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Sociological Writings in the Canadian Perspective:

A Handbook for Sociology Students

Includes: Essays, Articles, Research Proposals, Social Projects and


Programs, Journals, Reflections, Reference and Cover Letters, and CV
Writings

Faruk Arslan

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About the Author

Faruk Arslan is a journalist-writer and currently doing MA Sociology at York University,


received a Honour Sociology degree at York University in Toronto, Canada and has an
International Relation B.A., International Law MA specialized degree, and majors in English,
Russian and Azeri Linguistics at Azerbaijan University. He also graduated from Centennial
College with a Social Service Worker Diploma, becoming a social worker to help Canadian
Communities.

Faruk Arslan was born in Ankara on April 12, 1969. He completed the non-commissioned
Officer Medical Preparation School of GATA in Ankara, Turkey. He completed the International
Affairs Department of Azerbaijan University. By writing a thesis on "The Status of Caspian" he
won the title of "International Legist" in 1997. He closely followed the Karabag, Chechenistan
and Abkhazia wars. He wrote more than three thousand pieces of news and articles on energy
resources of Caspian, published in both Turkish and foreign press. He worked for Azerbaijan
Zaman (Time) Newspaper as reporter, news manager and columnist. He carried on the agency of
Cihan (World) News Agent in Azerbaijan for three years. He wrote for the column called "Letter
From Baku" for two years. He was one of the first publishers of Tomurcuk (bud) which is the
first magazine for children published in Azerbaijan. He wrote his book, ―The Wolf of Petroleum"
that tells about the petrol war in Caspian. Till the end of 2000 he was the reporter for diplomacy,
foreign policy and energy for Turkish Zaman (Time) newspaper in Ankara. By preparing special
investigation documents on Zaman newspaper published in 14 countries, he worked as a
travelling reporter for Turkish World. He is a member of Azerbaijan Journalists Association and
Ankara Diplomacy Reporters Society. In the last nine years he wrote for Muhalif ("Opposing"),
Gelecek ("Future") and Hür Gelecek ("Independent Future") newspapers as columnist with his
real name and under the name Ali Alperen. Continuously, he carried on his internet journalism.
By carrying on the agency for Zaman newspaper in Canada, he worked as Toronto reporter. He
published Sunrise, which is the only free journal delivered by post to Turks living in Canada, and
undertook its editorship. He has been writting a column at Canadaturk biweekly Turkish
Community newspaper since 2005. He speaks English, German and Azeri language very well.
He is married and has two children.

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NON-ACADEMIC BOOK PUBLICATIONS FROM THE AUTHOR

1-―Mason Bektashism‖ Publisher Karakutu. April 2009, 376 pages, the relationships between
Alevism-Bektashi sects and-the Turkish state since the10th century to present.
2-―Black Box: Tuncay Guney‖ Publisher Karakutu. November 2008, 300 pages, a life story.
3-―Mith of Jesus in Keshmir" Publisher Karakutu. Research book, 206 pages, unknown truth of
Jesus Christ boyhood life in Asia, December 2006.
4-"The Savior of Mesiah Barnaba‖ Publisher Karakutu. Novel, 344 pages, about unknown
history of first Christians and the Gospel of Barnaba, in November 2006.
5- ―First Alperens― Publisher Lulu. Memory book. 314 pages, journalism memories in May
2010.
6-"Rescue Us Canada" Publisher Lulu. Memory and Research book, 400 pages, about How to
come to Canada, and how to adapt in Canadian society, in August 2006.
7-―Wolves Valley of Caspian‖ Publisher Karakutu. Oil power disputes in the 1990s over Caspian
sea oil resources, 445 pages in April 2005.
8-―Net Breaking: The Fiction War of Evangelist‖ Publisher Karakutu. 400 pages, about Iraq and
Afghanistan wars dispute global politics and human rights violations, in August 2005.
9-"Secret of Valley is Solving" Publisher Evreca. Research book, 256 pages, about Turkish
mafia, deep state and secret organizations triangle, in June 2005.
10-"Chess of Petroleum" Publisher Lulu. Politic, 350 pages about how happened colorful coups
and revolutions on former Soviet Union countries under petroleum dispute perspective, in
January 2005.
11-―September 11: Fiction of the Matrix‖ Publisher Q-Matrix about conspiracy theories, 495
pages, weird facts around September 11, in April 2004. Publisher Lulu in 2005, English
translation version.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or
transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission of this book‘s author,
Faruk Arslan. His Email: sunrisefaruk@yahoo.ca Phone: 1-416-822-8975

Edited by Meryem Arslan.

This edition is Copyright © 2011

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Table of Contents
Preface: How to Write the Best Essay .............................................................................................7
Chapter 1: New Paradigms in the Turkish Foreign Policy: The Turkish Economic Miracle: ―Zero
Enemy Politics,‖ ―Mutually Beneficial Economic Developments‖ and ―Human-centered
Universal Moralities‖ .....................................................................................................................17
Chapter 2: The Holocaust: The Site of Memory, Site of Contestation and Collective
Consciousness ................................................................................................................................24
Chapter 3: The Turkish Labour Movement in Germany: Homeland and Host-land Nationalisms,
Identity Crisis and Ghetto Conflicts ..............................................................................................34

Chapter 4: The Hizmet Movement of Canada ...............................................................................44

Chapter 5: The Egyptian Movement: Was the crisis and revolution in Egypt one of its own
making or from MNCs‘ intervention? ...........................................................................................55

Chapter 6: Stopping Abuse by Canadian Companies in the DRC .................................................63

Chapter 7: Analyzing a STS Case Study- Ethanol versus Gasoline: The Contestation and Closure
of a Socio-technical System in the USA ........................................................................................78

Chapter 8: Analyze a STS Study: A comparison of haloperidol plasma levels among Japanese,
Korean and Swedish psychiatric patients ......................................................................................86

Chapter 9: My Presentations ..........................................................................................................90


First Presentation: Seeking My Happiness! .......................................................................90
Second Presentation: How to Make Turkish Coffee..........................................................92
Third Presentation: The Real Legend of Dracula ..............................................................94
Fourth Presentation: Introduction to Naomi Klein ...........................................................96
Fifth Presentation: Food Fascism and Poverty ..................................................................99
Sixth Presentation: Public Space and War Drama!..........................................................103
Seventh Presentation: The Site Memory and the Holocaust ...........................................106
Eight Presentations: The Politics of Moral Order: A Brief Anatomy of Race Making ...112
Ninth Presentation: From Hong Kong to Canada: Immigration and the Changing the
Family Lives of Middle-class Women from Hong Kong ............................................................114

Chapter 10: Canola: Advantages and Disadvantages of Alternative Fuel ...................................116

Chapter 11: The Ottomans to Turkey: Debatable Artefacts‘ as Turkey‘s National Identity .......118

Chapter 12: New Visions to Solve for Mental Health Problems in the Future............................128

Chapter 13: A Long Battle: Marx versus Weber .........................................................................133

Chapter 14: Globalization ............................................................................................................137


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Chapter 15: The Disconnection‘ and Fragmentation ...................................................................141

Chapter 16: The Media‘s Lie about the September 11 Disaster .................................................143

Chapter 17: Surviving from Repression, Impoverishment, and Exploitation .............................151

Chapter 18: The Perception Management- Obvious Propaganda ................................................155

Chapter 19: Limitation Problems of ISAP ...................................................................................161

Chapter 20: Is the Internet Killing Print Media? .........................................................................166

Chapter 21: Creating the Public Museum was Revolution ..........................................................170

Chapter 22: Rewriting Histories of Indigenous and African-Canadians .....................................174

Chapter 23: The Role of an "Insider Subject" .............................................................................179

Chapter 24: The Race-Making Morality ......................................................................................181

Chapter 25: The Namesake ..........................................................................................................185

Chapter 26: Online Dating versus Arranged Marriage ................................................................189

Chapter 27: An Extraordinary Canadian Peoples Movement: No One Is Illegal ........................197

Chapter 28: Iraqi Children Human Rights Violations .................................................................209

Chapter 29: School Bullying ........................................................................................................218

Chapter 30: Systematic Racist and Discriminatory Policies for Nannies ....................................225

Chapter 31: Top-down French Secularism Targets the Full Veil ................................................231

Chapter 32: Sociological Research Methods ..............................................................................233


Research Proposal- Undergraduate Level- Binge Drinking at York University .............233
Research Proposal- MA Level -The Hizmet (Gülen) Movement of Canada...................239
Research Proposal- PhD Level: Performative Consumption, Leisure, Pleasure and
Religiosity ....................................................................................................................................245
Ethical Issues Concern: Critical Analysis of Stanley Milgram‘s Obedience Research ...248

Chapter 33: Social Housing Issue for Low-income Families ......................................................250

Chapter 34: Remove Foreign Credentials Barriers for Newcomers ............................................255

Chapter 35: Situational Assessment.............................................................................................258

Chapter 36: Death Penalty: Right or Wrong ................................................................................261

Chapter 37: Alcohol and Other Drugs Survey .............................................................................263


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Chapter 38: My Portfolio of Social Work....................................................................................267

Chapter 39: Vocational Learning Outcomes................................................................................274

Chapter 40: The Jane and Finch: The Gosford Community ........................................................285

Chapter 41: ―Whispers of Love ―Program Assessment ...............................................................287

Chapter 42: Journal Assessments.................................................................................................291


Journal 1# The Case of Racial Discrimination and the Hatred Crime .............................291
Journal 2# Jeopardizing the Integrity of the Live-in Caregiver Program ........................292
Journal 3# Immigrants‘ Past Educations and Experiences, Wasted ...............................293
Chapter 43: Social Programs .......................................................................................................296
Intercultural Dialogue Institute (IDI): Hope Muslim-Jewish Dialogue Program (HMJP)
......................................................................................................................................................296
Canadian Turkish Friendship Community (CTFC): Hope Youth Centre (HYC) Project
......................................................................................................................................................304
The Toronto Turkish Festival Project ..............................................................................314
Chapter 44: Creating the Public Museum was a Revolution ......................................................317

Chapter 45: Breaking the Wall for Refugees ...............................................................................323

Chapter 46: Advertisings: Brain Washing System ......................................................................334

Chapter 47: My Journal Writings ...............................................................................................338


Journal# 1 June 22, 2010 ............................................................................................339
Journal# 2 June 24, 2010 ............................................................................................340
Journal#3 June 28, 2010 ............................................................................................341
Journal# 4 June 30, 2010 ............................................................................................342
Journal# 5 July 2, 2010 ...............................................................................................343
Journal# 6 July 5, 2010 ...............................................................................................344
Journal# 7 July 12, 2010 .............................................................................................345
Journal# 8 July 14, 2010 .............................................................................................346
Journal# 9 July 17, 2010 ..............................................................................................347
Journal# 10 July 21, 2010 .............................................................................................348
Journal# 11 July 20, 2011 .............................................................................................350
Journal # 12 July 25, 2010 ..............................................................................................351
Chapter 48: Reflections on Immigration Issues and Migrants.....................................................352
Reflection#1 The Feminization of Migration ................................................................353
Reflection#2 Diaspora Remittances ................................................................................353
Reflection#3 The Peruvian Diaspora of Canada .............................................................354
Reflection#4 Why do Neo-liberalists Support Transnationalism? .................................355
Reflection#5 Immigrants‘ past educations and experiences are wasted .........................356
Reflection# 6 The Borderless..........................................................................................357

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Reflection #7 A Social Virus: Racially Superiority ........................................................358
Reflection# 8 Migrant Workers Exploitation .................................................................361
Reflection# 9 Chinese Head Tax and other discriminations ...........................................362

Chapter 49: Social Movement of Political Economy Reflections ..............................................365

Reflection#1 The Manifesto of Communist and Unite of Workers ................................365


Reflection#2 China in Crisis ...........................................................................................368
Reflection#3 Solidarity in Action ...................................................................................369
Reflection# 4 War on Terror and Human Rights ............................................................370
Reflection#5 Cultural Jamming and Boycott Culture.....................................................372
Reflection# 6 Seeking Commonalities............................................................................373
Reflection#7 Stephen Lewis- Race Against Time .........................................................375
Reflection#8 A Peasant Movement: La Campesina ......................................................376
Reflection#9 Manfred Steger‘s Globalism .....................................................................378
Reflection#10 The State and the Global City .................................................................380
Reflection #11 Etnie and Colonial Memories of Korean................................................383
Reflection#12 Cultural Trauma ......................................................................................384
Reflection# 13 A National Crime: The Canadian Residential School System ...............385
Reflection# 14 The Redress Movements ........................................................................386
Reflection# 15 The Utilitarian Morality in Modernity ...................................................391

Chapter 50: My Letter Writings ...................................................................................................393


Letter 1: Asking to get a grant ........................................................................................393
Letter 2: Asking to propose a petition..............................................................................394
Letter 3: Asking to get the support letter from a politician..............................................396
Letter 4: Incident Report ................................................................................................397
Letter 5: Fundraising letter to parents ..............................................................................398

Chapter 51: My Cover and Reference Letter Writings ................................................................399


Cover Letter 1 ..................................................................................................................399
Cover Letter 2 ..................................................................................................................400
Reference Letter 1 ............................................................................................................401
Reference Letter 2 ............................................................................................................402
Reference Letter 3 ............................................................................................................403

Chapter 52: My Resume, CV .......................................................................................................404

Statement of Interest ....................................................................................................................408

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Preface

How to Write Best Essay?


This book aims to promote the best selective sociological and academic writings for sociology
students, including essays, academic articles, social programs and group projects, journals,
reflections, reference and cover writings, and CV (resume) writings in the Canadian perspective.
This is meant to be a simple, useful handbook to provide guideline for the aforementioned
assignments. These writings were written between 2007 and 2011 by York University sociology
student Faruk Arslan, who has already received an honour degree and intends to help future
potential sociology honour graduates.

Your essay should include the following parts:

Introduction: in which you present the main point and an outline of your paper. An introduction,
usually in the form of one or two paragraphs, tells the reader what the essay is about. It outlines
the topic and the specific ideas that are going to be presented in the essay. It should give the
reader an idea as to why the topic is interesting and why it has been selected. By the end of the
second paragraph it is essential that you have told the reader what the purpose of your paper is
and what your central argument / thesis is. If you read the first two paragraphs of your paper and
the goals and purpose of the paper are not very clear, please revise. I would also suggest a ―map‖
paragraph at the end of the introduction that tells the reader where we will be going in the paper.
(For example, ―I first explain….then argue….by presenting evidence about three themes….‖)

The analytic section: contains your literature review, discussion and analysis. In this section
present and develop your argument by providing several distinct pieces of information / evidence
in support of it. Make sure that paragraphs are organized in a logical and coherent order.
Transition sentences, or sentences that link one paragraph to another, are very helpful for
reminding the reader of what has already been presented, and for introducing the reader to the
next idea or set of ideas that is coming up.

Conclusion: in which you sum up the main point(s) of your analysis. A conclusion, usually in the
form of one or two paragraphs, sums up the ideas and findings in the essay. It also raises
questions for further research that might be explored, and suggests how this might be done.
Briefly summarize your argument here and think about what the implications of your argument
are more broadly. If your findings raise questions about other topics covered in this class, please
make those connections briefly here. If you have concluded, after writing this paper, that you
want to know more about your topic, explain what the next steps might be. etc. Often what
happens is the first general idea you want to work out in the essay becomes clearer and more
refined in the writing of the essay, so you want to go back to the introduction and make sure it
precisely reflects what has been written later on. After finishing their first draft, most people
need to take the conclusion to their paper and use it to rewrite their introduction!

