the Star. (Jamaica: The Gleaner.1937) p87 64 Franz Fanon Black Skins, White Masks (London: Pluto, 1986), p4 65 Una Marson Black is Fancy The Moth and the Star p75 66 Ibid p76 67 Una Marson Kinky Hair Blues The Moth and the Star p91 68 Jarret MaCauley pvii 69 Kenneth Ramchard The West Indian Novel and its Background (London: Faber, 1870), p225

Challenges Faced By The Shipping Industry Economics Essay

Challenges Faced By The Shipping Industry Economics Essay Today, the shipping industry is still facing a hard period due to macro economic conditions. Most of the shipping entities are struggling to survive these difficult times. There are clear signs of economic recovery in the other sector but on contrary maritime industry has not shown any such indication of recovery form effects of havoc created by the latest economic tsunami. Seaborne trade is uncertain and that some challenging lie ahead for shipping and international seaborne trade. These challenges are further compounded by other developments of some regulations concern in the problem of maritime safety and the protection of marine environment. What kinds of current challenges to the maritime industry related to economic and development of maritime regulations, and how the maritime industry cope with those challenges will be described base on the reference studies. Challenges Facing from Economic Point of View The global maritime industry has presently been reeling under the impact of the ongoing economic crisis. It is expected to experience a few years of decline due to the overcapacity of ships, and a substantial reduction of shipment, resulting in a drop in tariffs. Overall, the shipping industry is witnessing a new trend of consolidation. Smaller companies, which are asset heavy, are merging with larger organizations in order to survive these difficult times. Observations indicate that the prospect of considerable improvements in trade volumes before the end of 2010 is unlikely. It can be safely assumed that the shipping industry will learn its lessons and emerge stronger from the current economic crisis. However, there is still a long way to go, at least three years, before the shipping industry bounces back to its earlier prosperous times and freight rates are rationally stabilized. (Frost Sullivan, 2010). Challenges Facing from Development of Maritime Regulations Most companies in this domain are struggling with the problem of positive cash flow. The major challenges facing the shipping industry not only stem from the economic standpoint, but also arise from strict enforcement of emission regulations and increasing safety and security issues. The Rotterdam rules are expected to replace the old Hague, Hague-Visby, and Hamburg rules. These regulations will provide fresh and fair legal rights to shippers and other cargo-interested parties. Shipping lines and terminal operators will be exposed to new legal claims system for damages, stolen goods, and shipment delays. The criminalization of seafarers is a prominent issue clouding the industry landscape. Seafarers are subjected to severe penalties and punitive charges for acts that have nothing to do with criminal negligence. In addition, carbon emission is a matter that will ultimately determine the future of the shipping industry. Emission control measures require the fitting of detectors and mak ing expensive changes in the machinery deployed on board. This exerts additional pressure on the shipping organizations that are already struggling. How Maritime Industry Cope with those Challenges Under the current circumstances, collaboration shows the way forward. Additionally, companies must look internally to eliminate non-value adding activities. Removing non-value-added waste or Muda from their value chains and focusing on customer satisfaction, which assumes greater importance during these testing times, has the potential to help companies to stay out of the red. Port authorities and operators must optimize utilization of existing capacities rather than building new ones and dealing with excessive idle capacities. Ramping up infrastructure capabilities to cater to regional needs will eventually lead to profitable operations. This applies to shipping companies that should strategically analyze the profit earned on each route, and reduce the number of services on the route where trade volumes are severely down. For survival in the shipping market, it is essential to maintain the flexibility required to take advantage of any emerging opportunities and to act on available m arket intelligence, says the analyst (Frost Sullivan, 2010). Major financial benefits will be associated with well-timed market activity the probability of shipping companies achieving the latter will be markedly improved through the undertaking of regular appraisals of markets and market prospects. Frost Sullivan. (2010). Maritime Industry: Strategic Insight into Current Issues and Future Outlook, from the World Wide Web: http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/1197139/ Review of maritime transport Against the background of a global financial crisis and economic downturn, growth in seaborne trade continued, although at a slower rate. While demand fell, the supply of new vessels continue to grow as the result of vessel orders placed before the financial crisis. It leds to an oversupply of tonnage and a decline in vessel prices. Prices for scrap metal in 2009 remain very low and many vessel owners have preferred to hold on and lay off their ships, hoping for better times to come. As a consequence of falling demand and increased supply, freight rates have fallen from their 2008 