Rachel Perkins Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Rachel Perkins - Essay Example This certainly is an underlying theme in some of her films, including One Night the Moon (Aboriginal tracker is ignored by a white farmer, which leads to the death of the white farmer’s missing daughter) and Blood Brothers – Freedom Ride (Aboriginal individuals ride from town to town, telling the experience of the Aborigines, and urging action). However, her films are just as likely to either portray whites sympathetically, as in different segments of her documentary series, First Australians, or eschew white-Aboriginal conflict at all, in favor of universal themes. Radiance and Bran Nue Dae are excellent examples of this. Moreover, the overarching themes that she uses, when she does address the whites-Aboriginal conflicts, are that the Aboriginal peoples are resilient and able to overcome their social issues. This essay will detail how Rachel Perkins challenges the narrative of white oppression by demonstrating how her themes are focused around universality and overcom ing adversity, as well as show how another theme, which relates to the overall themes of minimizing white oppression, that of the use of music, is a common thread through much of her films. Resilience and Activism First Australians was Perkins’ television documentary, and this film focuses upon the history of the Aborigine peoples, with every episode of the seven part series focusing upon a different region of Australia. Perkins did not re-enact the drama and violence that occurred, but, rather, made the film in true documentary fashion by using pictures, interviews, diaries and voiceover narration. In this film, one of the themes, which is prominent in the films of Perkins, was that of resilience. Perkins did not necessarily want to make a documentary about the horrors of the history of the Aborigine peoples, but, rather, wanted to show how the Aborigine people overcame their precarious situation. Perkins did this, as a filmmaker, but focusing upon individual stories which w ere personal and character-based. These stories were narrated through visual and written sources which were left behind by the settlers as they reflected upon the past. The scenes, which were narrated by Perkins, was interspersed by historian analysis, and these historians were experts on the Aborigine and the early settlers (Collins, 2010). As an example of the resilience that Perkins showed through her documentary, one of the stories that she focused on was that of Bennelong, an Aborigine person who was kidnapped by governor Arthur Phillip. Phillip later befriended Bennelong (Konoshi, 2009). This is an example of resilience, as the story of Bennelong is one of overcoming adversity. Bennelong was taken from his wife and kidnapped, yet he not only did not despair in this situation, but made friends with his captor and became a sort of ambassador and mediator between the British and the Aborigine peoples. While he was able to straddle both worlds – that of the white man and th e Aborigine – he chose his own culture and died a respected elder in his tribe (Smith, 2009). That Perkins chose to focus on this story shows that she wanted to show triumph with the tragedy, and she sympathetically portrayed both Bennelong and his captor, later friend, Arthur Phillip (Konoshi, 2009). Another of the themes which is present this work is the interaction between the whites and the Aborigine population. While it certainly would have been easy for Perkins, as an Aborigine filmmaker, to show the Aborigine population as an oppressed people, and the whites as the oppressor, First Australians took a more nuanced approach. She chose to focus on the way that the whites and the Aborigine helped one another throughout the years. In addition to the story of Benn

Country with High Mortality Rates- Angola Term Paper

Country with High Mortality Rates- Angola - Term Paper Example Location/geography It has an area of 481,321 square miles making it the twenty-third largest country in the world. It lies between latitudes 4 degrees and 18 degrees south and longitudes 12 degrees and 24 degrees east (Staeger, 2012). It gets bordered by Democratic Republic of Congo on the North, Zambia on the east and to the south is Namibia. The country’s west coast lies on the Atlantic Ocean and capital and largest city is Luanda. The country has experienced an intense civil war which lasted for close to 40 years. The country’s official language is Portuguese but it has various recognized national languages; Kikongo, Chokwe, Umbundu, Ganguela and Kwanyama (Staeger, 2012). Population Population in Angola gets estimated to be around 18,056,072 as of July 2012 (Staeger, 2012). 