Evaluation: The aim of the exercise is to assess your comprehension of the course material and
your ability to communicating your ideas clearly and effectively. It is important to note that for
the purpose of this essay your work will be graded on the basis of how well you can develop an
idea or a specific claim, and make the case for it.

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General Instructions:

 The paper must list all references cited. You should formally cite a reference any time you
mention someone else‘s ideas. Employ the ―in text‖ reference system. (click here for link to
York University Libraries Style & Writer's Guide information) (scroll up to Style & Writers'
Guide section)
http://info.library.yorku.ca/depts/ref/refweb.htm#Style%20&%20Writers%27%20Manuals
 A revised version of both your presentation in the seminars could be included in your term
paper.
 Photocopy your essay. Keep a copy for your own files

A useful source:

A Guide to Writing Sociology Papers -- by Sociology Writing Group; Paperback NewYork:


Worth Publishers, 2001

Organizing an Essay- Some basic guidelines

The best time to think about how to organize your paper is during the pre-writing stage,
not the writing or revising stage. A well-thought-out plan can save you from having to do a lot of
reorganizing when the first draft is completed. Moreover, it allows you to pay more attention to
sentence-level issues when you sit down to write your paper. When you begin planning, ask the
following questions: What type of essay am I going to be writing? Does it belong to a specific
genre? In university, you may be asked to write, say, a book review, a lab report, a document
study, or a compare-and-contrast essay. Knowing the patterns of reasoning associated with a
genre can help you to structure your essay.
For example, book reviews typically begin with a summary of the book you're reviewing.
They then often move on to a critical discussion of the book's strengths and weaknesses. They
may conclude with an overall assessment of the value of the book. These typical features of a
book review lead you to consider dividing your outline into three parts: (1) summary; (2)
discussion of strengths and weaknesses; (3) overall evaluation. The second and most substantial
part will likely break down into two sub-parts. It is up to you to decide the order of the two
subparts-whether to analyze strengths or weaknesses first. And of course it will be up to you to
come up with actual strengths and weaknesses.
Be aware that genres are not fixed. Different professors will define the features of a genre
differently. Read the assignment question carefully for guidance. Understanding genre can take
you only so far. Most university essays are argumentative, and there is no set pattern for the
shape of an argumentative essay. The simple three-point essay taught in high school is far too
restrictive for the complexities of most university assignments. You must be ready to come up
with whatever essay structure helps you to convince your reader of the validity of your position.
In other words, you must be flexible, and you must rely on your wits. Each essay presents a fresh
problem.
Avoiding a common pitfall
Though there are no easy formulas for generating an outline, you can avoid one of the
most common pitfalls in student papers by remembering this simple principle: the structure of an
essay should not be determined by the structure of its source material. For example, an essay on
an historical period should not necessarily follow the chronology of events from that period.
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Similarly, a well-constructed essay about a literary work does not usually progress in parallel
with the plot. Your obligation is to advance your argument, not to reproduce the plot.
If your essay is not well structured, then its overall weaknesses will show through in the
individual paragraphs. Consider the following two paragraphs from two different English essays,
both arguing that despite Hamlet's highly developed moral nature he becomes morally
compromised in the course of the play:
(a) In Act 3, Scene 4, Polonius hides behind an arras in Gertrude's chamber in order to spy on
Hamlet at the bidding of the king. Detecting something stirring, Hamlet draws his sword and
kills Polonius, thinking he has killed Claudius. Gertrude exclaims, "O, what a rash and bloody
deed is this!" (28), and her words mark the turning point in Hamlet's moral decline. Now Hamlet
has blood on his hands, and the blood of the wrong person. But rather than engage in self-
criticism, Hamlet immediately turns his mother's words against her: "A bloody deed - almost as
bad, good Mother, as kill a king, and marry with his brother" (29-30). One of Hamlet's most
serious shortcomings is his unfair treatment of women. He often accuses them of sins they could
not have committed. It is doubtful that Gertrude even knows Claudius killed her previous
husband. Hamlet goes on to ask Gertrude to compare the image of the two kings, old Hamlet and
Claudius. In Hamlet's words, old Hamlet has "Hyperion's curls," the front of Jove," and "an eye
like Mars" (57-58). Despite Hamlet's unfair treatment of women, he is motivated by one of his
better qualities: his idealism.
(b) One of Hamlet's most serious moral shortcomings is his unfair treatment of women. In Act 3,
Scene 1, he denies to Ophelia ever having expressed his love for her, using his feigned madness
as cover for his cruelty. Though his rantings may be an act, they cannot hide his obsessive anger
at one particular woman: his mother. He counsels Ophelia to "marry a fool, for wise men know
well enough what monsters you make of them" (139-41), thus blaming her in advance for the sin
of adultery.
The logic is plain: if Hamlet's mother made a cuckold out of Hamlet's father, then all
women are capable of doing the same and therefore share the blame. The fact that Gertrude's
hasty remarriage does not actually constitute adultery only underscores Hamlet's tendency to find
in women faults that do not exist. In Act 3, Scene 4, he goes as far as to suggest that Gertrude
shared responsibility in the murder of Hamlet's father (29-30). By condemning women for
actions they did not commit, Hamlet is doing just what he accuses Guildenstern of doing to him:
he is plucking out the "heart" of their "mystery" (3.2.372-74).
The second of these two paragraphs is much stronger, largely because it is not plot-driven. It
makes a well-defined point about Hamlet's moral nature and sticks to that point throughout the
paragraph. Notice that the paragraph jumps from one scene to another as is necessary, but the
logic of the argument moves along a steady path. At any given point in your essays, you will
want to leave yourself free to go wherever you need to in your source material. Your only
obligation is to further your argument. Paragraph (a) sticks closely to the narrative thread of Act
3, Scene 4, and as a result the paragraph makes several different points with no clear focus.

What does an essay outline look like?


Most essay outlines will never be handed in. They are meant to serve you and no one
else. Occasionally, your professor will ask you to hand in an outline weeks prior to handing in
your paper. Usually, the point is to ensure that you are on the right track. Nevertheless, when you
produce your outline, you should follow certain basic principles.
Here is an example of an outline for an essay on Hamlet:
Thesis: Despite Hamlet's highly developed moral nature, he becomes morally compromised
while delaying his revenge.
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I. Introduction: Hamlet's father asks Hamlet not only to seek vengeance but also to keep his mind
untainted.
II. Hamlet has a highly developed moral nature.
A. Hamlet is idealistic.
B. Hamlet is aware of his own faults, whereas others are self-satisfied.
C. Hamlet does not want to take revenge without grounds for acting.
III. Hamlet becomes morally compromised while delaying.
A. The turning point in Hamlet's moral decline is his killing of Polonius.
B. Hamlet's moral decline continues when he sends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to their death.
C. Hamlet already began his moral decline before the turning point in the play, the killing of
Polonius.
1. Hamlet treats women badly.
2. Hamlet criticizes others in the play for acting falsely to get ahead, but in adopting the disguise
of madness he, too, is presenting a false face to the world.
IV. Though Hamlet becomes more compromised the longer he delays, killing the king would
have been a morally questionable act.
V. Conclusion: The play Hamlet questions the adequacy of a system of ethics based on honour
and revenge. This is an example of a sentence outline. Another kind of outline is the topic
outline. It consists of fragments rather than full sentences. Topic outlines are more open-ended
than sentence outlines: they leave much of the working out of the argument for the writing stage.
When should I begin putting together a plan?
The earlier you begin planning, the better. It is usually a mistake to do all of your research and
note-taking before beginning to draw up an outline. Of course, you will have to do some reading
and weighing of evidence before you start to plan. But as a potential argument begins to take
shape in your mind, you may start to formalize your thoughts in the form of a tentative plan. You
will be much more efficient in your reading and your research if you have some idea of where
your argument is headed. You can then search for evidence for the points in your tentative plan
while you are reading and researching. As you gather evidence, those points that still lack
evidence should guide you in your research. Remember, though, that your plan may need to be
modified as you critically evaluate your evidence.
Some techniques for integrating note-taking and planning
Though convenient, the common method of jotting down your notes consecutively on paper is
far from ideal. The problem is that your points remain fixed on paper. Here are three alternatives
that provide greater flexibility:
Method 1: index cards
When you are researching, write down every idea, fact, quotation, or paraphrase on a separate
index card. Small (5" by 3") cards are easiest to work with. When you've collected all your cards,
reshuffle them into the best possible order, and you have an outline, though you will undoubtedly
want to reduce this outline to the essential points should you transcribe it to paper.
A useful alternative involves using both white and coloured cards. When you come up with a
point that you think may be one of the main points in your outline, write it at the top of a
coloured card. Put each supporting note on a separate white card, using as much of the card as
necessary. When you feel ready, arrange the coloured cards into a workable plan. Some of the
points may not fit in. If so, either modify the plan or leave these points out. You may need to fill
gaps by creating new cards. You can shuffle your supporting material into the plan by placing
each of the white cards behind the point it helps support.
Method 2: the computer

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A different way of moving your notes around is to use the computer. You can collect your points
consecutively, just as you would on paper. You can then sort your ideas when you are ready to
start planning. Take advantage of "outline view" in Word, which makes it easy for you to arrange
your points hierarchically. This method is fine so long as you don't mind being tied to your
computer from the first stage of the writing process to the last. Some people prefer to keep their
planning low-tech.
Method 3: the circle method
This method is designed to get your ideas onto a single page, where you can see them all at once.
When you have an idea, write it down on paper and draw a circle around it. When you have an
idea which supports another idea, do the same, but connect the two circles with a line.
Supporting source material can be represented concisely by a page reference inside a circle. The
advantage of the circle method is that you can see at a glance how things tie together; the
disadvantage is that there is a limit to how much material you can cram onto a page.
Here is part of a circle diagram:
http://www.utoronto.ca/writing/circlediagram.gif
http://www.utoronto.ca/writing/organizing.html

What is a reverse outline?


When you have completed your first draft, and you think your paper can be better
organized, consider using a reverse outline. Reverse outlines are simple to create. Just read
through your essay, and every time you make a new point, summarize it in the margin. If the
essay is reasonably well-organized, you should have one point in the margin for each paragraph,
and your points read out in order should form a coherent argument. You might, however,
discover that some of your points are repeated at various places in your essay. Other points may
be out of place, and still other key points may not appear at all. Think of all these points as the
ingredients of an improved outline which you now must create. Use this new outline to cut and
paste the sentences into a revised version of your essay, consolidating points that appear in
several parts of your essay while eliminating repetition and creating smooth transitions where
necessary. You can improve even the most carefully planned essay by creating a reverse outline
after completing your first draft. The process of revision should be as much about organization as
it is about style.

How much of my time should I put into planning?


It is self-evident that a well-planned paper is going to be better organized than a paper
that was not planned out. Thinking carefully about how you are going to argue your paper and
preparing an outline can only add to the quality of your final product. Nevertheless, some people
find it more helpful than others to plan. Those who are good at coming up with ideas but find
writing difficult often benefit from planning. By contrast, those who have trouble generating
ideas but find writing easy may benefit from starting to write early. Putting pen to paper (or
typing away at the keyboard) may be just what is needed to get the ideas to flow.
You have to find out for yourself what works best for you, though it is fair to say that at least
some planning is always a good idea. Think about whether your current practices are serving you
well. You know you're planning too little if the first draft of your essays is always a disorganized
mess, and you have to spend a disproportionate amount of time creating reverse outlines and
cutting and pasting material. You know you're planning too much if you always find yourself
writing your paper a day before it's due after spending weeks doing research and devising
elaborate plans.
Be aware of the implications of planning too little or too much.
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Planning provides the following advantages:
helps you to produce a logical and orderly argument that your readers can follow helps you to
produce an economical paper by allowing you to spot repetition helps you to produce a thorough
paper by making it easier for you to notice whether you have left anything out makes drafting the
paper easier by allowing you to concentrate on writing issues such as grammar, word choice, and
clarity
Overplanning poses the following risks: doesn't leave you enough time to write and revise
leads you to produce papers that try to cover too much ground at the expense of analytic depth
can result in a writing style that lacks spontaneity and ease does not provide enough opportunity
to discover new ideas in the process of writing

Thanks to Jerry Plotnick, Director, University College Writing Workshop, University of Toronto
who is written for students.

More specific Essay Guideline for Social Theory, Change or Politics

Thanks to Professor Reza Rahbarir for providing this useful guideline.

1. The objectives:

The essay will discuss two or more theories (e.g. Marxism, Neo-Marxism, Durkheim, Weber and
Symbolic Interaction views) and then critique the theory or the theories in general terms. Next
the essay will apply the theories to one specific cultural or political topic and then assess the
adequacy of the account of the theories. This assessment of adequacy should reflect the general
critique of the theories.

2. The topics:

Here is a list of topics that may assist you in choosing one for your essay. Please note that this
list is meant only as a guideline and you may propose other topics as long as their relevance for
this course is clearly described. What is essential, however, is that you elaborate a critical
analysis of the theories in relation to the topic you have chosen:

Capitalism and the education system,


Mass Media, popular culture (music, TV, culture industry, fiction and literature)
The culture of University students, Bureaucracy and Education, Suicide,
Consumerism, Commodification of Beauty, Aesthetics (the judgment of beauty and tatse)
The origin, development and consequences of modern capitalist societies
The role of religion, ideas or morality in social life,
The major characteristics of modern societies
Crime Policies, Criminal subcultures
Gender Inequality, gender differences,
Alienation in the Work Place,
The formation of the nation-state, the role of the state in modern societies
Cultural and political globalization,

3. Research Plan:
12
Once you identified your topic start doing a research. This entails first finding some good
research material on your topic. Check the library and the library website (e.g. the journal
articles) for this purpose. Examine the bibliography sections of books and articles. This may give
you a rough idea as to the amount of information available on your topic. This section can be
completed by a review of 3-5 scholarly publications (such as Journal articles).
At this point decide whether you have reading material on these topics. For this is another thing
to keep in mind in choosing the topic. Make sure there is sufficient information (articles and
books) about your topic. .
Decide which theory or theories you want to apply to the topic. You could ask me to help you
find theories that best fit your topic.
Once you have selected a topic and theories you are ready to begin developing your thesis
statement. A thesis statement is defined as the main point of your paper. It is a declaration or
statement of what you intend to prove about a topic, i.e. the strength and the weaknesses of the
theory or the theories in explaining the topic.
For instance, your may assess the strength and weaknesses of Marx‘s concept of alienation in
explaining the university students‘ experience. The best way to proceed is to, first; outline the
major points made against and in favor of Marx‘s idea of alienation.
Then make your mind about which one makes more sense to you in relation to your own and or
other students‘ experience. This would constitute your hypothesis.
The other way is to compare/contrast two theories. For instance say you may find Marx‘s theory
on the student alienation, or the origin of capitalism to be more convincing than Durkheim or
Weber‘s. This would be the hypothesis that you would substantiate in your research.