highs. The great number of disturbing incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships particularly off the Somali coast and in the Gulf of Aden have become an increasing concern not only for the maritime industry that is heavily affected by these incidents, but also for international organizations, including the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the United Nations. In the field of maritime and supply-chain security, efforts to implement and refine relevant legal instruments and standards are ongoing. Noteworthy environment related developments include IMOs continued commitment to making progress in a number of areas, including in relation to reducing emissions of greenhouses gases from international shipping and in its work towards the establishment of a relevant global regime. Assessing the costs of climate change impacts on ports and, more generally, supply chains, was seen as important. Understanding the implications for trade and development especially for developing countries needed to be enhanced and relevant studies should be carried out Climate change mitigation in maritime transport and the need to adapt to climate change impacts posed a particular challenge for geographically disadvantaged landlocked countries with significant population, especially for their already volatile trade and development prospects. In that context, further attention should be focused on the impact of potential mitigation measures and adaptation requirements for the trade and development prospects of landlocked developing countries, as well as LDCs [least developed countries]. In that context, financial and technical assistance, as well as capacity-building, were important. Having come through what many have described as the worst year in its history, the global maritime industry is looking towards better days. While the going remains challenging, there are positive signs that portend hope for the future. Freight rates are heading up on a strengthening global economy. The supply overhang of ships is less severe than earlier feared because of order cancellations and deferments, and slow steaming. The improved sentiment is trickling down to other sectors of the maritime industry. As we face the challenges in the year ahead, we see some encouraging signs of the world economy bottoming out and progress on a slow road to recovery. - Climate change is happening and its impacts are already being felt, in particular in the more vulnerable countries. Unchecked, climatic changes can reach tipping points resulting in disastrous and irreversible consequences for humanity. The wide-ranging impacts of climate change and their potential implications for development underscore the need for integrating climate considerations into development and transport planning and strategies. Thus, urgent, concerted and considered action is required at all levels to ensure effective control of GHG emissions and establish the requisite adaptive capacity, especially in developing countries. Like other economic sectors, maritime transport, which is vital to globalized trade, has a role to play in addressing this challenge. At the same time, access to cost-efficient and sustainable international transport services must be safeguarded and enhanced -especially for LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS. Against this background, and to contribute to the debate, deliberations at the meeting may help identify relevant policy actions that serve the purpose of climate change mitigation and adaptation in maritime transport without undermining transport efficiency and trade facilitation gains. One objective of the meeting is to gain a clearer vision of the format, scope and content of a potential new regime on GHG emissions from international shipping and help ascertain the economic and policy implications of various mitigation measures, including on trade competitiveness of developing countries. To this end, and with a view to providing substantive policy guidance in the context of UNFCCC conference in December 2009, discussions are expected to help, inter alia: (a) Assess impacts on/implications for transportation systems, in particular ports and ships; (b) Improve the understanding of required adaptation measures; (c) Explore the potential for synergies between transport and trade facilitation measures and climatepolicy, including in relation to technology; (d) Outline best practices in terms of mechanisms used to integrate climate change considerations into transportation policy, land use planning, as well as infrastructure investment decisions, and development strategies; and (e) Identify current climate change-driven cooperation mechanisms between maritime industry stakeholders and explore their potential expansion in developing countries. Maritime transport is a service rarely in demand for its own characteristics. As the demand for products increase, so the demand for transport facilities increases. Factors determining demand for maritime transport are: condition; price; competition; affordability; speed; quality; standards; comfort; reliability and most importantly safety and security. Marine transport encompasses all forms of transport by sea, intermodal links and inland ports but has certain fundamental differences from other modes of transport. Firstly it caters to a large degree for the freight market. Secondly, as it operates in an international environment, it is influenced by considerable competition and standards. Trends, developments and challenges to the Maritime Transport The international nature of maritime transport renders its vulnerable to the ever-changing world scene and this is a major challenge to the industry as tabulated below. 