37% of the population consists of the Ovimbundu tribe, 25% the Ambundu, 13% bakongo and 32% the other ethnic groups including Asians and Europeans (Staeger, 2012). As at the end of 2007, Angola ha d an estimated population of 12,100 refugees and in 2008 it is estimated 400,000 had moved to Angola as migrant workers from Congo (Staeger, 2012). Statistics also shows that there are 30,000 Portuguese and more than 259,000 Chinese people in Angola. The fertility rate of Angola according to the 2012 estimates is 5.5 making it the eleventh highest in the world. The Angolan population grows by 2.2% annually as there are 44.5 births and 24.8 deaths in every one thousand citizens (Staeger, 2012). The infant mortality rate is 184 deaths in every one thousand live births and their life expectancy is 37.63 years (Staeger, 2012). Government Angola’s government is based on the constitution that got amended and passed in 2010 (Staeger, 2012). They have the executive branch which gets headed by the president who serves as both the head of state and the government. The president is the commander in chief of the armed forces. One gets to become the president only if he or she receives th e majority votes in the national assembly and they are allowed to serve for a maximum of two five year terms. The country has a unicameral National Assembly which has two hundred and twenty elected members (Staeger, 2012). The country is administratively divided into eighteen provinces each headed by a governor who in turn answer to the president. The National assembly is responsible for making and amending the constitution. The country enjoys a nominally multi party democracy after intense civil war between individual leaders who wanted to have absolute power. The executive is made up of the president and a council of ministers since the position of the prime minister was abolished (Staeger, 2012). The council of ministers entails all ministers and assistant ministers who regulate policy issues. Their constitution has broad outlines which define the government structure and also protect the rights of the citizens and at the same time it outlines the duties of the citizens (Staeger, 2012). Their legal system is mainly based on the Portuguese and customary law making it to be fragmented and weak. The Supreme Court acts as the appellate tribunal. The country has no court with judicial review powers despite the statutory authorization by the constitution. Economy The countries financial operation and system gets regulated by the National Bank of Angola. The country is rich in diamonds, gold, copper, oil and wildlife which significantly boost the economy of the country (Staeger, 2012).

High School and Public School Enrollment Essay Example for Free

High School and Public School Enrollment Essay In the essay â€Å"Still Separate, Still Unequal,† the author Jonathan Kozol criticizes the educational system practiced in the urban areas of the United States and where he writes about his beliefs that minorities are being placed in poor conditions while the Caucasian majority is obtaining funding for the schools that the majority of them attend. He supports his personal viewpoints, with statistics which he himself gathered from different schools around the U.S. Kozol starts out his essay with logic to prove that the school systems of today are separate and unequal by using demographics from public schools from the larger cities in the country; for example, â€Å"In Chicago, by the academic year 2002-2003, 87% of public school enrollment was black or Hispanic; less than 10% of children in the schools were white. In Washington D.C., 94 % of children were black or Hispanic; less than 5% were white (220).† He emphasizes on these statistics to prove his point that schools are still segregated. Later in the essay the author then mentions in his essay that the word â€Å"diversity†, â€Å"cease to have real meaning; or, rather, they mean the opposite of what they say(223).† Kozol mentions that when he â€Å"visited in the fall of 2004 in Kansas City, Missouri, for example, a document distributed to visitors reports that the school’s curriculum ‘addresses the needs of children from diverse backgrounds.’† He goes on explaining that when he went â€Å"from class to class, [he] did not encounter any children who were white or Asian—or Hispanic (223).† He then makes the reader connect emotionally by writing comments that high school students and third graders from segregated neighborhoods and public schools made about their different situations in their school. For example, he quotes a letter that an eight-year-old girl wrote to him saying, â€Å"We do not have the things you have. You have Clean things. We do not have. You have a clean bathroom. We do not have that. You have Parks and we do not have Parks. You have all the thing and we do not have all the thing. Can you help us (224)?† Kozol then presents facts about how physicians were removed from elementary schools. The author continues presenting conversations with people that he met. Jonathan Kozol’s essay shows how the school system today is in fact still divided and unequal according to somebody’s skin color or race even though the course of ‘Brown vs. Board of Education’ allegedly resolved this. Prev Page

Rising prices and the tactics opted by common man