Write a brief outline of the research: the order in which the discussion will proceed which
clarifies the structure of your work and outlines what it will cover. Please try to narrow it down,
and keep in mind that this is a short paper. You could do it if you had an idea or hypothesis
concerning the topic (step 3 above)

A useful source:

A Guide to Writing Sociology Papers -- by Sociology Writing Group; Paperback NewYork:


Worth Publishers, 2001

4. Format:

The final format of your paper [its different parts] should look like this:

Introduction: An introduction, usually in the form of one or two paragraphs, tells the reader what
the essay is about. It outlines the topic and the specific ideas that are going to be presented in the
essay. It should give the reader an idea as to why the topic is interesting and why it has been
selected. By the end of the second paragraph it is essential that you have told the reader what the
purpose of your paper is and what your central argument / thesis is. If you read the first two
paragraphs of your paper and the goals and purpose of the paper are not very clear, please revise.
Often what happens is the first general idea you want to work out in the essay becomes clearer
and more refined in the writing of the essay, so you want to go back to the introduction and make
sure it precisely reflects what has been written later on. I would also suggest a ―map‖ paragraph

13
at the end of the introduction that tells the reader where we will be going in the paper. (For
example, ―I first explain….then argue….by presenting evidence about three themes….‖)
Please avoid writing longwinded and vague statements such as ―culture is an essential element of
human societies‖ in the introduction
The analytic section: contains your literature review, discussion and analysis. In this section
present and develop your argument by providing several distinct pieces of information / evidence
in support of it. Make sure that paragraphs are organized in a logical and coherent order.
Transition sentences, or sentences that link one paragraph to another, are very helpful for
reminding the reader of what has already been presented, and for introducing the reader to the
next idea or set of ideas that is coming up.
Conclusion: in which you sum up the main point(s) of your analysis. A conclusion, usually in the
form of one or two paragraphs, sums up the ideas and findings in the essay. Briefly summarize
your argument here and think about what the implications of your argument are more broadly. If
your findings raise questions about other topics covered in this class, please make those
connections briefly here. If you have concluded, after writing this paper, that you want to know
more about your topic, explain what the next steps might be. etc. After finishing their first draft,
most people need to take the conclusion to their paper and use it to rewrite their introduction!

Bibliography
The paper must list all references cited. You should formally cite a reference any time you
mention someone else‘s ideas. Employ the ―in text‖ reference system. (click here for link to
York University Libraries Style & Writer's Guide information) (scroll up to Style & Writers'
Guide section)
http://info.library.yorku.ca/depts/ref/refweb.htm#Style%20&%20Writers%27%20Manuals_

5. General Instructions:

Your paper must be approximately 10 typed, double-spaced pages.


Photocopy your essay. Keep a copy for your own files

6. Evaluation:

Grading Scheme:

Theory: Explanation and Critique 30%


Topic: 25%
Theory/Topic Application 25%
Writing (Grammar, References, Style, Structure) 20%

Guide to Essay Assessment

Below are key questions which guide the assessment of your essay:

1. Structure and Quality of Argument


Is the essay outline/plan stated in the introduction?
Is the overall structure of the argument clear and coherent?
Are the points made in a logical sequence?
Is there a conclusion?
14
Is the conclusion adequately supported by the preceding argument?

2. Use of Evidence
Are the points made supported by evidence from cited sources?
Are the sources drawn on sufficient and appropriate?
Is the interpretation of the evidence presented appropriately qualified (i.e. avoiding
overgeneralisations and sweeping statements)?

3. Contents
Does the student have an argument?
Is the argument adequately backed up rather than just asserted?
Has the student researched the topic sufficiently?
Are there any important omissions?
Has the student thought about what they have read or simply reproduced material from sources?
Is there evidence of critical thinking or an original synthesis?
Has the student gone beyond the essential reading?

4. Writing and Presentation Skills


Is the essay referenced correctly?
Is the essay fluent and readable?
Is the grammar and spelling adequate?
Has the writer made an effort to use their own words?

Criteria for essay classification

85-100%
Work that shows an excellent and thorough, though not necessarily faultless, command of the
subject in question, a broad reading around the topic, together with elements of originality in
thought and extent of knowledge acquired.
The essay will have a clear structure with a coherent argument.
The standard of English will be good with few errors of spelling or grammar. The essay will be
well-presented and properly referenced.
Essays in this band will be exciting and stand out from most others.
Students may have taken a risk and gone out on a limb to make a point or challenge an accepted
position.
The argument will be backed up by theory and/or evidence.
The essay will show maturity, flair and confidence.
A mark over 80% will be for work of exceptional quality that shows an excellent command of
the subject in question and originality. It will be outstanding work.
75-85%
Work that shows an above average command of the subject in question, possessing qualities of
thoroughness, conscientiousness, and insight.
Students will have read a diversity of material and show a clear understanding of it.
All important material on the topic will be covered and the essay will be clearly structured,
clearly written and well presented.
The student will have thought about the topic and not just reproduced arguments.

15
Marks at the higher end of this band will show confidence in handling complex material. There
should be no major omissions in coverage, nor any significant errors of understanding or
interpretation.
The standard of English, spelling and grammar should be good.
Evidence and theoretical argument should be handled with ease.
All sources will be properly cited.
65-75%
Work that reveals that the student has acquired a basic command of the material covered in the
course.
Essays should show that the student has read the basic material and understood it.
There should be a proper bibliography and referencing.
There may be signs of weakness, such as confusion over complex issues, or minor
misinterpretation of evidence, but the overall grasp should be sound.
The essay will be reasonably structured and coherent.
Heavy reliance on one source should have been avoided.
Essays in this band will be competent but lack liveliness or the student‘s own thinking well
grounded.
The standard of English should be competent, although problems in spelling or grammar may be
tolerated provided they do not affect intelligibility.

50-65%
Work that shows some understanding of the material covered in the course, but of a poor quality
and with elements of misunderstanding and lack of thoroughness.
Only basic reading may have been done, with little appreciation of the subtlety of debates or
different interpretations of evidence.
The essay will have a basic understanding but will not go beyond this and there may be
confusion about complex material.
The standard of English may be weak but the essay should make sense and have structure.
Material may be poorly referenced.
Below 50%
Work that fails to come up to the standard expected of university students admitted to an honours
degree.
Essays in this category may be short or jumbled or derivative.
Students will not have done much reading.
There will be no clear argument and opinions will be unsubstantiated.
The English may be weak.
Significant issues will have been neglected and there will be little appreciation of complexity or
subtlety.
Failed work will show little or no understanding of the material covered.

16
Chapter 1

New Paradigms in the Turkish Foreign Policy

The Turkish Economic Miracle: “Zero Enemy Politics,” “Mutually Beneficial


Economic Developments” and “Human-centered Universal Moralities”

Abstract:

Turkey has had an open horizon since 2002, which claims to have the second biggest rate
of economic growth after China, and which yet keeps expanding by foreign trade, innovation
made within foreign policy, democratization at home and peace between neighbours. This is a
new social imagery, geo-political imagination and paradigm that is emerging along with
resurrection far beyond Turkey‘s national borders. Turkey offers a democratic, main-stream,
flexible, workable and soluble model which collaborates with economical, cultural and foreign
politics—and then assumes Turkish influence as the sole mediator in the Islamic and non-
Muslim world by presenting evidence about three themes that will discuss whether the Turkish
economic miracle can provide effective and durable ―zero enemy politics‖ and promise
sustainable ―mutually beneficial economic developments,‖ whereby the Turkish collective social
altruism approach enforces the transmission of sustainable, durable and transferable universal
human values to other nations.

Key Words: Zero Enemy, Paradigm, Collective Action, Social Altruism, Human-
centred, Universal, Neo-Marxist, Weberian

Introduction

A system of economic global interconnectedness, the system and culture of capitalism


and technological interdependence, has taken over what we used to call society. ―There is no one
in charge‖ or claim to the sole ownership of wrongdoing or control over self-regulating cultural,
economic or political catastrophes (Friedman, 1999). Neither the developed countries from the
West nor the third world countries from the ―Rest‖ (Kalın, 2010) are providing a sustainable
solution to either of these problems. What are the elements of the global problems called
‗catastrophe?‘ Is it the lack of mutual understanding, poverty and cultural polarization? Richard
H. Robbins (2008) mentions in his book ‗Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism‘ that
the culture of capitalism and economic perpetual growth has been redeeming the whole society
and its values for centuries as 1.2 billion people are estimated to still live on less than one dollar,
where near 3 billion are on less than two dollars per day, and 1,500 children die per hour from
inadequate food and diseases, whereas world hunger and famine is not caused by overpopulation
or insufficient food production (Robbins 2008). Humanity has never been active and dynamic
before as it is today, although humans cause hunger, famine, disease, pollution and have messed
up current inhabitation and the future of our planet. Since the 1990s, multinational corporations
(MNCs) have been weakening the nation-states which were created in the twentieth century
artificially and that triggered the notion of fascism, nationalism, imperialism and colonialism as
with playing roles in the function of the nation-state in the growth of the culture of capitalism,
which caused to be killed 170 million of the human population and violated human rights
(Robbins, 2008). However, the recent rising economies of the world such as those of China,
17
India, Turkey and Brazil, and such countries have invited MNCs capitals into their economies to
meet their economic growth goals to alter the US dominant cultural, economic, military and
political superiority in peripheral countries. I will first explain Turkey‘s continual power
growth—and its economy, culture and foreign politics—and then argue of Turkish influence as
the sole mediator in the Islamic and non-Muslim world by presenting evidence about three
themes that will discuss whether the Turkish economic miracle can provide effective and durable
―zero enemy politics,‖ promise sustainable ―mutually beneficial economic developments,‖ and
whether the Turkish-originated ―Hizmet (Gülen) Movement‖ can promote transferable ―human
centred universal moralities‖ through a non-political, non-violent and civil, international
collective action.

Turkey‟s Zero Enemy Politics

As agreed with an American Stratfor CEO, the political scientist George Friedman (2009)
claimed in his book named ―21. Century Belongs to Turkey, USA, Poland, Japan and Mexico‖
that ―as Turkey‘s power grows—and its economy and military are already the most powerful in
the region—so will Turkish influence as the sole mediator in the Islamic world that could bring
peace to the Middle East‖ (Friedman, 2009 ). Is this prediction true, or is utopia or serving the
global capitalists‘ endeavours? In fact, Turkey is still very much the production of Kemal
Ataturk who sought a Western-oriented, secular, modernizing state which avoided foreign
adventures or territorial claims, whereas within the 1920s what Ataturk sought was one united
country centred on Turkish people-hood, a unitary and highly centralized state (Rubin, 2008).
The Turkish republic banned Islam from public life and changed the previous Arabic alphabet to
the Latin alphabet since the 1920s. Up until the 1990s, the Turks had behaved like renters who
had troubles with all of their neighbours. Today, by contrast, Turkey can boast good relations
between almost all of the countries in the region surrounding it—with the sole exception of
Armenia (Hermann, 2006). Turkish Muslims have been democratizing a rigid, nationalist,
Jacobean top-down laicise state doctrine inside out among their country‘s mentality, for
example, in their fight for a greater freedom of speech while promoting the British style, which
is a soft, anti-authoritarian, oppressive- free, and bottom-up secularism which offers a clear
religion and state separation. Harun Siddique , a Toronto Star columnist, mentioned that the
Prime Minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has acknowledged that Turkey, during its
―fascist‖ past, did ―ethnically cleanse its minorities,‖ and that his own ruling Justice and
Development Party (AKP) got ―trapped in this wrong approach‖ (Siddique, 2010) and Siddique
continued in his article that Turkey has been within the normalization of relations with its own
Kurdish minority of about 14 million, having begun the process of recognizing the linguistic and
cultural rights of Turkish Kurds (Siddique, 2010).

Turkish counter mobilizations and their outsider allies disagree with and assume
Turkey‘s stance as still a puppet of the West, as the AKP sold the country out to the MNCs and
the global power of the US. Furthermore, Nergis Canefe (2002) claimed that the history of
modern, patriotic Turkish nationalism is still contested, and Canefe offered a debate based on a
critic evaluation of the myths and symbols of Turkish identity within the larger context and the
time frame of the Ottoman Turkish history, which was the ethnic model of nation building
explained through territorialisation and institutionalization processes, and Canefe alarmed a
notion of amnesia, finding myths beyond the realm of state control (Canefe, 1998). Ernest
Gellner drew the connection between nation building, education, and economic integration
(Robbins, 2008) in the 20th century, which was related and similar to the Turkish nation-state
18
formation. Nation states were constructed because there were political and economical problems,
and the lack of integration among institutions and elite groups, whereas the Turkish nation-state
was formed to maintain social order and allow social growth and development through
mandatory education (Rahbari, 2010). This paradigm has shifted from the incomplete old
structural nationalistic, insufficient model to a new democratic and modern paradigm.

As matter of fact, Ahmet Davutoglu, who has been the foreign minister of Turkey since
May 2009 and AKP‘s policy advisor since November 2002, wrote a book about foreign policy
entitled ―Strategic Depth‖ when he was a university professor, which proposed a vision of zero
enemy politics and new relationships with Turkey‘s neighbours, as he admitted to the Ottoman
past and reinterpreted Turkey‘s mission and interest worldwide as a global mediator and peace
maker. Ekrem Eddy Güzeldere (2009) explored the wisdom of Davudoglu as Turkey‘s
geographical, historical and geostrategic positions provided and demanded a foreign policy that
is forward- looking, proactive, innovative and ultimately multifaceted, and which is for the first
time independent from the US and the European Union (Güzeldere, 2009). ‗The Strategic Depth‘
and Zero Enemy politics provide many dialogue platforms and step toward the solution of
conflicts and serve the economic interest of all participants. For example, Turkey opposed the
sanction against Iran and stood up against the US and Israel for its economic interests. The
eastern region of the Turkish economy and its population depends on billions of dollars from the
informal economy between Iran and Turkey which it cannot compromise to lose. In addition,
almost half of the Iranian population is of Turkish origin and must be protected, and Turkey has
been buying energy resources from Iran which meet the crucial needs for its economic growth.

Siddique analyzed the hot topic on Iran differently, saying that ―Turkey shares American,
Israeli and Arab fears about Tehran‘s nuclear ambitions; however, it feels that multilateral
economic sanctions would not work, just as the unilateral American sanctions have not in the last
31 years‖ (Siddique, 2010). Political and economic interests always go hand in hand whereby
their relationships should be mutually beneficial for both sides, otherwise a one-sided interest is
seen as colonial and imperialistic. As a matter of fact, before the appearance of a Western
ideology called nationalism at the end of the 18th century, the Ottoman Empire was multi-
religious and multinational. One of the most successful examples of religious tolerance and
coexistence in history was the Ottoman administration. Ottomans did not compel anyone by
force, nor make them assimilate (Kitsikis, 2009). Using this vision, Turkey now offers a new
mutually beneficial economic development model with an efficient and unavoidable system
without mentioning the period of the Ottomans.