2.1 Globalization The freer movement of people, goods and information characterizes todays globalised world. It is a more interrelated world, whereby the actions in one part of the world have implications elsewhere. In tandem with the expansion of trade is the elevation of the importance of shipping as the major catalyst of global trade. The case in point is, mega shipping conglomerates and alliances, as well as global terminal operators exercise increasing power on global trade, the maritime transport sector and shipping matters at large. At the same time, there is concern that the forces of liberalization and competition sweeping through the maritime sector might compromise shipping standards. Challenges: be proactive in identifying trends and developments affecting maritime transport be comprehensive and inclusive in our approach to maritime matters be effective and efficient in responding to maritime trends, developments and incidents, within the framework of the IMO involve relevant government departments and stakeholders in the formulation and adoption of policy 2.2 Heightened maritime safety concerns Enhancing maritime safety through ensuring that each link in the chain of responsibility fully meets its obligations is a priority for the maritime community as a whole. An effective maritime administration is critical in ensuring an effective and efficient maintenance of maritime safety standards through proper co-ordination. Challenges: The challenge is to enhance technical, operational and safety management standards. A further challenge is to identify and evaluate factors influencing a safety culture and to turn them into practical and effective mechanisms for further developing a quality and safety culture throughout the maritime community. An existence of an effective and efficient SAMSA is critical in the enforcement of maritime safety standards. 2.3 Heightened maritime security concerns The unfortunate events of 11 September 2001 in the United States of America changed the manner and approach in which matters of maritime security were handled. The collective approach by the IMO in developing and adopting maritime security policies and measures has meant that shipping will no longer be the same again. There are equally growing concerns that the new measures should not unduly affect the efficiency of shipping and port operations, more so in an interconnected world highly dependent on sea-borne trade. The entire maritime community is hard at work to ensure full compliance with the provisions of the ISPS Code and changes to SOLAS. Challenges: The challenge is to promote the effective implementation of the new security measures, to instill a security consciousness in ship and port facility operations and at the same time, ensure the right balance is struck with trade facilitation, and that sea borne trade will continue to be smooth and efficient. 2.4 Heightened environmental consciousness There is growing public intolerance to environmental pollution from shipping incidents as experienced from several accidents. There is also heightened concern over the impact of global shipping activities on the environment, giving impetus to efforts, such as ensuring the preservation of aquatic systems and not allowing the introduction of harmful substances from ships in the marine environment. Challenges: The challenge in line with the global emphasis on sustainable development, is to be proactive in identifying and addressing maritime and shipping activities that could have an adverse impact on the environment; and To develop effective responses to maritime incidents to mitigate the impact on the environment, should they occur. 2.5 Safety of people at sea In line with the IMOs fundamental principle to protect the lives of all those at sea, the advent of large passenger ships with capacities of several thousand persons, and the continuing loss of seafarers lives at sea have heightened concerns over the safety of human life at sea and the success of search and rescue operations in case of distress. Such concerns include the safe operation of ships and whether current response capabilities to deal with emergencies are adequate. Challenge: The challenge is to ensure all that systems and infrastructure related to ensuring the safety of life at sea are adequate, including the welfare of persons working at sea and in ports. We need an effective and efficient MRCC5 2.6 Shifting emphasis onto people Human performance in all sections of the maritime industry is a major cause of maritime incidents. Advances in technology affecting the human element offer new opportunities that we can harness to enhance the human element in safer shipping. Challenge: Is to increase emphasis on the human element in safer and more secure shipping, port operations and continuously improve measures to enhance human performance in the maritime industry. 2.7Technology as a major driving force for change in the maritime transport sector Technological developments particularly in communications and information provide better opportunities for knowledge management to increase transparency and accessibility to information. Care should however be taken with regard to possible negative consequences that technology could bring. Challenges: To ensure that when adopting technological developments, they enhance maritime safety, security efficiency and protection of the environment; Ensure the proper application of technology in information management and provide enhanced access to that information by the shipping industry and others.