Rising prices and the tactics opted by common man Price hike in essential commodities has been a norm in our country. The pattern is very frequent, for instance, the petrol prices have been hiked ten times in the last 6 years. The ever increasing cost of living has once again proven the age old theory of Survival of the Fittest. Petrol price hike is an epitome to show govt.s incapability or lack of accountability. Though, the international fuel prices have fallen sharply by almost 100% in 2009, the Indian govt. shows no signs of reducing the price in the domestic market. Petrol, diesel and other petroleum products have an enormous impact on almost all the other commodity prices. The reason given by the government for hiking the petrol and diesel prices across the board is: to reduce the fiscal deficit and this increase will lead to generation of more revenue for the government. In the recently concluded 3G spectrum auctions, the government declared that they got bids in excess of what they had expected and that this would mean that this excess can easily be added to the extra revenue for the government. The income tax department this time as well as last time collected huge IT returns and all these returns go to the government revenue list. So, one fails to understand that why did the government give generating extra revenue through rising petroleum prices as a reason for increasing these prices. Surely there is more to this reason than what meets the eye. Another thing that might puzzle the common man is what was the need to give full power to Oil Companies to increase the prices as much as they feel is necessary? Why was Government control removed suddenly? LPG prices:Yet another thing that baffles the mind is why such a great hike in LPG prices. As it is the LPG Cylinder was expensively priced at Rs.310 and now it will cost Rs.345. What kind of impact will this decision of the government have on the common man? The restaurants will make the food they sell expensive since they use many cylinders to make the large quantity of food that they make To the people who entertain guests at their home , have to cook food in bulk? Will this mean that they will serve less food to the guests to conserve gas Property rates According to the new revised rates, the houses which were already out of bounds for the common man have gone even further out of bounds due to this increase in property rates. According to the revised circle rates , the lowest circle rate now is Rs.9000 per sq meter and the highest circle rate is Rs 1,25,000 per sq meter. If you want to purchase a flat in having more than 4 stories (including lift) then the minimum value is 18 lakhs plus stamp duty of 1,44,000, so that means a total of Rs 19,44,000 will have to be spent to buy a flat in this kind of a society! Now with rates so high for buying property, the rent in posh areas is becoming far more expensive , and now with this increase in circle rates the rents are set to go up by at least Rs 2000. So that means that if you were paying 15,000 for a 2-bedroom flat then now you will have to pay 17,000, what to talk of 3-bedroom flats. Auto and Taxi rates The increase in fuel price made the auto rates to zoom up in Coimbatore city from Rs.20 to 30 for the first two kilometres and then Rs.10 for the following kilometres. And the taxi rates increases from Rs.50 to Rs.80 for the first two kilometres and then Rs.30 for the following kilometres. Food Price Rise For decades, food prices had been declining in real terms, allowing millions of people around the globe to escape from the trap of poverty. This long-term trend took place despite rapid income and population growth, as agricultural productivity rose steadily. However, productivity gains began to stagnate in the face of continuing growth in demand, bringing about a reversal of this long-term trend. Rising food prices contributed to an acceleration of inflation across the Asia and Pacific region during 2007, and in 2008 the further rise in food prices has reached alarming proportions. The rise in food prices is worrisome precisely because food price inflation is the most regressive of all taxes-it hurts the poor the most. The year 2009-10 has been an unusual one as far as the inflation trend goes, with food inflation soaring while inflation in the non-food sector was negligible. Only twice before in recent history-1992-93 and 1996-97-have seen a combination of double-digit food inflation and deflation in the rest of the economy. Every other major inflationary episode since 1971 has seen prices of food and non-food items shooting up in tandem. The Economic Survey released even came up with a new name for such lopsided price trends-skewflation. In the countrys inflation history from 1971, this kind of inflation, where food inflation is above 10 per cent and non-food inflation negative, has happened only twice before in 1992-93 and 1996-97. And food inflation 10 per cent, non-food inflation negative and fuel inflation less than 10 per cent has never occurred. There are several other years where the pattern was the same. The inflation trend stands out for its lopsidedness across sectors. In 2009-10 (April-November), food inflation was 12.6 per cent and non-food inflation minus 0.4 per cent.The wholesale food prices in India touched a 10 year high with food inflation coming at 19.95% for the week ended December 5, 2009. The table below gives the retail prices for some of the key agricultural commodities in four Indian metros. This is just to give an idea of how the prices have moved in the last one year. Clearly, the prices of all key agricultural commodities have risen sharply. Significant price increase has been observed in commodities like arhar dal, sugar, potatoes and onions. EXPLAINING THE UNDERLYING