The Mutually Beneficial Economic Development Model

Turkey is a nation of 73 million and has the second largest army in NATO after the U.S.
Its economy was booming at 6-7 per cent a year until the global financial crisis in 2008 and is
back on track with a 3.5 per cent growth in 2010. It has the world's seventeenth largest economy,
the seventh largest within Europe and the largest in the Muslim world as in annual GDP: nearly
$700 billion vs. Canada's $1 trillion (Siddique, 2010). The recent economic recession didn‘t
significantly hit the Turkish formal economy because a well structured and controlled Turkish
state owned the banking system that has been well-established since the 2000 and 2001 bank
crises with the help of the IMF agreement as similar to many developing countries, while the
government still owns one in third of the public sector, despite privatisation efforts since the
1990s. Turkey has rejected the IMF‘s proposal and billion dollar loans since 2008 that were
19
offered by the Structural Adjustment Program‘s implications. This decision proves that the
Turkish bank system is improving. The financial systems imposed by NAFTA, the WTO, WB
and IMF are supposed to decrease inequality and exploitation, although they were even more
diminished because these institutions established to serve Americanization in advance. Within
the recent 2008 Economic Recession, a new liberal globalization was again restructured over the
accumulation problem, and ―a new landscape to accommodate both endless accumulation and
political power‖ continues to be an important phase and transaction between capitalists and wage
labour (Harvey, 2005). The IMF has always been favouring the interest of creditors and rich
elites rather than workers, peasants and other poor people (Friedman, 1999). In addition, the IMF
and Turkish relationship has always been controversial. Zeynep Önder and Suheyla Özyıldırım
(2010) had studied how the role of financial institutions, either stated-owned or private banks, in
the regional growth played significantly, impacted the financial growth of Turkey as the perfect
form of mobility for the national economy, and reduced economic disparity between regions at
the micro level, yet more public investments are needed (Önder, Özyıldırım, 2010).

Turkish exportation has been increased fivefold since 2002 because of the establishment
of a new relationship between Turkey and the Muslim world, especially with the Arabs that were
involved in its economic front. Inexpensive upscale consumer products "Made in Turkey" have
conquered Arab, Asian and African markets: from jeans and cookies to televisions sets and
refrigerators, which has helped to remove the image of the "ugly Turk." Nevertheless, up until
2002, Arab news stations hardly reported at all on Turkey, and when they did so, it was only to
cast aspersions on Ankara's relations with Israel. Almost daily, Arab stations give their viewers
updates on the latest political reforms in Ankara and the economic upswing in Istanbul
(Hermann, 2006). Siddique clarified the current conditions saying that ―Turkey has reached out
to Africa to grow its $10 billion year trade with the continent. All African countries had one vote
for Turkish membership in the UN Security Council in 2009‖ (Siddique, 2010).

Turkey has attracted billions of dollars worth of foreign investments from Arab, Asian,
African and European countries, American and Chinese government companies, and also from
such countries‘ MNCs, although this wide-scale international trade has never before been seen as
it was the result of successfully implemented foreign policy and the mutually beneficial
economic development model. Some of the principles and assumptions of ideology of the
emerging culture of capitalism, known as neoclassical, neoliberal and libertarian economics,
market capitalism, or market liberalism, include privatization, which moves functions and assets
from governments to the private sector, improves efficiency and free markets, is unrestrained by
the government, and is generally the result of the most efficient and socially optimal allocation
of resources, as the primary responsibility of the government is to provide for the infrastructure
and enforce the rules of law (Rahbari, 2010). Despite all of this what about human rights
moralities, universal values and the enforcement of human rights? These are important to
complete a new paradigm of the Turkish miracle, if it can exist.

Discovering the Kurdish trauma

Turkey offers a new paradigm to the old world (the Western civilization) which may
challenge the new future because the Third World Countries will seek justice, happiness and
equality through Turkey‘s miracle model of ―zero enemy politics‖ and ―mutually beneficial
economic developments‖. Nation-states and global hegemonic power under the culture of
capitalism influence and globalize, and have erased the official histories of many nations and
20
ethics communities in which concerns the memory of the past in their project for progress
through enlightenment, rationalization and market freedom, and so forth. New media
technologies allow discovering the past which is remembered in unprecedented pace and
volume, for instance Kurdish rights, and at the same time trivialized/forgotten. This is a new
paradigm that history is not as linear as progress, moving in the direction of liberation from the
past, present, and future, and many historians have no longer seen history as a chronology with
only the aggregation of facts, dates or individual history, in which the psychological life cycle of
individuals is created by a small, elite group. History is a social construction and many official
national histories and nations are imagined communities and structured to ossify the past and
block our understanding of historical truth for the sake of the continuity of society. Truth is
imposed by society; history is a fabrication and selection in the form of memory. Society creates
a total fiction of history. History is malleable, changeable or only certain facts can change. This
new paradigm offers multiple voices that invoke a site of dispute in public space, disable a fake
continuity, official narrative and organic solidarity. The contestation of the official state and its
invented history has become a failure, as the ordinary citizen has invented new morality,
universal values, and utilitarian approaches which turn individual trauma to collective trauma
such as Kurdish trauma. Trauma is functional to the society to build the collective consciousness
and show how citizens are valued members. New paradigm rebuilds and unifies the Turkey‘s
future stronger in a democratic way and repairs the damages, while discussion may lead to both
parties being able to live together and to resume political, commercial, and cultural interaction.
In conclusion, the Western civilization, for losing its monopoly, is now on the decline in
the near future of the world, although its monopoly has been maintained since the 17th century
through financial capitalism. Since communism had collapsed beyond the shadow of the Soviet
Union in the 1990s, socialism has become a dead ideology, left out in Marxist‘s idea of a so-
called ―Utopian,‖ whereas Weberian modernity can no longer deliver what it had promised
during its beginning: the freedom of individuals, a rational society and steady scientific progress
towards an infinite horizon (Kalın, 2010). It is clear that ―Globalization is Americanization‖ as a
hegemonic power (Friedman, 1999), which caused inequality, poverty and injustice all over the
world, while the global economy and globalization dangerously depend on a ―US based recovery
of consumerism‖ as the hegemonic power claimed that the world‘s economic crisis and recession
will be solved only within the Americanization context (Harvey, 2005). Marxist‘s thesis
concerns ―the crisis tendencies of capitalism‖ which emerges from under consumption, whereas
the general sufficient effective demand now hits every one of our daily lives (Luxemburg, 1968).
Capitalism and democracy, free markets and free people, do not go hand in hand; in contrast,
America‘s ―free market‖ policies have come to dominate the world through the exploitation of
disaster, shocking people and countries through there stages: swift regime change, changes to the
economy and the repression of opponents (Klein, 2007). The ―capitalistic theory of class
struggle, democracy, and the Communism Manifesto‖ has become irrelevant because of over
accumulation (Marx, Engels, 1986). In this case, globalization, capitalism and neo-liberalism are
restructuring the world economy through a financialization that cannot be an escape route either.
Despite this, Turkey offers a new paradigm to the old world (the Western civilization) which
may challenge the new future because the Third World Countries will seek justice, happiness and
equality through Turkey‘s miracle model of ―zero enemy politics,‖ ―mutually beneficial
economic developments‖ and ―human centred universal moralities‖ offered by the Turkish
originated ―Hizmet Movement.‖ Neo-liberal and MNCs policies and globalism are still
questionable because the culture of American consumerism has already been invading Turkey
for over three decades. The consumption culture of capitalism leads to the increase of both the
21
economic growth and destruction within the Turkish miracle, but the new Turkish model offers
social altruism to alter any capitalist approach into becoming an escape route.
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Nation-State in the Culture of Capitalism, Hunger, Poverty and Economic Development,
Religion and Anti-systemic Protest, Pearson Publisher, p 106, 107, 155, 156, 313
Saritoprak, Zeki. (2007). Fethullah Gülen and His Global Contribution to Peace Building.
"Muslim World in Transition: Contributions of the Gülen Movement" was held at SOAS
University of London, House of Lords and London School of Economics on 25-27 October, 2007.
Siddique, Haroon. (2010). New Middle East hinges on Turkey. The Toronto Star, published on
Jun 19, 2010, accessed on http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/825870--siddiqui-new-
middle-east-hinges-on-turkey?bn=1
Turam, Berna. (2001). ―Between Islam and the State: The Engagements between Gulen
Community and the Secular Turkish State‖, unpublished PhD in McGill University., p i
Weber, Max. 1930. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism‖ in The Protestant Ethic
and the Spirit of Capitalism, pp 67-77.

23
Chapter 2

The Holocaust: The Site of Memory, Site of Contestation and Collective


Consciousness

Abstract:

Shared and conflicted individual, collective, official and public past memories challenge
the notion of Truth, the notion of authenticity and of modernism as a memory which is a social
construction in the present. The legitimating of history process occurs under the power of politics
with the use of ritualization, relativization and symbolization when building the collective
consciousness that turns an object memory to the site memory in having the contestation of
group identity or counter memory. Many official histories have been created through fabrication
and selections from the past for the social framing of the national consciousness as a model for
society in the cultural system for continuity of solidarity. Historical remembrance shows whose
history is written for whose benefit and is recorded with discursive ways of understanding one‘s
own history, although ignoring other mysteries. The memory becomes a metaphor with
narratives, whereas sites of memory become the sites of second-order memory where people
remember others at particular places and how they were victimized. This socio-historical
research will explore the ethnic politics of the remembrance and amnesia of Jews in the
Holocaust, which can be understood within the context of a particular dialectic of memory and
how it has become the ―site of memory,‖ ―site of contestation‖ and ―collective consciousness‖
that provides information from the past to the present and reconstructs our responsibilities and
leads the malleability of history.
Key Words: Holocaust, Memory, Contestation, Consciousness, Reparation,
Reconciliation, Forgiveness

Introduction
Many scholars agreed on the concept that past memories shape the future but adapt to the
new environment in utilitarian morality in modernity. History is not a linear process and many
official histories are constructed by the dominant political power which has shifted from
ideology to images in memorials, museums and monuments, although shared and conflicted
individual, collective, official and public memories challenge the notion of Truth, authenticity
and modernism as memory is a social construction in the present. Nation-states and global
hegemonic power under the culture of capitalism influence and globalize, and have erased the
official histories of many nations and ethics communities in which concerns the memory of the
past in their project for progress through enlightenment, rationalization and market freedom, and
so forth. New media technologies allow discovering the past which is remembered in
unprecedented pace and volume, and at the same time trivialized/forgotten. Furthermore, a
successful process of collective representation provides some answers to how the nature of the
pains actually happened; what really was the nature of the victims; where and when the
traumatized victims had become related to the wider audience; and why an emerging domain of
social responsibility and political action became important to establish the identity of antagonism
and trauma, collectively (Alexander: 13-15). In this socio-historical research, I will explore the
ethnic politics of the remembrance and amnesia of Jews in the Holocaust, which can be
24
understood within the context of a particular dialectic of memory and how it has become the
―site of memory,‖ ―site of contestation‖ and ―collective consciousness‖ that provides information
from the past to the present and reconstructs our responsibilities and leads the malleability of
history.

The Holocaust as the “Site of Memory”


First of all, history is not as linear as progress, moving in the direction of liberation from
the past, present, and future, and many historians have no longer seen history as a chronology
with only the aggregation of facts, dates or individual history, in which the psychological life
cycle of individuals is created by a small, elite group. Jeffrey Olick explains how the Holocaust
is expressed in German history through relavitization and ritualization in the 1950s-60s, where
different languages were spoken until 1989. The Holocaust happened in-between 1933-1945
under the Nazi Party regime; millions of Jews were intentionally relocated and killed according
to the national socialists‘ goal. Olick mapped out what was eliminated in the traumatic event of
Germany and what was understand through revitization that shows Germany as a normal
European modernize country (Olicks:261). Ritualization is a form of remembering the Holocaust
through symbolizing certain events and creations of certain places, such as memorial days,
concentration camps, monuments, museums, paintings, films, dreams, etc. A new unification of
the two halves of Germany was challenged after the 1990s politics, whereas economic downturn,
political struggle and sovereignty started to be questioned as showing the incomplete nation-state
in the 1930s. Memory expands the horizon to redefine, recognize, and intertwine power which
was exercised in the social movement of the Jewish collaboration to mobilize (Park, 2010).
In fact, memory has become a powerful method of understanding subjectivity,
experience, and power and memory studies have boomed with the technological growth that
makes memory inerasable, everywhere and omnipresent, or disposable such as in the case of the
Holocaust. The reason for remembering is to have a re-interpretation of history, digging the
truth, expanding long-standing experiences, and adding individual and collective resistances and
oppositions and private public linkages between individuals and society. Individual trauma has a
certain contact of power just as with direct, indirect, and conscious and unconsciousness levels.
Halbwachs challenged memory studies is a presentism idea, and an interpretation of the past
from the present, and defines memory as a group experience of the past shared by the people in
the society where society exists beyond one's own perception. Memory language is used as a
mechanism of power that is inseparable from the axis of power, while memory does play the role
in legitimating social classes which ascribe their power not as acquired, but as inherited from the
past. No memory is possible outside the frameworks that are used by people living in society to
determine and retrieve their re-collections.
There is a distinction between dream and aphasia, where a dream is based only upon
itself, and whereas our recollections depend on those of all of the population which follow the
great framework of the membership of society (Park, 2010). The reconstruction of the past
recalls the mental state through subjects, symbols, pictures, and funny episodes, where the visual
memory of engraving even of a page or of some lines might remain. If certain memories are
inconvenient or burden us, there is always the opposite that is inseparable from the present life
and that is imperfect and incomplete. The localization of memories is part of a totality of
thoughts common to a group, similar to elder memories. Everybody has the capacity of memory;
individual memory is a part and one aspect of group members in the collective memory. For
example, one cannot think about the Holocaust event without discoursing upon it as a single
25
system of opinions or ideas in a circle and, whereas, the collective memory confines to
remember two missing parts in a path.
According to Maurice Halbwachs, history can be malleable based on select social
classes/groups, and it can distort the past using such ways as fabrication and repression.
Religions, functional nobilities, feudal ideas, laws, and customs are transmitted from traditional
society to modern society which is filled with wealthy, rich elites and bourgeoisies as a class of
egoism as they have transferred their hierarchy into personified professions in technical activities
as their social obscurity (Halbwachs: 155). One might observe WWII as an ―object of memory‖;
however, Schwartz combats this idea and refers to WWII as a ―site of memory‖ in a time of
crises (Schwartz: 908). He goes on to further state that his goal is not to address or understand
the ―memory of a crisis,‖ but rather that it is ―memory in a time of crisis‖ (Schwartz: 908).
Therefore, Schwartz defines memory ―as a cultural system,‖ a system in which memory is seen
as a ―symbolic pattern of commemoration‖ (Schwartz: 909). For example, the framing of
President Abraham Lincoln‘s image during the post-war period was a fabrication through
symbols within which music and images connect and the past and present combined in a way to
understand and perceive current issues, which are made visible through public discourse that
works through institutions and organizations of the social realm. Historical discourse can easily
be created within the power structure through legitimation, orientation, clarification, inspiration
and consolation, while collective memory has become the model for society as the past events
are ―keyed by the present‖ which is “the past invoked as a frame for understanding the present‖
(Schwartz: 911). The Holocaust can be seen as a series of past events that are‖ keyed to the
present,‖ an expression of the society that ―needs problems, fears, mentality, and aspirations‖
where memory is ―an expressive symbol,‖ a language for expressing current issues as reflective
aspects, and the collective memory has become the model for society as a site of memory
(Schwartz: 910).
The problem of the unreliable individual memory can always be arisen by forgetting and
denial, repression and trauma, and more often not serving the need to rationalize and maintain
power. Of course, amnesia is a dangerous cultural virus where mythic memory appears under the
influence of media technologies. For example, the Holocaust has been seen with the failure of
the Western civilization—particularly on the blame of only Germans which was very
problematic though European society and leaders were silenced as a whole—and in general, the
practice of amnesia has locked in with the memory of the Holocaust even 50 years after WII.
There was an obsessive war against memory, practicing ―an Orwellian falsification of memory,
falsification of reality, negation of reality,‖ as the Holocaust was seen together as locking in with
the memory of public discourse (Huyssen: 251).
Remembrance as a vital human activity shapes our links to the past and the ways we
remember define us in the present. We live in socially constructed societies which have been
feeding individuals unconscious desires to guide our most conscious actions, including our
mistaken belief in some ultimately pure, complete, and transcendent memory, and at the same
time, the strongly remembered past may turn into mythic memory (Huyssen: 250). The place of
memory in any culture is defined by an extraordinarily complex discursive web of ritual and
mythic, historical, political, and psychological factors which lead political totalitarianisms,
colonial enterprises and ecological ravages as the dark side of modernization (Huyssen: 250-
251). It is important to conceptualize historical, social and individual components of human
behaviour with memory and a socio-historical perspective because the past can provide a
genuinely dynamical model of memory operations that show the virtual characteristics of pure
26
memory, but memory is still not a mechanical reproduction of the past in a sense (Park, 2010).
Memory ties to social order, which is maintained by power relations, as it is beyond individual
persons and becomes a social glue or mechanical organic solidarity if it turns to become a site of
memory.