Defining Culture :: Essays Papers

Defining Culture Anthropologists define the term culture in a variety of ways, but there are certain shared features of the definition that virtually all anthropologists agree on. Culture is a shared, socially transmitted knowledge and behavior. The key features of this definition of culture are as follows. 1) Culture is shared among the members of that particular society or group. Thus, people share a common cultural identity, meaning that they recognize themselves and their culture's traditions as distinct from other people and other traditions. 2) Culture is socially transmitted from others while growing up in a certain environment, group, or society. The transmission of cultural knowledge to the next generation by means of social learning is referred to as enculturation or socialization. 3) Culture profoundly affects the knowledge, actions, and feelings of the people in that particular society or group. This concept is often referred to as cultural knowledge that leads to behavior that is meaning ful to others and adaptive to the natural and social environment of that particular culture. Some anthropologists prefer to conceptualize culture as a mental phenomenon where individuals learn culture and carry it in their heads ("cultural baggage"). From this view actual behavior is not part of culture, but is a product of culture. This view of culture is called the ideational conception of culture. A broader view of culture includes the behavior of individuals, in addition to the ideas, values, and other mental phenomenon. This view of culture encompasses the way of life of a particular group of people. One should keep in mind that people within a culture share ideas, values, opinions, etc., but they are not universal among all the people in that culture. The word culture is often used to emphasize the most unique aspects of a people's customs and beliefs. Thus, to refer to the culture of a people or group is to call attention to all the things that make that group different or distinctive from others. When anthropologists compare different cultures they do not mean that one culture is better or worse than another culture.

Isolation in Winesburg Ohio and Death in The Woods Essay -- Winesburg

Isolation in Winesburg Ohio and Death in The Woods In 1919, Sherwood Anderson composed his work Winesburg Ohio, which depicts the inner lives of small-town America. Anderson’s fascination to explore what’s beneath the surface of human lives results in another story in 1933 called â€Å"Death In The Woods†. These two works, incidentally, share a common theme of isolation. The characters in these works, are portrayed as â€Å"grotesques† or people who live their lives by one truth, thus living a life of falsehood and isolation from the rest of the world. This essay will examine the theme of isolation in the two works described, and will also relate it to Anderson’s idea of the â€Å"grotesque†. In Winesburg Ohio, the reader is first introduced to â€Å"The Book of the Grotesque†. This introductory chapter, provides the reader with what might be considered a summary of the characters in the novel itself. The elderly writer, who has obviously seen and experienced a lot of the world’s turmoils, e.g. The Civil War , has been haunted by the faces of all the people he has ever known. The faces of these people are twisted and distorted, and ultimately appear â€Å"grotesque† to the elderly writer: It was his notion that the moment one of the people took one of the truths to himself, called it his truth, and tried to live his life by it, he became a grotesque and the truth he embraced became a falsehood.† (p.24). In relation to the theme of isolation in this novel, Anderson uses this chapter to illustrate how the characters in the town of Winesburg should be perceived. Characters that are â€Å"grotesque† because they live their lives by a single â€Å"truth† that prevents them from maturing, developing, and ultimately growing into what Anderson... ... world in which he lives. On this journey, he encounters many â€Å"grotesques† or distorted examples of human life, that enable George to break free from the isolation of Winesburg and venture out to live the life of what Anderson would consider to be â€Å"normal†. In George’s case, the isolation leads to creation, whereas in the townspeople, it leads to self-destruction. The story of â€Å"Ghost In The Woods† is in itself, a modified, shorter version of Winesburg due to its’ narrator, an introspective man, desolate and lonely who questions the meaning of his world. In conclusion, the two works examined in this essay provide concrete evidence in support of Anderson’s view on isolation and the â€Å"grotesque†. He uses his â€Å"grotesques†, who essentially are isolated, to enable his main characters to question the purpose of life and examine the world beyond their immediate surroundings.