CAUSES OF HIGH FOOD PRICES Prices of close substitutes for rice are rising sharply as well: wheat, maize, and soybeans are all at record highs. Three sets of factors must be taken into account in order to explain what is happening to food prices in developing Asia. First is the distinction between structural and cyclical factors; second is the distinction between supply and demand; and third is the relationship between international and domestic markets. STRUCTURAL AND CYCLICAL FACTORS Structural factors are fundamental in explaining what has happened to international rice and food grain prices in recent years. Falling global stocks of rice and other cereals are indicative of the fact that production growth has fallen below consumption growth for several years. Rice and wheat stocks have ebbed and now are about 200 million metric tons, compared with 350 million metric tons in 2000, a decline of about 43% (USDA 2008). Cyclical factors as well have been unkind in influencing price trends. Adverse weather including the drought-related harvest failure of wheat in Australia in 2007 and the flooding in South Asia have harmed production as did outbreaks of brown plant hopper infestation in Viet Nam. Recent financial market turmoil has also exerted a cyclical effect as investors turn to commodities with high expected rates of return in contrast to poor returns from equities, bonds, and money market instruments. DOMESTIC AND WORLD MARKETS Government short-term responses have made matters worse by attempting to paper over relative price changes and shield consumers through beggar-thy-neighbor policies of restricting exports and using administrative measures in an attempt to control prices. In order to shield consumers, taxes and import duties on imported grains are being reduced in net importing countries-temporarily. Price subsidies are also widely applied throughout the region for staple foods such as rice and for suppression of food prices. The burden of general rice and wheat price subsidies will become much heavier as a result of the spike in prices in 2008. In the Philippines, the leading importer of rice in the world in 2007, the fiscal cost of subsidized rice in 2008 is estimated to be P32.8 billion with a purchase price of P29.4/kg_ versus a selling price of P_7.25/ kg. Indonesia has budgeted in 2008 an increase in food subsidies of Rp 9.8 trillion from Rp7.2 trillion-an increase of $_.4 billion or 3% of all government expenditure.It is not possible to untangle all the causes of rising prices without conducting a more detailed statistical analysis or decomposition of price movements. However, it appears from the discussion of these three sets of factors above that structural factors are swamping cyclical factors, as price spikes have occurred in the context of slowing world growth. The International Monetary Fund in its World Economic Outlook 2008 (IMF 2008) has cut its forecast for world growth drastically in 200 8 from 4._% down to 3.7%. In spite of this slowdown, prices have been accelerating, indicating that it would be unwise to be complacent, and that higher food prices are not merely a short-term phenomenon that markets will automatically correct. This has strong implications for macroeconomic stability, poverty incidence and inequality and for corrective measures over time. Reasons for rise in prices: The primary cause of the recent food-price inflation was the severe drought of 2009, which caused a downturn in food production in the third quarter of 2009-10 and the expectation of the resultant price rise itself fed further into the inflation. However, some other reasons (not so much talked about) for the spiralling food price inflation in India. In 2008, it was estimated that India loses INR 58,000 crore worth of agricultural food items due to lack of post harvesting infrastructure such as cold chains, transportation, and storage facilities. If the Government ensured proper storage facility, food inventory would have been more then sufficient leading to prices remaining under control. It is not sure if the Government is still doing enough to have proper food storage facilities in the country. The Indian farmers are largely dependent on the four-month monsoon season during which 80% of the years total rainfall takes place. The reason is that 60% of the countrys total cropped area is not irrigated. The Government has again been talking about inclusive growth and stress on rural India. These facts dont point to any meaningful efforts to help farmers in a country where over 10,000 farmers have committed suicide over the last decade. The per hectare agricultural yield in India is half that of China. This again points of inefficiency and the failure to help the farmers adopt latest technology in order to increase the crop output. Increased bio-fuel production has contributed to the rise in food prices: Concerns over oil prices, energy security and climate change have prompted governments to take a more proactive stance towards encouraging production and use of bio-fuels.  [1]  This has led to increased demand for bio-fuel raw materials, such as wheat, soy, maize and palm oil, and increased competition for cropland Implications: Steep rise in food prices may cripple Indias growth: Even as India was settling in the comfort of an independent government after many successive coalitions, the political stability has been threatened by the surging prices of food and other basic commodities. For a long time, India has struggled with strengthening its Public Distribution System (PDS).In a world, which is still stumbling and trying to recover from one of the worst even economic setback, Asia has been confidently surging ahead. However, it seems that the ever rising food prices may cripple this recovery and pose a major threat to the strong GDP rise. This will not only be a setback to India, but to the rest of the continent as well, many parts of which are dependent on India to meet their food shortages. This year, food prices have seen a steep rise of 19.95 per cent, one of the highest ever recorded. What is of more concern is the fact that this steep rise has significantly out paced the rise on per capita income. Even staple foods like rice and wheat have become so expensive that theyve gone out of reach of the common man. Food Price Rise Affects Rural Areas Adversely Objective: The purpose of this article is to analyze on the spiraling food price in India, future trend of food prices, analyzing, how much the people spend on food items and others, which calls for the stratagem to be opted by the common man, and by finding out the ways to save and to find the new sources of income to troubleshoot the crisis. Review of Literature Sushma Swaraj, one of the senior members of the BJP, said: The price rise is not an outcome of any natural calamity, it is the outcome of the wrong policies of the government. Mohanty, Rath and Ramaiah (2000) argued that a large array of commodities show relative price volatility over time; hence, it is not appropriate to remove them all from core measure. The basket of commodities whose prices are volatile is not time invariant; therefore, excluding certain commodities permanently will result in loss of information about underlying inflation. Moreover, primary commodities are sizable in the consumption basket of consumers and their influence on underlying inflation is substantial. Therefore, core measure that excludes primary commodities cannot be a good indicator of inflation. Joshi and Rajpathak (2004) used new series on WPI and constructed core inflation following exclusion and trimmed mean methods. They conclude that WPI excluding food and 20 percent trimmed mean satisfy most of desirable properties of the core measure. Indias annual food and fuel inflation quickened in the week to April 10, putting upside pressure on the headline inflation and central bank to take action before its next policy review in July. The food price index rose 17.65%   in the 12 months to April 10, marginally higher than an annual rise of 17.22%  . Rising food and fuel prices risk fanning wider inflation as the companies look to pass on cost increases and could prompt the central bank to raise its key rates again ahead of its next policy review in July.The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raised key interest rates by 25 basis points and warned price pressures were fast becoming a demand-driven phenomenon Reuters poll found a narrow majority of economists expect another increase in rates by the end of June, or before the RBIs next quarterly review. Government officials, however, keen to keep the economy on track to exceed 8%   growth this year, said inflationary pressures were waning and played down the need for aggressive tightening. Research methodology Research methodology is a way to systematically solve the research problem. It is necessary for the researcher to know not only the research methods/techniques but also the methodology. Researchers also need to understand the assumptions underlying various techniques and they need to know the criteria by which they can decide that certain techniques and procedures will be applicable to certain problems and others will not. He has to specify very clearly and precisely what decisions he selects and why he selects them so that others can evaluate them also. Research design is the arrangement of conditions for the collection and analysis of data for a research study, which will have relevancy and scientific approach to the study. The research design is Exploratory in nature. Opinion survey is used to find out the Impact of Food inflation on Indian consumers and Secondary data, have been used which are already gathered by others. The researcher has been collecting information through internet, finance journals and books Techniques like Linear growth rate, correlation, Chi-square and trend analysis were been used to check out the future trend in food price and its impact on the common people. In the above table food prices and non food prices are been rising year by year in which CPI rises by 1.75% and food group by 0.3% and non food group by 5.93% year by year.. The observed increase in food prices is not a temporary phenomenon, but likely to persist in the medium term. Food crop prices remains high in 2008 and 2009 and then begin to decline as supply and demand respond to high prices; however, they are likely to remain well above the 2004 levels through 2015 for most food crops. There is a high relation between crude oil and food items. As