The Holocaust as a “Site of Contestation”


In fact, history is a social construction and many official national histories and nations are
imagined communities and structured to ossify the past and block our understanding of historical
truth for the sake of the continuity of society. Truth is imposed by society; history is a fabrication
and selection in the form of memory. Society creates a total fiction of history. History is
malleable, changeable or only certain facts can change. Halbwachs always mentions the
reflection of the present construction in the past, in which the present defends history; this should
be a non-linear progress, which can be interpreted and changed. History is moving into
rationalization which is a driven force. If history doesn‘t move forward to liberate society, it is
linear (Park, 2010). Since the 1980s, memory has been seen as a ―site of contestation,‖ for
instance, the Holocaust is a site of memory, meaning that the memory of the Holocaust is
constructed, contested, re-remembered, forgotten and transformed. It proves that history is non-
linear and changeable. An object of the Holocaust is a powerful memory on politics which has
become the site memory in having the contestation of group identity or counter memory.
Languages, dreams and films are used as mediums of remembrance of the event of the Holocaust
memory as the method which is of understanding subjectivity, experience, and power in society.
Holocaust objects and things may embody truth, but such things may also be linked to
unrealized utopian images; its ruins are the concept of subjects and subjectivity as their capacity
and subterranean unconscious can be used in a non-linguistic way. Memory can be a social
construction in the present whether it is collective memory, official memory, individual memory,
or public memory. Nietzsche showed his individual memory about military totalitarianism, noble
biases and the ignorance of racism which led to the Holocaust and drove Germany into trouble
twice in the twentieth century. A crisis occurred during the representation of the Germans‘
colonial history, cruelty, and falsification of history, and they drew lines in-between the
boundaries of ethnicity and nationality and put conflict during the Cold War period. After the
two Germany‘s unified in the 1990s, there arose more physical sites indicating public
commemoration with gestures, words and symbols that acted as mutual aspects of the past at
sites of the Holocaust memory such as museums, memorials, and monuments, and they
conflicted with politics and the power structure in society, whereas ―communities have to deal
sooner or later with the construction of a commemorative form in a surrounding of the official
history ritual that public commemoration has flourished within the orbit of civil society, which
has been both irresistible and unsustainable since post-modernity‖ (Winter: 322-323-324).
The creation of a new master Holocaust narrative is a key issue wherein a cross-
referential was correlated successfully and given the meaning ―the causality even though the
issue is left to be forgotten in amnesia structurally,‖ intentionally and officially (Alexander: 12).
For example, when Jews unified their own nationalism, the Holocaust become a symbol of
knowledge production that creates anti-Semitism politics both in the Israel and Jewish diasporas,
especially in the US, Canada, and Europe which are powerful influences on politics, as ―they
symbolize and recognize hyper-militarization as an object of violence and a site of contestation
with a history of collective trauma‖ within constructed and official military aggression,
historically, economically and politically (Cho: 90-91). In the case of post-modernity, a society‘s
27
memory is negotiated in the social body‘s beliefs and values, rituals and institutions; it is shaped
by such public sites of memory as the museum, the memorial, and the monument.
There are still lacking answers for our predicament, and this is an expansive historicism
of our contemporary culture, for instance, Western culture in the 1970s and 1980s when
museums and memorials were built as if there was no tomorrow (Huyssen: 253). One problem is
that a victim falls to the magical power of image protection as the strategy of narcissistic
derealisation, wherein the individual victim has disappeared in the memory of the Holocaust,
demonstrating the victim-logical point of view that individuals are losing their representativeness
in the larger context of the Holocaust. Another reason is real difference, in which real otherness
in historical time or geographic distance can no longer even be perceived as a game played by
nihilistic intellectuals. The third reason can be seen either as the key paradigm in post-modern
culture or as the suffering from an overload of memories and a glut of museums (Huyssen: 253).
Public memory is favored neither officially nor individually but the re-interpretation through
public discussion in civil society and museums is not made as an individual-driven project, but
rather as a social product made through public debates. Capitalism creates another problem: that
our culture‘s undisputed tendency toward amnesia is under the sign of immediate profit and
short-term politics. The Holocaust memory is both a site of memory and site of culture, and
memory is a crisis because of its use for one‘s own profit-making purposes. This memory
provides for social consciousness and tells of conflict, and talks about power inequality in
society where the individual stands and how society conceptualizes.
The Holocaust memory is testing the official history of Germany through individual
memories and bringing individuals to picture. Holocaust museums, memorials and monuments
cannot be seen as somehow separate from this post-modern memorial culture because museums
on the topic are built and monuments erected in Israel, whereas, Germany and Europe as well as
the United States are clearly part of that larger cultural phenomenon for whom the Holocaust is
either a mythic memory or cliché (Huyssen: 255-256). Returning individual memories has
become the site of contestation of group identity as a counter memory. The democratization and
proliferation of memory maintains monuments in spaces of the public in which it is ossified in
public contestation that leads to both state and public discussions and debates. Monuments have
freed memory to focus on more than just a fact, but without facts, there is no real memory. The
genocide of the Jews and its monuments are understood differently from country to country, in
terms of aesthetic, locality, and historical perceptions, and some see the Jews as having lost their
ethnic identity or narcissistic inquiry and ritual breast beating, and having been put under
repression. Americans see themselves as their liberators from camps and have provided for
refugees and immigrants a haven; however, Israel sees a history of suffering and the starting
point of a new national history, self assertion and resistance (Huyssen: 257).
This memory invokes the dispute of continuity in time of crises as the contestation of
power which is contestant among dominant groups, oppressed forces and power structure.
Multiple voices invoke a site of dispute in public space, disable a fake continuity, official
narrative and organic solidarity. Walter Benjamin talks about the collective unconsciousness of
the individual as being more powerful than the collective conscious, where he wasn‘t interested
in the contestation of history, found away memory with mythic and utopian images, and tied up
political changes and the meaning of multiple forces (Morss: 112). The existence of differences
may provide a new way for history through fascism, nationalism, capitalism and socialism, but
Benjamin had not yet realized when wishful thinking would take place in Western societies;
unexpectedly, the collective unconscious created a new future. German crises of culture and
28
interpretation of being the superior race may be responsible for the Holocaust trauma. The theory
of cultural traumas apply the site of contestation, without prejudice to any and all instances
which societies have, or have not, constructed and experienced cultural traumatic events, and to
their efforts to draw, or not draw, the moral lessons that can be said to emanate from them (Park,
2010). A new method of remembering the Holocaust trauma has become popular through
innovating projects, and writing personal fragment stories and personal image pictures to
analysis what is deeply repressed.

The Holocaust as a “Collective Consciousness”

Moreover, Durkheim helped with the understanding of science with detail in specific
studies, such as the collective consciousness, and produced theories and methods used for
studying others, and he determined collective memories without mentioning aphasia. Memory is
a new reflection of the creation of the collective consciousness and challenges the dominant
ideology which creates a different collectivism. The power of cultural form is a mechanism
which allows fighting and re-interpreting history. Winter argues that history is subjective, not
objective, whereas, the site of memory divides history to be considered objective, while memory
is subjective with constructing a narrative. Sites of memories are places where historical
remembrance happens, but history is institutionalized by the power elite which is not neutral and
that is different from memory. Society cannot separate history from memory, as it needs both.
A group and individual memory are powerful when crates debate and have meaning.
Memory is a political power to establish the collective consciousness. Our past reappears in our
dreams as a raw material and reminds us that our early childhood might be forgotten, but also
reappears in our unconscious which is the isolated place of the brain cell. Halbwachs created a
new theory in relation between dream and aphasia, which shows how the reconstruction of the
past through collective memories and our childhood plays a role that recalls the mental state
through subjects, symbols, pictures, funny episodes, etc. in many visual memories with
conceptualizing the historical, social and individual components of human behaviour within the
socio-historical perspective (Park, 2010). If a certain memory is incapable, inconvenient or
unable to make the separation of images, the past memory is incomplete or unperfected, but our
minds reconstruct a new shorter memory under the pressure of society. Apfelbaum gave several
examples on how alienation has been suffered by its victims who wanted to forget the horrors of
experience or who were incapable of expressing the horrors of torture, due to a lack of collective
memory (Apfelbaum: 78).
The location of memories is part of the totality of common thoughts such as within a
family or group, which is in similarity with older memories that are sufficient to the adaption or
restructuration of contiguity and social obscurity. There is a problem in that different people can
have different experiences at the same group, whereas in the same period of time and place
within many frameworks that is not accounting as a collective memory. The reality of an
individual person‘s memory occurs in the system that is associated with minds unless
understanding this individual is a part or aspect of the group of memories. Every individual is
remembering differently and is producing a discourse that is different from the other‘s memory.
Furthermore, social classes and their traditions are shaping the memories of the noble or ordinary
person. For example, giving the judge his position is very crucial where suppressing is within our
personality of profession and acting in singularity is in the structure of society in terms of

29
technical activity, whereas the unconsciousness of the brain works out involuntarily in relation
with belonging to a certain community or group.
The world of the mind and culture is organized by a symbol in our imagination, even
though freedom and the existential anxiety of fear are constructed by the great frameworks of the
membership of the society that is either traditional or modern. Schwarts took the society/nation
as an entity that is devoid of contestation, conflicts, and transformation and explained that
memory is a cultural system that fosters the ―collective consciousness‖ imposed by the group on
individuals; here, culture is a system of meanings available for individuals in making sense of
their experience and actions (Park, 2010). Communities have provided the continuity of
solidarity in times of crises, for instance, in the case of the Holocaust; it invoked continuity as
the core belief for use in urgency for the Jewish community, which was functional for building
the collective consciousness. There was a real collision and crash between history and memory
in the subject position which refers to situating a person‘s position as belonging to a race
minority, gender, hierarchy, and profession that create public space. Memory is used for
knowledge production in the case of the Holocaust.
An ordinary person‘s oppressed experience is the starting point of memory study versus
state version, which unified Jews around the globe. This knowledge is about the past as a
collective knowledge that may begin to change as with the power of the individual memory,
create new unity and a new national identity, reproduce public commemorative, and challenge
the manipulated history, power structure and politics (Yoneyama: 242). As a result, this struggle
proved that official memory is contested by homogenizing memory. The contestation of the
official state and its invented history has become a failure, as the ordinary citizen has invented
new morality, universal values, and utilitarian approaches which turn individual trauma to
collective trauma. Trauma is functional to the society to build the collective consciousness and
show how citizens are valued members (Park, 2010).

The Holocaust as a Means for Forgiveness, Reparation, and Reconciliation


In addition, forgiveness is a site which tells the public that history was wrong. Resolving
historical wrongs may occur in two ways: the states apologize to victims, or they provide an
alternative truth and victim-centred moral approach that is about forgiveness. The question is of
the malleability of the past in the memory crush. Reparation encompasses transitional justice,
apologies, and efforts for reconciliation in a broader political sense, and it is that which refers to
compensation as usually of a material kind that is often monetary for some past wrongdoing,
such as the Jewish Holocaust victims. Reconciliation, healing and forgiveness efforts are
structured through symbols, and national unity is redressed to subsequent reparations politics.
Claims for reparations have been spread parallel with the diffusion of the Holocaust
consciousness and are what reparations activists use for constitutional human rights values and
moralities in laws.
After WWII, Germany and other countries led the way to healing, reparation and
reconciliation in which Jaspers argued that there are two basic distinct motivations, which
generalize and personalize the distress of responsibilities: that all Germans were responsible for
the actions of their country, whereas a person might not have any direct responsibility in
someone‘s suffering, but may feel obligated to help as every German should feel personal
responsibility and deal with guilt for someone else‘s distress such as a Holocaust victim (Park,
2010). ―The truth generated new anger, revenge, hatred, sorrow, sadness, disempowerment, rage
30
and bitterness in a negative manner rather than healing in a positive manner‖ and ―victims
seldom reject apologies from wrongdoers when they are forthcoming‖ (Chaplen: 82).
Reparations for Holocaust survivors were more about repair of feeling in contrast, and for some
today reparations have become synonymous with compensation. Human rights laws and
ideologies were transmitted by the United Nations after World War II to ensure that human
beings are safe, and since the 1980s, the Basic principles and Guidelines were an example of the
spread of legal concepts within international realms coined in domestic contexts.
The reparation process had led to reconciliation in cases of historical injustices, as the
demand in terms of constitutional violation was connected to the notion of the wrong being done
to the entire ethnics, nations or countries in which the public acknowledged this crime against the
Human Right Chapters (Sevy: 87). The repair of shattered social relations may involve trials of
perpetrators, purges, truth commissions, and rehabilitation of those wrongly convicted of crimes,
whereas monetary compensation and social policies are designed to rectify inequalities rooted in
unjust past social arrangements, memorials, and changes in school history curricula and more.
Reparations politics share a common language and outlook concerning the importance of the past
for moving forward into the present. The broad field of reparations politics includes: transitional
justice, compensation, apology/regret, and pursuit of the communicative history. A key focus is
on claims against the destruction of culture and the role of reparations in repairing the damages.
Thus, symbolic reparations focus on the psychological harm rather than the physical. Money is
simply lending greater seriousness to the apology and recognition of wrongdoing (Torpey: 81).
Reparations have an impossible challenge, for they can never make up for what has been
lost: possibilities for personal and professional development, personal relationships, physical
health and well-being. Reparations can, however, try to shift the losses from the terrain of the
irrecoverable, to a place in the ―realm of the politically negotiated‖ in which this can at least
open up the discussion between the perpetrators and the victims, while discussion may lead to
both parties being able to live together and to resume political, commercial, and cultural
interaction (Torpey: 82). It seems that when forcing perpetrators to accept the personal or state
responsibility and the acts of violation for wrongdoing, where political reconciliation implies
public acknowledgement which is important, public recognition of harm and public
accountability are like institutions that change the previous, sick structure and ensure a durable
design, as a sustainable reconciliation will guarantee the future repetition of previous
wrongdoing, providing implicit and explicit promises (Sevy: 83). Memory is temporarily a part
of history; history is not bondable within its limit.