Technology and the Future of Work :: Robotics Technology Electronics Essays

Technology and the Future of Work Every society creates an idealised image of the future - a vision that serves as a beacon to direct the imagination and energy of its people. The Ancient Jewish nation prayed for deliverance to a promised land of milk and honey. Later, Christian clerics held out the promise of eternal salvation in the heavenly kingdom. In the modern age, the idea of a future technological utopia has served as the guiding light of industrial society. For more than a century utopian dreamers and men and women of science and letters have looked for a future world where machines would replace human labour, creating a near workerless society of abundance and leisure. (J Rifkin 1995 p.42) This paper will consider developments in technology, robotics, electronic miniaturisation, digitisation and information technology with its social implications for human values and the future of work. It will argue that we have entered post modernity or post Fordism, a new age technological revolution, which profoundly effects social structure and values. Some issues that will be addressed are: elimination of work in the traditional sense, longevity, early retirement, the elimination of cash, the restructuring of education, industry and a movement to global politics, economics and world government. In particular this paper will suggest that the Christian Judao work ethic with society's goals of full employment in the traditional sense is no longer appropriate, necessary or even possible in the near future, and that the definition of work needs to be far more liberal. It argues that as a post market era approaches, that both government and society will need to recognise the effects of new technology on social structure and re-distribute resources, there will need to be rapid development of policies to assist appropriate social adjustments if extreme social unrest, inequity, trauma and possible civil disruption is to be avoided. Yonedji Masuda (1983) suggests we are moving from an industrial society to an information society and maintains that a social revolution is taking place. He suggests that we have two choices ‘Computopia' or an ‘Automated State', a controlled society. He believes that if we choose the former, the door to a society filled with boundless possibilities will open; but if the latter, our future society will become a forbidding and a horrible age. He optimistically predicts our new future society will be ‘computopia' which he describes as exhibiting information values where individuals will develop their cognitive creative abilities and citizens and communities will participate voluntarily in shared goals and ideas. Barry Jones (1990) says we are passing through a post-service revolution into a post- service society - which could be a golden age of leisure and personal

President Barack Obama’s Communication Style Essay

During President Barack Obama’s climb to the White House, he and his campaign have utilized an effective and thought provoking communications strategy to provide a transparent and honest message to the American public. Through his powers of oration, his formidable writing abilities, his comfort on the stage of debate, and through the revamping of the White House website, President Obama has changed the way politicians relate and interact with the populace. This brief essay will outline the major tactics that have proved successful in his rise to power with an aim on his interpretive dominance and popularity throughout a fierce campaign and a mountainous uphill battle to win the public’s support in the midst of two wars and a global economic crisis. As a standout student at the University of Illinois and at Harvard Law School, the young Barack Obama cultivated a direct and honest approach to his communication style. His early days as an Illinois Senator proved that he could build a grassroots support system that did not have to rely on media campaigns for strength, but would grow and strengthen personal relationships through straightforward and honest discourse. In a 2008 US News & World Report article, Kenneth T. Walsh writes of Obama’s communicational outlook, â€Å"Beyond the hype and the spin, Obama has operated as a conventional politician who has demonstrated some very unusual traits—extraordinary communication skills, the ability to grow as a leader, and the good sense and savvy to recognize a zeitgeist, the nation’s powerful desire for change, when he sees one† (Walsh). In this spirit, Mr. Walsh is painting a portrait of the politician as an opportunist and clear-minded individual that is not afraid of speaking his opinion on important matters. This has been a key to his success as a believable and inspirational communicator and has paved the way for him to provide momentous messages that fueled his campaign and his career in politics. On President Obama and Vice President Biden’s homepage on the internet they have a banner quote by Obama that reads, â€Å"I’m asking you to believe. Not just about my ability to bring about real change in Washington†¦I’m asking you to believe in yours† (Organizing). The call for change and hope that were the hallmarks of Obama’s communication zeitgeist echoed throughout the voting polls, the town hall meetings, the local taverns and on the streets. This message proved so successful because it was not a one-way message. Obama’s campaign ideology does not stand outside of participation, in fact, in stands on participation. This quote that headlines the interfacing between the public and the White House demonstrates the necessity for people to believe not just in the power of words, but in the power of believing in politics, politicians, and ourselves. This discourse of interaction and participation has been a proven tactic in successful politics throughout history but President Obama did not rely on the traditional methods. He has demonstrated fluency in technological mediums such as his famed Blackberry cell phone, his YouTube video messages, the revamping of the White House website, his