the price of crude oil increases the prices of food items also increases. There is high relation between GDP,CPI,PPI and WPI. As GDP increases year by year consumer,producer,wholesale price index also increases. Finding Answers to Food Inflation prompts consumers to cut down unnecessary expenditure The younger generation feel that they would feel save by investing in pension fund then the fixed deposit rather than investing in shares and securities. Suggestions However, looking into the very near term, some ways to ease food prices would be: Crackdown on hoarders and black marketers could help prevent prices from rising further. This step might not significantly reduce prices but will ensure that prices dont escalate further. The Government should allow the private sector to import and store the primary agricultural commodities at zero import duty. This will help ease the prices to a large extent. The Government also needs to unload the inventory it has in its storage locations. This will have an immediate impact on the prices. It is very important for the Government to try and control the inflation or at least try and ensure that these circumstances do not arise again in the future. There are several ways of curbing food inflation. It is only that the Government needs to be more proactive rather then being reactive. Another important point to note is that a majority of Indians still dont invest in equity markets. They prefer going for fixed deposits which are currently yielding only around 8-10% annually. On the other hand, inflation for an average household is easily around 12-15% (even education, health and housing cost are going up). Save More Tomorrow is a registered trade mark. strategies are appropriate at younger ages 1) because young peoplehave more of their wealth in bond-like human capital and can afford to take more financial risk, and 2)Because younger people have more flexibility to work more to make up for any shortfall created by losses in financial assets. Conclusion If things have not been taken care of nothing substantial can been done in order to overcome challenges of rising prices. Hoping that minimal food wastage, high crop productivity and increase in irrigated land would help to deflate the food prices. It is also said that if the INR 58,000 crore of food crop is not wasted on an annual basis, Indias deficits could be wiped out in less then a decade without any other measures being taken. The study ensures that the future trend of food prices will be spiraling in near future to daunt the common people to cut back their spending on un-necessary items and concentrate on developing a strategy to save and to find new sources of income, early as viable. Regardless of the challenges faced throughout your life, a secure nest egg will do wonders for helping you cope the future price rise.

The Way Technology Has Changed Man: Hopkins And Wordsworth :: essays research papers

"Where do you want to go today?". We all know this slogan of the most advanced software company in the world, Microsoft. The question we will soon have to answer is were we can't go today. William Wordsworth, a quaint man from the late 18th century and early 19th century, understood the need for change in this world and expressed a pre-mature concern for the future that still applies to this very day in "The world is too much with us". Gerald Hopkins, a poet from the later 19th century, expressed many of same ideas and philosophies as Wordsworth in "God's Grandeur". Their main points were that man's continuous journey towards the future has led us to forget our roots. Though how could two poets from two different lifestyles, Wordsworth the revolutionary and Hopkins the Jesuit, come up with the same basic ideas? They both showed that our continuous journey towards the future has led us to forget our roots as shown by our destruction of nature, by the way the Industrial Revolution has torn us away from our harmony with nature and by the ways we can return back to mother earth.Man continues to destroy nature in an attempt to strengthen himself. Wordsworth and Hopkins talk about man's primal instinct to destroy what is around him. Ironically our destruction of nature leads to the advancements in our personal technologies. This is made evident when Wordsworth says "getting and spending we lay waste our powers." While it is obvious is that Wordsworth thinks we have become to attached to material goods, what does he mean by "lay waste our powers"? Perhaps the only explanation we can give is that Wordsworth believes that Man has, somewhere deep down in him, the ability to be a creator, an architect who can use nature and not abuse it. He also believes that Man keeps destroying nature without realizing the effects this adds to our lives. Hopkins shows this same type of idea but with a higher connection, the power of God. He uses God as a way of showing us the wrong we are doing. He shows Man's disobedience of God as a way to show that we have forgotten nature. Wordsworth thinks our own ambitions have led us to this point and we can't say that Hopkins completely disagrees with that. Hopkins shows how nature accumulates our pollution. They both must have realized the influence these technologies were having on their societies.