Conclusion
In conclusion, the Holocaust has become a site of memory and of culture, and it is the
core for forgetting. It is hard to manage and sustain the tension between its total numbing.
History can be rewritten based on returning individual and collective memories, and we can test
history through individual memories as memory provides continuity, and transforms society‘s
individual memory to the modern collective memory. Textbooks play an important role in
helping the public get ready to tackle such issues, while the museum as a site of memory can
play a significant role in a group‘s self-understanding. Ethnicities, individual rights, religions and
cultures are very powerful and strong influences to the mind, even though post-modernity has
been erasing the ―site of memory,‖ forgetting the ―site of contestation‖ and ignoring the
―collective consciousness,‖ and removing our responsibilities from the past to the present. In
fact, nobody can remove the Holocaust victims‘ memories from the collective memories of
31
people because of their horrific experiences shared by its whole society. The ultimate goal of
reparations is political reconciliation. This is the primary objective of efforts to come to terms
with the past. Political reconciliation implies public acknowledgment, public recognition, and
public accountability. It deals with structural and institutional framework of rights and justice.
With reconciliation, society can move on ahead without always bringing up hurtful memories of
the past. It should give the victimized group a fuller sense of membership in society.
Reconciliation is really more about the future then it is about the past. Reparations helped the
spread of human rights ideas, but it made the notion of human rights seem real and enforceable
in the absence of a global police force and despite such lessons, forgetting enhances the risk that
such mistreatment may be repeated in the future.

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Dialectics of Memory, Berkeley: University of California Press, pp187-242.
Winter, Jay. (1999). ―Sites of Memory,‖ in Susannah Radstone and Bill Scharz (eds.), Memory:
Histories, Theories, Debates. New York: Fordham University Press, 324-372.

33
Chapter 3
The Turkish Labour Movement in Germany: Homeland and Host-land
Nationalisms, Identity Crisis and Ghetto Conflicts

Turkish migrants still experience many hardships but they often do succeed in building a
better life in Germany, escaping poverty and hopelessness and finding new opportunities better
than in their place of origin (Castles, Miller, 2009: 51). I‘d like to explore the Turkish Labour
Movement in Germany within four different timelines: the 1920s to 1950s as the start of Turkish
nationalism identity; the 1960s to 1980s as the strong labour movement; the 1980s to 2000s as
the Kurdish identity crisis; and the 2000s to 2010 as the emergence of new Turkish Diaspora
culture. The Ottoman Empire and Germany allied in World War I and lost it together, and the
labour movement reconnected the two nations again. Until the 20th century, Turk-Ottoman state
nationalism was not based on race, ethnicity, colour or blood; but the goal of the state was to
provide a common peaceful living of the people within the empire (Bilir 2004: 2-15). Before the
emergence of the Nation State called nationalism at the end of the 18th century, the Ottoman
Empire was multi-religious, multi-cultural, multi-juridical and multinational. One of the most
successful examples of religious tolerance and co-existence in the population of history was the
Ottoman administration. The Ottoman government did not compel anyone by force, nor make
them assimilate until the nation-state emerged (Kitsikis, 2009). Economic and cultural
modernization did not play a crucial role in the rise of the Turkish nation-state in the 1920s, for
instance, the Kurdish identity was erased, although was restructured again (Yilmaz, 2010).
In this research paper, I will examine the Turkish Diaspora in Germany that has been
struggling and confronted with the problem of integration or assimilation and has yet to find a
true grounding in Germany; whereby I will explore the tension between homeland and host-land
nationalisms while facing an identity and a generations crisis and ghetto conflicts occurring
within a transnational community.
The map of the Turkish Diaspora in Germany is confusing among scholars because it
differs from (1) that of the Turkish people currently living in Northern and Central Asia and the
Caucasus for hundreds of years, or because (2) the people had stayed out of the borders of
Turkey (and still accepted as Turkish natives) within such countries as Northern Cyprus, Greece,
Bulgaria, Syria, Iraq, Macedonia, Romania and Kosovo after the fall of the Ottoman Empire and
rise of the Republic of Turkey in 1923 (Native Turks). These two categories are not regarded as
parts of the Turkish Diaspora. Diaspora here refers to the Anatolian Turks and Kurds who do not
live in modern Turkey and have migrated outside of the country mainly because of social and
economic reasons. Most of the Turkish and Kurdish workers in Germany had originally come
from Southern and Eastern Turkey. There are five main types of emigration among Turkish
citizens: family-related emigration; asylum-seeking emigration; irregular (undocumented or
clandestine) labour emigration; contract-related (low-skilled) labour emigration; and
international professional emigration. First-comer Turkish citizens as migrant workers in the
1960s who are now nearly at the age of 70 are called the first generation, their children at the age
of 45 are called the second generation and those at the age of 20 are called the third (Diraor
2009: 1-3).

34
Before explaining the tensions and conflicts within the Turkish Diaspora in the host
country and the homeland, it is crucial to be aware of historical evidences in the 1920s in
Turkey. The founding father of modern Turkey, Kemal Ataturk, had sought a Western-oriented,
secular, modernizing state which avoided foreign adventures or territorial claims, whereas within
the 1920s what Ataturk sought was one united country centred on Turkish people-hood, a unitary
and highly centralized state (Rubin, 2008). During the 20th century, the Turkish nation-state
formation had been similar to that of other nation-state constructions by which nation states were
structured because there were political and economical problems and the lack of integration
among institutions and elite groups; whereas the Turkish nation-state was formed to maintain
social order and allow social growth and development through mandatory education, and
forcibly approaching the ethnic model of ―Turkishness‖ which is highly contested (Canefe
2002:3).
Until the 1950s, there had been an authoritarian one-party rule strongly backed and
protected by the Turkish army that was uneasy for pluralist democracy, and inference into
politics in the name of national unity, security and secularism. Since the 1950s, the multi-
political system has not brought democracy right away, as Republican Turkish history is full of
military coups and unproven accusations justifying a coup against the government (Yilmaz,
2010). Since the 2000s, Turkish Muslims have been democratizing a rigid, nationalistic, and
French-styled, Jacobean top-down laicise state doctrine inside out within their country‘s
mentality. For instance, their fight for a greater freedom of speech while promoting the universal
utilitarian style, a soft, anti-authoritarian, oppression- free, and bottom-up secularism which
offers a clear religion and state separation. The old paradigm has shifted from the incomplete old
structural nationalistic, insufficient model to a new democratic and modern paradigm that has
been transmitted to the Turkish Diaspora abroad during the 2000s and continues to raise
consciousness.
A strong Turkish labour movement had been started in the late 1960s towards Germany
and other Western countries, and today, more than 4.5 million Turks live in the European Union
(EU), which is similar to the population of Ireland, and this Turkish Diaspora is largely
concentrated in Germany (2,300,000), France (423,000), the Netherlands (364,000), Belgium
(130,000) and Austria (110,000) (Sen, 2003). Due to Germany‘s restricted dual citizenship rules,
only 1.3 million Turkish immigrants have taken citizenship in their adopted countries (Schaefer
et al. 2005). Turkey has changed its approach on citizenship and nationality rules to maintain
links to its nation abroad (Castles and Miller 2009: 47). This trans-nationalism produces
interconnectedness and is constituted in a variety of ways by means of the mechanisms of social,
political and cultural affiliation among migrants, and this creates a Diaspora culture. It also
challenges to change the state‘s policies, regulations, and laws, and also affects the global market
economy, changing the nature of capital and international politics. Turkish Muslims‘ attachment
to Germany grows and they start to identify themselves with their place in Germany, thus not
only changing the Turkish identity under current German tendencies, but also changing Germany
by means of the Turkish Muslim identity (Isgandarova 2009: 69). This Turkish Diaspora tries to
keep its collective identity while the host country seeks distinct patterns of trans-nationalism and
ways of incorporating political practices and producing new cultures; but Turks and Kurds are
the victims of injustice and inequality in the trans-nationalism practice because of current
systemic racism, social exclusion and discrimination. Germany‘s laws and regulations apparently
have still shown disrespect towards a migrant‘s human and labour rights through criminalizing
migrants.

35
There are several theories wherein trans-nationalism and transnational communities have
been linked to globalization, which is involved in rapid improvement and the technologies of
transportation, an electronics herd, and communication devices making it increasingly easy for
migrants to establish close links between the host and home countries. Migration is a collective
action, arises out of social change and affects the whole of society. Since the1960s, the
Dependency Theory has focused on human and natural resources and explained the exploitation
of migrant labour through new economic colonialism or imperialism, whereas the World System
Theory refers to less developed peripheral regions that were incorporated in the global world
economy and controlled by core capitalist nations. The Trans-national Theory ignores the special
experience of gendered migrants, through sexism, racism, discrimination or class dominations,
who have participated in transnational communities that are based on migration and the
migration asylum nexus. Ethnicity and culture play important roles which are becoming
politicized in all countries of migration where migrant experiences are wasted, no job security is
provided and resistance occurs based on social injustice, inequality and inequity. The Migrant
System involves with the constitution of migrant exchange between two or more countries, and
the Network Theory is more common and useful today wherein the family and community are
the parts of a crucial network, a description which more likely suits the Turkish Diaspora abroad
and in Germany (Castles and Miller 2009:27-31).

Historical Background, Nationalism and the Identity Crisis of the Turkish Diaspora

The Ottoman government had been shifted to have its direct rule led by nationalist
mobilization by peripheral elites in 1908, who resented from being governed by ethnic others
and sought to re-establish self-rule through reformation, state bureaucratization and the rise of
print capitalism (Wimmer and Feinstein 2010: 6). There has always been a power struggle
between the modernizing and Westernizing foreign ministry, the reactionary army and Islamic
scholars who were divided between modernizers and the reactionary army (Yilmaz, 2010).
According to Anderson‘s nation-state theory (2001), the complex dynamics of political
mobilization, contestation, repression, diffusion, and imitation had changed the balance of power
and created great tension, fragmentation and the division of class formation from the 1920s
to1960s, whereas the Turkish labour movement has challenged a new conservative class and
caused the Kurdish ethnic‘s formation in the Turkish homeland since the 1990s when
globalization began (Wimmer and Feinstein 2010: 23).
In 1961, Turkey had signed a bilateral Labour Export Agreement with Germany in
response to an acute labour shortage during the post-war economic recovery, during which
Turkish labour exportation had become a significant turning point for both Turkey and Germany
(Centre for Studies 2007). The German government started the recruitment of the Guest Workers
Program in the 1950s, which required large numbers of low-skilled workers as temporary labour
units (3 years maximum) and the grant of residence and labour permits for restricted periods,
which were often valid only for specific jobs and areas, and thus the entry of dependants was
discouraged, preventing family reunion and settlement. The Federal Government stopped labour
recruitment in 1973, although its reason was not only the oil crisis; the main reason was the
emerging of family unification through employer permissions because families had already
settled down, children were born, and the social mobility of cheap labour became awkward,
while new social costs could no longer be avoided (Castes and Miller 2009: 100).
As a matter of fact, poor and low-skilled, uneducated villagers among Turkish or Kurdish
migrants were seen as temporary guests or foreigners as ―auslanders‖ until the mid 1980s, with
the assumption that they may return to their homeland in a short period of time in the
36
perspectives of both the German and Turkish governments. Both countries‘ officials hadn‘t
focused on any form of integration policy because the deportation tradition existed to stop
undesirable migrants in Germany. Many of Turkish and Kurdish cheap labourers had been single
fathers, sending money back home regularly with a high degree of connection to their home
countries. The German Guest Worker Program had recruited about 4 million labourers as foreign
residents until the late 1970s; most of them were Turkish, Kurdish, and Moroccan and the
number of foreign women increased by 12 percent in the early 1980s, by around half a million,
through family unification in Germany (Castles and Miller 2009: 108). Surprisingly, the German
government supported the Turk or Kurd family reunion even though the Turkish Diaspora
population reached to 1.4 million by 1981 as the largest migrant community, and the country was
forced to change labour rights to improve working conditions and built many mosques, reducing
xenophobia about Muslim and Islam (Agartan 2010: 4-19).
However, highly contested Turkish nationalism identity has created tensions between
Turks and Kurds in Germany after the emergence of PKK as the Kurdish separate or terrorist
organization in the 1980s, because many of Turkey origin guest workers had come from the poor
Kurdish areas of Eastern Turkey, whose residents weren‘t aware of their identity until they
settled down in the host country. There has been a long-term struggle over the ideologies of
‗Turkishness‘ and ‗pan-Islamism‘ that have not yet been resolved by the success of Turkish
nationalism since the 1930s through synthesized Kemalism, nationalism, and Islam. It became a
political issue when PKK has started to lead armed insurrection against the Turkish republic,
especially during the 1990s. Over 35 thousand Turkish and Kurdish civilians, police, and soldiers
were killed in the period of 1993 to 1996, and violence had never stopped until today.
Up to one-third of the over 2 million Turkish citizens who were residents in Germany by
the 1990s were of Kurdish origin. Up to 12 thousand of them were active members of the PKK;
although around 50 thousand of them sympathized. PKK has organized many terrorist attacks in
Germany and other EU states, and only since 1993 has Germany recognized the PKK as a
terrorist organization, after the PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan sent suicide bombers against
German targets (Castes and Miller 2009: 208). The Turkish army has fought against PKK and
forced the relocation of millions of Kurdish civilians that immigrated to EU nations and
particularly Germany as refugees because of previous family and relative networks. PKK has
already constructed a new Kurdish identity and is possessive of an extensive organizational
structure in Germany and other neighbouring European countries. In 1996, the Germany
government banned PKK street protests, while deporting Kurdish separatists became an
important legal and human rights issue that polarized German public opinion. The arrest of
Abdullah Ocalan by Turkish authorities in Kenya in 1999 and the Iraq invasion in 2003 had
sparked massive wave of Kurdish protests in Germany. Northern Iraq declared its own autonomy
state status as Kurdistan, since a minority Kurdish party leader, Jalal Talabani, was elected as the
president of Iraq, and other legal Kurdish parties broke up with PKK and started to collaborate
with the Turkish government and global hegemonic power. However, the Iraqi war caused at
least 2 million refugees to flow to nearby states and some of them fled to Germany, while some
of them were of Kurdish origin. Germany hadn‘t wanted to accept them, although Sweden had
(Castes and Miller 2009: 209).
Bilir clearly identifies Turkish nationalism and the nation-state identity crisis as having
been involved with the influence of the ‗Turkish-Islamic Synthesis‘ on Turkish culture and
educational politics all the way into the 1990s. After the ‗Turkish-Islamic Synthesis‘ lost its
popularity at the end of the 1980s, the retired religious leader Fethullah Gulen introduced the
new concept of ‗Turkey-Islam‘ in 1995, and for the first time, he used the expression Turkiye
Muslumanlıgı (Turkey-Islam), which became the slogan of the discourse on a Turkish-
37
characterized Islam wherein the Kurdish and Alevi identities were recognized and not excluded
(Bilir 2004: 6-7). Gulen speaks of the unifying brotherhood between the diverse peoples within
Turkey and abroad; furthermore, he speaks of the diversity of Anatolian Non-Muslim groups,
such as Armenians, Jews, and Greeks, who have welcomed Gulen‘s approach, while in order to
implement this together-in-peace-living again, the Turks should assume the leadership of this
process of instigating tolerance between religions and cultures and make it institutional.
According to Gulen, the Islam that flourished in Anatolia did so without Arabian influence;
rather, it is defined by an Asiatic-Turkish character, since the Turks hold that the true source of
knowledge of Islam is not Makkah and Madinah, but Asia, where the Turkish scholars purified
the religion of Islam (Turgut 1997:19). In the ‗Turkey-Islam‘ presented by Gulen, the Shiite and
Wahhabi receive clear disapproval, although the sects that are approved are Sunni or Alevi Turks
and Kurds, except for the Marxist militias of PKK. ‗Turkey-Islam‘ contains a strong Islamic
nationalistic character, and it is propagated by Gulen himself as well as through the activities of
his community worldwide and the activities of his followers in the Federal Republic of Germany.
The Gulen group has highly influenced the creation of a new transnational German-Turk identity
since the 1990s. Gulen‘s nationalism is based on the Anatolian geography, not on an ethnic
dimension as a leading representative of the Turko-Ottoman nationalism in modern Turkey—
which is the opposite of the position held by the Grey Wolves as Turkish ultra nationalists (Bilir
2004: 10-17). The Turkish Diaspora was marginalized based on mosques and lived in their
surrounding areas, although when the Gulen group had opened the first private Turkish school in
2007, it attracted the third generation‘s children and attempted to open the first Turkish private
university and made intercultural dialogue between Diaspora Turks/Kurds and Germans for
peaceful co-existence.