grassroots campaign financing that was largely based on small donations by a multitude of supporters through his website. That being said, his positive and optimistic personality has carried him a long way in successfully communicating his ideals and his platform in face-to-face conversations. As an example, his Presidential Acceptance Speech in Chicago has been viewed over 4,760,000 times on YouTube, his Inauguration Speech in Washington has been viewed over 3,770,000 times in addition to the two million people that turned out to witness it live (Obama). President Obama’s communication strategy has implemented a variety of mediums and platforms that politicians in the past either neglected or did not have access to. For example, President Bush and Presidential Nominee John McCain are notorious for their refusals to use E-mail whereas President Obama had to fight to keep his internet and Instant Messaging Blackberry. Furthermore, all of his books have become New York Times Bestsellers. Mr. Walsh, later in the article speaks of President Obama’s mass appeal and popularity that is thanks to his gifts as a successful and believable communicator, â€Å"Obama’s Chicago background has enabled him to appeal to many divergent groups, from poor African-Americans to white businessmen, working-class folks, middle-class professionals, wheeler-dealers, mainstream reporters, teachers, suburban parents, professors, and college students (Walsh). His reach is both focused and widespread and in this way President Obama has created long-lasting and personal relationships with his constituency that transcends the formulaic and generic mass media approaches. Through his unbridled ambition and his thirst for honest discourse, President Obama has changed the way politicians will communicate with the public. He has changed it in the spirit of optimism and transparency without having to rely on attack ads, even though he has not been above harsh criticism of his opponents and the Bush Administration. He has not been afraid to speak his opinion, even when that has proved to be unpopular, as in the case of defending the controversial Reverend Jeremiah Wright, or when he said he would open forms of dialogue with Pakistan and Iran, or when he made the speech attacking the latent and blatant forms of racism. His popularity has been a direct result of his honesty and his gifts for communicating and as he was elected he continued this approach, even though some people wanted him to deliver a soaring speech at his Inauguration. This keen sense of setting and circumstance allowed President Obama to deliver not the speech of fantasy, but a sobering and directly honest speech about the current state of affairs we now find ourselves in, â€Å"That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age (Transcript). In this spirit, he has not abandoned optimism and the hope for positive change, but he is acknowledging the uphill battle and the fierce struggles that we are going to face. Although he could have delivered a speech that overlooked these struggles in the name of developing a popular national fervor of (false) support, instead he decided to continue his tradition of straightforward honesty, albeit in an eloquent and reassuring tone. This has led some critics to attack President Obama and his administration as our country is trying to climb ourselves out of a record national debt and widespread uncertainty as to the future of our country. The massive bailouts of the automotive industry and the large investment firms and banks have led critics to wildly label Obama as a Socialist and as a reactionary when in fact, as evidenced by the White House website, the Obama mission is to restore good faith and honest business practices to the industries that have helped to build up the United States in the first place. That being said, he has harsh words for executives that are receiving massive amounts of bailout money for their failed institutions while at the same time writing enormous bonus checks to themselves, as in the current example of AIG. In an attempt to restore justice and balance to both business and politics, President Obama has done something that no other President has – he has reached across the political isle and assigned three cabinet posts to Republicans. His spirit of unification cannot be denied and yet some critics still label him as a staunch Democratic Party ideologue and stalwart, when in fact he has made huge efforts to bridge the gap. As Mr. Walsh points out in his article this tendency goes back all the way to his community organizing in Chicago and to his days as a young Illinois Senator, â€Å"Overall, he built a respectable record, working with both Democrats and Republicans to win approval for a series of bills†¦He showed his potential when the Senate overwhelmingly passed a controversial law he sponsored on campaign finance reform in May 1998, prohibiting legislators from raising campaign funds†¦ (Walsh). His bipartisanship has proven to be beyond mere rhetoric in spite of the allegations that are distributed throughout the media. Overall, President Obama has changed the game of politics. He has instituted a communication style built on honesty and transparency while at the same time utilizing all the tools at his disposal in order to fulfill the missions that he promised to the American public. His communication strategy will be the model upon which future successful campaigns will be built. Works Cited Obama Speeches. (2009). YouTube. com. Retrieved 20 March 2009, from http://www. youtube. com/results? search_type=&search_query=obama+speeches Organizing for America. (2009). Retrieved 20 March 2009, from http://www. barackobama. com/index. php Transcript – Barack Obama’s Inaugural Address. (2009). The New York Times. Retrieved 20 March 2009, from http://www. nytimes. com/2009/01/20/us/politics/20text-obama. html Walsh, Kenneth T. (2009). Obama’s Years in Chicago Politics Shaped His Presidential Candidacy. U. S. News & World Report. Retrieved 20 March 2009, from http://www. usnews. com/articles/news/campaign-2008/2008/04/11/