Gays :: essays research papers

The Right to Unite Sam* and Alex* have been together for two years. Recently, they decided that they would like to buy a house together. This has not been an easy task as their lifestyle choice has caused them complications attaining a loan. Sam and Alex are of the same sex. If they were married, as they one day hope to be, getting a home loan would not be an issue. However, because they are gay, they are unable to legalize their relationship in 48 of the 50 states. The issue of gay marriage has been a very controversial subject since the late 1970’s. As of 2004, same-sex marriage is still not legally recognized in any U.S. state. Recently the development of same sex civil unions includes the state of Vermont, which is designed to be similar to marriage. On May 16th, 2004, whoops and cheers and a party spilled onto the streets, gay and lesbian couples here began filling out applications for marriage licenses at 12:01 a.m., when Massachusetts became the first state in the country to allow them to marry (Belluck). In 2004 a few local government officials, most notably the city officials of San Francisco, started issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples despite being in conflict with state laws. In 1993, Hawaii and California legalized the marriage of gay individuals, with Vermont not far behind. Proponents of this measure feel that this current movement toward recognition of same sex relationships has been a long time coming. Those who are against gay marriages feel that by allowing gay individuals to marry, the whole concept of marriage would be destroyed. Since 1989, same sex marriages have been legal in Denmark. Researchers have found that "the divorce rate among Danish homosexuals is only seventeen percent compared to forty-six percent for heterosexuals"(Jones, 22). Psychologists believe that there are several reasons for this. Most homosexuals who are married have been together for several years before the wedding. Unlike heterosexuals, who often are wed months after the relationship begins. Finally, "Danish gays and lesbians rarely divorce... (because)...only those who are strongly motivated to marry do so, given society's disapproval of overt homosexuality"(Jones, 22). Since the legalization of gay marriages in Hawaii and California are so recent, there are no current studies on the divorce rates among homosexuals in the United States. However, one would believe that Danish statistics in this area would be comparable.

The Arabian Nights: The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad

â€Å"Curiosity kills the cat† as the old saying goes. The same thing did happen in the story The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad. Curiosity of the men who entered the house of the three ladies of Baghdad put their lives at risk by trying to know what they are not supposed to know. Although there had been a sworn statement between the ladies and the men, the latter broke the contract and faced the consequences. However, curiosity, if done correctly, can also be a source of something better than expected. The Porter and the Three Ladies in Baghdad In the story, seven men were in the ladies’ house. They were a porter, a Caliph and his companions (Wazir and swordsman), and the three Kalandars. At first, the men and the ladies were merry-making. Moments later, there came two bitches chained on their neck that the eldest of the ladies slapped and tortured in front of the men. This aroused interest from the men but they just let it pass. Later on, they saw the portress (one of the ladies) playing the lute but to their surprise, she reacted terribly and passed out after tearing her dress. The men saw the marks of the rod and whip in her back and again it added to their curiosity. It happened three times and the men were greatly astounded save the Caliph’s minister. They reacted, thinking that they can easily overpower the ladies, and caught the ladies’ attention. The eldest asked about the commotion and the porter was tasked to tell the truth: they wanted to know what’s going on. But the ladies and the men had agreed beforehand that they must not talk things that are not of their concern least, they face the unpleasant. To the ladies’ command, 7 huge white and black men came out of the closet and tied the men. Now, because of curiosity, they had their lives in danger. Being curious can be both beneficial and risky. â€Å"Curiosity kills the cat† as the old saying goes. In this case, the men, especially the Kalandars, ended risking their lives because of their curiosity. We can blame them because they failed to comply with the contract. They were already told that they must not talk about things they’re not concerned with and they agreed. The men should have listened and did as what they were supposed to do. However, curiosity had been beneficial in the sense that it created chaos in the story. If the men didn’t react, the story would have been boring. Also, another good thing is that it lengthened the story. The characters involved, especially the Kalandars and the ladies, ended sharing their stories. References The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad. Retrieved November 7, 2007, from http://xahlee.org/p/arabian_nights/an5.html