The generation conflicts and new transnational identity

Faruk Sen‘s (2003) research on generation conflicts and his findings explain how the first
generation had struggled and confronted with the problems of integration and assimilation, and
that it has yet to find a true grounding in Germany after retirement. In fact, the first generation of
the Turkish Diaspora in Germany is more of a homogeneous group of male labourers who settled
into the country in the 1960s. Sen also states that the second and third generations are more
educated and qualified as skilled workers than the first generation and are more likely
heterogeneous groups that have become better established their social and economic lifeworlds,
and that a few of them are involved in politics at the local, national and EU levels. The original
role of the first generation has shifted as the following, other generations play different roles in
society as politicians, officers, artists, academics, journalists, actors and successful sports people
who have changed their identities, values, and moralities, extended their social networks in the
German society and become German-Turk as a new transnational identity, belonging to more
than one destination four decades after their ancestors‘ immigration (Sen, 2003).
Achieving better social and cultural integration was not targeted by the first generation
during the 1960s-1970s because of the lack of policies; however, the 1980s‘ generation had been
more interested in political and economic ambitions, whereas the 1990s‘ generation more
demanded equal treatment, social respect and tolerance, political representation and intercultural
dialogue and was involved inter-racial marriages (Sen, 2004).

38
The Ghetto Problem of Turkish Diaspora

Moreover, there has been increasing concern and tension for the ghetto problem of the
Turkish Diaspora that could be found in terms of Turkish and German politician languages. Most
of the first generation settled down within their own cultural environment within a drawn
segregation boundary on behalf of the host country‘s society, because of having a low standard
of education, inadequate professional qualifications and poor language skills. Their children
failed at school, and the German government unwilled to implement integration policies which
resulted in the marginalisation of the Diaspora. The second and third generations ended up with
poor Turkish and German language skills. Since the 1990s, a new Turkish middle class emerged
to meet higher expectation requirements of education, employment, living conditions, quality of
life, and political representation. The second and third generations are becoming good consumers
with a strong sense of belonging to their country of residence as better integrated heterogeneous
generations, whereas the first generation is more likely to be described as entrepreneurs either
living in the Turkish Ghetto or saving funds to return to Turkey, or who have already returned
after retirement (Sen, 2004).
In 2007, 740,000 Turkish Diaspora households in Germany spent EUR 15.1 billion of
their annual cumulative real income and had combined savings of EUR 2.2 billion (Kizilocak,
2007). The first generation was not expected to stay long because of the German discriminatory
labour policies, but the host country government revised its integration policy after 1967 and
enacted the Voluntary Repatriation Encouragement Act in 1983, which provided immigrants‘
financial incentives to return to their homeland as part of the co-development process
enforcement. The Citizenship Law was amended in 1999 and the Act Controlling and Restricting
Immigration and the Integration of EU-citizens and Foreign Nationals entered into force in 2005
and Germany accepted itself a migrant country through such laws and tried to eliminate
problems arising from past policy failures. Under the Immigration Act, the immigration age for
spouses was raised to eighteen to help prevent forced marriages and a basic command of
Germany posed requirements for those wishing to enter Germany for family reunion (Sen, 2004).
Ayhan Kaya and Ferhat Kentel (2005) provide useful data and analyses and mention that
the second and third Turkish generations do not have moral values and language skills within
Germany, feel discrimination and racism and face unemployment in large numbers in the
Turkish Ghetto (Kaya and Kentel 2005: 30-31). Due to high levels of youth unemployment and
low female participation rates in the labour force, most of the young, low-educated Turkish and
Kurdish population are unemployed, and the rate of unemployment is 30%, 23% of which
concerns the Turkish ‗housewife‘ who is among one of the three categories within the Turkish
Diaspora in Germany. Social integration is related to an educational background, for instance,
the Institute for Employment Research in Germany reveals that in 2005, 8% of Turkish-German
dual-citizens in Germany did not have any school qualification, while 45% had only a secondary
school qualification (Kaya and Kentel 2005: 34-35). Turkish citizens in the Diaspora without
German citizenship are undergoing an even worse rate of unemployment, as about 13% did not
have any certificate showing their school qualification and 58% have only a lower secondary
school qualification (Arslan, 2007:131). In fact, the German population is aging. Until 2003,
about 7.3 million foreign workers had been working in Germany, although this number sharply
decreased to 6.7 million for several reasons. One such reason was that the Central Aliens
Register caused the decline of net migration to Germany. Another reason was the decline of the
birth rate of foreign children directly following the 2000 Naturalization Law. German- born
children of Turkish, Kurdish or North African origin have increasingly accepted the German
39
citizenship, and German-born foreign nationality had increased from 9.4 million in 1995 to 10.6
million in 2003. While the foreign population makes up 8.9% of Germany‘s total population
today, it will make up 12.9% in 2050, and at the same time the German working age population
will decline by about 9.6 %, and only 57% of the working age will be supported by 30% of
retired population costs, exclusively given to those aged 65 or over because of the increase of life
expectancy (Castles and Miller 2009: 111).
After the 9/11 era, the international security system has put many restrictions on labour
movements. Cheran has claimed that the political and financial influences of transnational
communities have come under closer scrutiny after 9/11, and Western governments have not
formulated effective policy responses to the emergence of trans-nationalism and new global
diasporas cultures, whereas brain drain has been replaced by brain circulation and financial
remittances replaced by social remittances, and technology is transferred through international
relations. It is not only the Tamil experiences and Kurdish struggle that have similarity, as many
ideas and practices are also very common, such as brain drain, brain circulation, remittances,
political involvement and cultural diffusion, and so forth. (Cheran, 2008:133-141). The German
government has invited the Turkish police forces to control illegal Turkish migrants, as
unemployment causes youth or gang crimes and this initiative can help to minimize violence
among the troubled Turkish neighbourhood ghettos in Germany—it is a new transnational
practice that Turkish police may soon be patrolling Germany's streets in the post 9/11 era
(Bartin, 2011).
As of 2010, the Embassy of Germany in Turkey estimated that 3.5 million people of
Turkish origin were living in Germany. Well-educated German-born Turk/Kurd intellectuals in
Germany have decided to go back to their country. Thousands of well-educated and highly-
skilled German-Turks have moved back to their homeland since 2007, while others have
systemically been well-organized to stay in the host country as challenging both the Muslim
identity and German view. Germany needs mediators between Germans and Turks who don‘t
want to live anymore in Germany, and finally the German government sees that the real problem
is more than in integration and the lack of education (Findlay, 2010). Meanwhile, the many
Turks who remain in Germany continue to exist quite separately from native Germans, living in
insular communities and frequenting Turkish shops, doctors and lawyers. There are some signs
in Germany that the attitude toward Turks is changing. The Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip
Erdogan made a powerful speech against German practice in 2008 by saying that ―assimilation is
a crime against humanity,‖ and Erdogan pressured Angela Merkel for the opening of additional
Turkish schools in Germany in March 2010, and right after his speech, the first Turkish-German,
Aygül Özkan, was appointed as a government minister at the state level in April 2010 (Findlay,
2010). The Turkish government passed a law on 24 March 2010, which gave the allowance of
―Turks and Relatives of International Communities on the Organization and Duties‖ to create an
independence ministry for the Turkish Diaspora and a chosen 55 representatives on the
committee from Diaspora civil leaders to solve their problems. This law allowed the organization
to establish social, cultural and economic relations in order to carry out activities related to
Turkish communities in public institutions and organizations, civil society organizations and
professional structures (The Turkish Official Newspaper, 2010). The Turkish government will
now be more attentive to its citizens in any host country and intends to help them out of any
struggles they would face, including discrimination, racism, and exclusion.
In conclusion, the Turkish government had pessimistically set up regime-friendly
associations for workers in Western Europe in the 1960s with the help of counter left-wing and
trade union influence after long struggles; however, the ideology, culture, and politics of the
Turkish Diaspora in Germany has recently shifted from the pessimistic to optimistic view in the
40
2000s because the Turkish government seems to recognize the Diaspora mainly in terms of
maintaining the Turk-Islam national identity through state support for religious, educational,
cultural, and social activities. Since 1990, Turkish NGOs have worked hard to build a strong new
global Diaspora identity for cultural, educational, religious, economical and political influence
on the German society and to solve generation conflicts in post-modernity. Disputes concerning
financial remittances have decreased since the 2000s, and the Turkish government has started to
see the Turkish Diaspora as capable in terms of social remittances and the circulation of skills.
Migration cannot bring development alone; and short and long term domestic political and
economic reforms and collaborations are needed for positive changes between the host and home
countries. Turkish lower-income families have brought economic and social development during
the last four decades of international migration both within the sending and receiving countries
(Castles and Miller, 2009: 123). This is despite the fact there had been inadequate economic and
political stability until 2002 in Turkey.
Furthermore, financial remittances had caused inequality and inflation for almost four
decades, as social remittances, the social capital and voluntary co-development were assisted by
the German government to return to having positive impacts on the economy only after the
integral development strategy had been implemented in the 2000s. The Turkish labour
movement in Germany has tried to keep its collective identity, while the host country seeks a
distinct pattern of transnationalism attempts to imply the incorporation political practice. The
Turkish Diaspora has gained an increase in economic and political power within Germany and
the EU, as high numbers of the Diaspora community have been accepted for the host country‘s
citizenship and are involved in the country‘s politics. The Turkish labour movement has been
continued through increased family unification via higher birth rates rather than asylum-seekers.
The Turkish and Kurdish Diasporas divide into many pieces, whereas both have always been
trying to establish the balance between the sending country‘s politics and responses of the host
country, using the dynamic of immigrant incorporation whether through assimilation or
integration. Newcomers in Germany have adapted the structure and order of the country‘s social,
economic, political and cultural landscape, while they have imparted impact on different forms
of participations to process homeland development to create supports, including in-kind labour
support, moral support and the provision of goods and services as well as ideological support,
which is very significant and continues to remake and reshape the homeland through remittances,
investments, property ownership, and cultural influences. The number of Turkish entrepreneurs
is highest in Germany with a rough 56,000, showing that the Turkish labour movement has
shifted from a low-skilled worker to highly-skilled worker arena because of self employment.
Entrepreneurs are arising amongst the Diaspora to symbolize the transformation of its parts from
the guest worker to employer (Centre for Studies on Turkey 2007), though the Turkish ghetto
still remains a major issue because the new national and trans-national identities differ between
the generations.

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Kızılocak, Gülay (2007), ―Turks in Germany and Germans in Turkey – Reasons of Migration
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The Turkish Official Newspaper. 2010, Turks and Relatives of International Communities on the
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Sen, Faruk (2003), ―The Role of the Turkish Communities in the European Union‖, Paper
presented at the Turkey and the European Union Conference, co-organized by the Study
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Schaefer, Sarah; Greg, Austin and Kate Parker (2005), Turks in Europe: Why are we afraid?,
Foreign Policy Centre, London, UK, September, also available at fpc.org.uk/fsblob/597.pdf
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across the World, 1816 to 2001. American Sociological Review 75(5) 764–790

Yilmaz, Ihsan. (2010). Naming what is going on in Turkey: from a ‗for the people despite the
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E483CCC5E46376655962?sectionId=341&newsId=223006

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Chapter 4

The Hizmet Movement of Canada

The term social movement refers to ―any sentiment and activity shared by two or more
people oriented toward changes in social relations or the social system at any level of social
organization" (Garner and Zald,1987: 23). Social movement sectors of the political economy can
be affected either by centralized or decentralized governments, and social structures give shape
to contentious politics. Political and economical factors spark social movements, because either
people are proponents or opponents of current situations and the balance of power in society so
that social movements use tactics to target not only their opponents but also attract popular
attention to the side with their positions such as individualism, capitalism, and democracy
(Bantijes, Alinksy 2007). One of the key tactics of governments is their use to weaken trust
between activists, and thus spreading paranoia about surveillance and infiltration to the point
where ―it was not repression but internal weaknesses that lead to the decline of the 1960‘s social
movement‖ (Bantijes 2007: 103). Religion has seen the source of both protest and legitimization
within capitalism, which has striken the relationship between religious violence and political
goals for the last two centuries (Robbins, 2008: 303).
I have investigated on both Fethullah Gülen and the movement he initiated in the late
1960s in Turkey, which now has millions of participants and started as a faith-inspired group. It
has founded and runs hundreds of modern educational institutions, as well as print and broadcast
media outlets and dialogue societies. Gülen is considered one of the most influential Turkish
Islamic scholars of his generation with his Sufi-oriented (mystical Islamic) message of love and
compassion, is the number one contemporary role model in Turkey, as also in much of the rest of
the Muslim world and even non-Muslim countries. In fact, Gülen took first place in the Foreign
Policy/Prospect poll of the World's Top Public Intellectuals in 2008. The author of more than
sixty books, Gülen has dedicated a lifetime to promoting peaceful interrelationships within and
between different communities, societies, cultures and religious traditions (Ahmed, 2009: Xi).
Gülen has changed the movement‘s name from the Gülen Movement to the Hizmet (Service)
Movement recently as a new tactic which constitutes trust relationships, the human right-
centered godly work of love, compassion, justice, respect and an enhanced quality of life for all
of humanity. New tactics have transformed this local social movement to a global social
movement that has mushroomed all over the world and is universally accepted.
The movement inspires people across the globe, for the universal values it presents are
the values of the Divine that are, through this movement, being transmitted and aspired
worldwide, as many objective individuals can find the work of Fethullah Gülen, much like the
work of the Dali Lama or Mother Teresa, capturing the heart of many (Jolly, 2010). The
relationship between the global political economy and rebellion and resistance is the tragedy of
the common practices of many anti-systemic protests such as those of peasants, ecology,
indigenous and ethnic groups, and anti-colonial, anti-capitalist and anti-communist movements
in peripheral countries (Robbins, 2008: 312).
Gülen has taken lessons from failures, such limitations, internal and external weaknesses
and the seditions of past movements to build a strong human rights-based faith-inspired
44
organization on a non-violent and non-contentious basis within civil global society, able to be the
model for uncivilized societies and a new phenomenon; however, he wasn‘t aware that he had
instigated a revolutionary social movement when he began it. The Hizmet Movement began with
promoting solutions to three major problems within Turkey in the 1960s, and it was extended to
solve similar problems in other parts of world: ―ignorance (lack of education),‖ ―poverty,‖ and
―disunity,‖ through its model of the promotion of universal education, dialogue and human-
centered principles to pursue social justice within late modernity. I will discuss in this research
paper the Hizmet Movement of Canada‘s several weaknesses and limitations that affect the long-
term achievements of its goals in Canada, such as the lack of government funds for private
education, inability to create a Helping Hands Relief of Canada organization to fight poverty,
and the hardships that come with assisting Canadian multicultural society that has became a huge
ghetto that is hard to unify, and to ultimately establish a collective identity within its socially
constructed structure.
I have personally been involved in this movement since the age of 14 and internally
observed it as a participant, student, journalist and volunteer. It may be best to begin with
defining what the Hizmet Movement is and its location, aim, and theories, and then explain this
movement‘s intention briefly. The Hizmet Movement has influenced diverse people in Turkey
and abroad, including Canada, by mobilizing inactive energies within a very short time over a
large geographical area (over 180 countries including many provinces in Canada) to achieve
joint projects of service that millions of people are taking part in from different nations, and it
provides peaceful solutions to oppose the clash of civilizations. The Hizmet Movement has
formed a large number of organizations operating across economic, political and cultural
boundaries in which it circulates and diffuses ideas, information, a new pattern of action, and
cultures as it is able to transfer latency into visibility through collective action and services,
which are then institutionalized (Cetin, 2009: 104).
Up until the 1960s, the major sources for the sociological understanding of social
movements were: the Marxist theory, the Psychological Theory, and the Collective Theory. The
Hizmet Movement is, however, a new non-contentious collective action and actors as a socio-
cultural phenomenon. Three contemporary approaches may help to understand its action in a
wider perspective, namely ‗the political opportunity structure,‘ ‗resource mobilization,‘ and ‗the
frame theory‘ as multi-polar approaches. Turkish sociologist Muhammed Cetin (2009) takes
sources from resource mobilization theorists who propose a different social psychology
perspective, including Gurr (1970); Turner and Killian (1972); Smelser (1963); Byrne (1996);
Eyerman and Jamison (1991); whereby American sociologist Helen Ebaugh (2010) uses the
Organizational Commitment Theory, which was researched and concocted by the sociologist
Rosabeth Kanter in the late 1960s and early 1970s (Ebaugh, 2010:7).
The Political Opportunity Structure studies the impact of structure on collective action,
and vice versa. The Resource Mobilization Theory ignores ideology, origin, structure, and
political style and sees the emergence and development of movement as arising from the
availability and use of resources. The Frame Theory focuses on the role of the shared
assumptions and meanings held by actors in interpreting events and redressing problems. The
collective action of the movement provides a new horizon and paradigm as it is a gross-root non-
governmental organization that has put pressure on the political market indirectly and
symbolically with its soft power in democracy domestically and internationally, challenging
society through educational initiatives, media organs and network with its stern opposition to
violent and coercive means and methods, using intercultural and interfaith dialogue, and
45
cooperation on projects and services (Cetin, 2009: 107). Education and media are considered to
be ‗state apparatuses‘ in neo-Marxist terms and perceived as tools for power and hegemony. The
Resource Mobilization theorists from this tradition were influenced by Marxist sociology and
their main belief was that injustice faced in capitalist nations could be resolved by protest. In
fact, since the 9/11 event, states and city governments have been more vigorous about
demonstrations and posed security panicking for any simple case. New legislation, regulations
and policies have passed and been implemented to provide more hostile positions toward
demonstrations of civil society at the cost of civil liberties (Bantjes, 2007: 368). There has been a
big debate going on whether War Drama is losing its tactics or rather helping to intensify the
bonuses, or advantages, of demonstrators. There is an emphasis on the idea of media being a sort
of a facilitator in transferring messages from one dissatisfied individual to another, allowing the
organization of individuals into NGOs (Bantjes, 2007: 85-87).
However, either the Marxist perspective of power and class struggle and using resources
for protest, or the Weberian approach of Protestant ethic values are insufficient to explain or
describe the Hizmet Movement, concerning which Gülen himself opposed their explanations and
defended that it is a self-explanatory phenomena. On the other hand, Gülen has used ―Provos‖
and ―Situationists‖ terms, agreed with Engel‘s predictions of the future concerning the ideal
society cycle, Kants‘s social altruism, some of Satre‘s ideas, Pierre Bourdieu‘s habitus, and the
implicated social, cultural, capital and professional strata terms by looking at their creative use of
tactics and strategies in response to the actions of other political players. In addition, he seeks
the 'Political Opportunity Structure': political environment, the media, competing NGOs,
counter-movements, and the state, and individual responsibility became the center of his
attention (Bantjes: 2007: 87- 94). Marxist ideas have been shifted under post modernity and
converted by neo-Marxists such as Althusser, Habermas, Foucault, Marcuse, Jameson, David
Harvey and Naomi Klein, who have claimed that ―neo-liberalism -or the restructuring of
globalism- is not offering more than the current capitalist economic mode of production and
political economic system,‖ which supports a few corporate elites to own and create media
monopoly. Globalization simply promotes the ―homogeneity and sameness‖ that is associated
with Westernization, Americanization, and the new face of colonialism (Harvey, 2005; Klein,
2007).
The Hizmet Movement has emerged to challenge current ideologies, values and structural
forces. There are numerous publications about the movement and Gülen himself that were
mostly designed for popular consumption and the regular audience, not for the academia. These
publications thus lack objective positioning. Berna Turam (2001) had studied the Gülen
Movement in McGill University for her PhD and mentioned in her main findings of research
contrasts the juxtaposition of Islam and the state in literature: that Gülen creates the alternative
pathways of engagements with the state, in which the engagement range is from domestic
symbolic politics and negotiations to international alliances. Her thesis examined these
engagements in three distinct spheres, i.e. national education, international undertakings and the
gender order (Turam, 2001: 1). Turam criticized problematic areas according to feminist
theorists and questionable issues, stating that faith inspired movements, ideas, and beliefs are
usually categorized within a patriarchal structure, along with masculinity and cultural relativism
that are placed under the same categorization process. Westernized feminists have made the
critique, using the view of Orientalists, that women stay still as a disadvantaged group in the
Hizmet Movement because they seem not to be the front-runners and appointed leaders in the
organization structure. Cetin focuses on the motivation for participants that includes spiritual

46
resources and moral values like altruism, which constitute the social capital for the peaceful civil
society movement and on how it develops volunteerism, dialog and relationships to achieve
shared goals, competiveness and non-materialistic and non-contentious services within the 9
countries that Cetin had studied (Cetin, 2009: 166).
A Turkish counter mobilization called ―White Turk‖ is a powerful elite group that has
made several accusations on whether the Gülen Movement is a civic initiative or a civil society
movement, debating that it had either arisen as a reaction to a crisis or for the expression of
conflict, stating it as either a sect or cult, and/or whether it is a political movement or an altruistic
collective action. Cetin answered these questions categorically, defending that the Gülen
Movement is not established or struggle-based on reactionary, political or antagonistic interests,
nor is it a sect or cult. Cetin uses collective action and the frame theory for the collective
consciousness to explain this movement, stating that within its NGOs lies the ability to pursue
general goals over the long term; additionally, they have an insusceptibility to escapism,
extremism and violence, and in the simplicity of decision-making and mediation, in their
efficiency and effectiveness, and in their work ethics within which a variety of interests
collaborate (Cetin, 2009:225).
Robbins uses Kant‘s predictions that any society needs social altruism to be elevated to a
virtue of high standing and to be built in togetherness with others, towards common goals and
―working hard in the present for a happy future because the world‘s wealth is good enough for
all‖ (Robbins, 2008:103), whereby the Hizmet Movement gives hopes of achieving personal
sacrifice in the interest of collective actions and altruism and preserving the meaning of human
behaviour along with the richness of diversity in a global society (Cetin, 2009:169). However,
there is a remaining controversy and public discourse regarding the economical resources that
the movement has been using in its activities, the excessive use of which affect the political
economy.
An American professor specializing in the Sociology of Religion, Helen Rose Ebaugh
examines the financial resources of the movement and sees that it is founded by the controversial
Turkish preacher Fethullah Gülen as both an opportunity for the West and a serious alternative to
religious extremism after the September 11 event because helping others is the top priority in the
movement. Ebaugh states, ―A good person should be educated, uphold moral and ethical values,
maintain a relationship with God and assume social responsibility‖ (Daum, 2010). Ebaugh
mentioned a wide array of financial contributors belonging to different segments of Turkish
society, including industrialists, blue-collar workers, and graduate students to collect over 25
billion dollars (Ebaugh, 2010: 11). The working and middle classes are not the only
revolutionary subjects in this movement, although this is seen as a problem for Marxists theorists
as Marxist had believed that only the working class would contain true ―revolutionary subjects,‖
whereas the ―capitalistic theory of class struggle, democracy, and the Communism Manifesto‖
have become irrelevant in current society because of over accumulation, advanced technological
herds and egoist, self-centered individuals (Marx, Engels, 1986). A neo-liberal economy leads to
egoism and self-centred behaviour, and the hybrid hyper-reality in late capitalism is a big
dilemma that concerns whether democracy, liberty and individualism promote universal common
values or not. Orientalists still see the East as a collective culture of weak idealism and the
Western culture as superior to it. This continues to be an unsolved contradiction.
The Hizmet Movement has over two thousand elementary and high schools abroad,
nearly two thousand schools in Turkey, and 15 universities in 150 different countries worldwide,
47
while their participants have expressed trust on how their donations were being used and shown
a high degree of legitimacy for the movement‘s mission (Ebaugh, 2010:61).
The lot of Third World countries have provided school buildings with lesser costs to the
movement‘s organizers, despite the Hizmet Movement of Canada has struggled to open private
schools in Canada because of the lack of government support. Even since the time in which
Canada‘s Confederation was established, official bilingualism has been an important factor in
Canadian politics, and Canadian government schools have been used to create the Canadian
identity and integrate Canada‘s increasingly heterogeneous peoples‘ free-of-cost mandatory
attendance. These schools have begun to be called public schools, and advocates have pushed for
greater centralization and bureaucratic control. Without federal involvement, each state and local
government can decide the best use of public education dollars, whether it ranges on reducing
class sizes or implementing choice programs, although private schools are discouraged to be
opened, with the exception of Catholic schools that are privileged and sixteen charter schools
available only in Alberta. Public education in Canada is of sole concern to provincial and local
governments. I can advice that, as a strategy for the Hizmet Movement of Canada, social action
should be focussed on to fight for better education in Canada and promote the American Charter
school model. Unlike Canada, there are 390 charter schools in Texas educating more than 90,000
students (Morgan, 2011). The Hizmet Movement of Texas granted to operate 40 charter schools
in Texas that have served mostly the segregated Hispanic population located in cities since 2005,
and has recently opened, in 2010, a university called the North American College in Houston,
Texas, which is highly supported by the Texas government (Perlmeter, 2011).
The Hizmet Movement of Canada‘s first school was opened in Toronto, Ontario and
named Nil Academy in 2005, operating with its own community‘s resources to meet the needs
for a better education based on the Ontario curriculum. Nil Academy is a private elementary
school with experienced staff determined to maximize students' opportunities for success (Nil
Academy, 2011). The school has built its reputation on catering for individual needs and
diversity, but its target has not yet been achieved. A second school was opened in Montreal,
named Sogut Academy, in 2006 and follows Quebec‘s curriculum. Both schools had opened
high schools in 2008 and 2010 and enrolled over 400 students with the additional responsibility
for collecting their own funding. The Hizmet Movement‘s schools have segregated themselves
to be full of Turkish-originated students only which is unlike the samples of the other Hizmet
schools around the world, including the ones in Texas. In fact, 99% of Hizmet schools give
education to a diverse population, where the remainder of these schools lie generally in Canada.
There is therefore injustice, and an unwise and inequitable decision for Catholic schools to
receive government funding in Canada, while all other schools are not eligible for it. The Hizmet
Movement of Canada cannot reach its education goal within a socially constructed structure
because political and economical resources are not available in Canada.
As a matter of fact, Conservative John Tory lost the election on December 10, 2007,
since he had promised to spend $400 million to fully fund Jewish, Hindu, Muslim and other
religious schools provided they follow the provincial curriculum and comply with Ontario's
educational regulations. Currently, Catholic schools are the only religious schools to be publicly
funded, which has been the case since about 15 years before Confederation in 1867. The
Conservatives, Liberals and NDPs support continuing on with the status quo, while the Green
Party wants funding for Catholic schools abolished and replaced with one public system for
French and one for English. Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty is against segregating Canadian
children according to their faith, attempting to justify his position by mentioning that he ―cannot
48
jeopardize social cohesion in multiculturalism in Ontario‖ (Delaney, 2007). The movement can
use a strategic tactic to legitimate its actions by using the knowledge that the UNHCR declared
in 1999 that funding Ontario's Catholic schools to the exclusion of all others is discriminatory
and violates the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The Hizmet Movement of Canada has survived from a socially constructed and
racialized condition with its participants‘ commitments. The Resource Mobilization Theory
stipulates that individuals engage in collective action out of the calculation of necessity and
effectiveness, though they may participate in such action for reasons other than mere calculation,
for instance for such benefits as being in the inclusion of altruism, enlightened self-interest,
compassion, religious conviction and ideological commitment (Edward and McCarthy,
2004:120). The Hizmet Movement has changed its tactics and involved some social programs to
reduce poverty in Canada and abroad. One of the sister organizations of the movement, the Dicle
Islamic Society has allied with the Bosnian Toronto Community and organized together a
―Moral Values‖ competition amongst middle and high school students. The donation campaign
was organized for Pakistan and Haiti after the earthquakes in 2006 and 2010 for distributing
food, clothing, materials, supplies and other types of necessities, and money was collected for
poor African countries such as Madagascar, Malawi, and Mozambique in 2007, 2008, 2009 and
2010 (Dicle Islamic Society, 2011).
These organizations have connected and allied with the Helping Hands Relief
Foundation (HHRF) that is committed to improve individual and community lives at both a local
and a global scale. The Dicle Islamic Society has also contacted with the chaplain services of
Ontario to provide on a voluntary basis Chaplain Services in jails, hospitals and to those who are
in need. These programs diffused from the Hizmet Movement of Texas‘s successful model from
which new tactics and programs were borrowed and displayed the evidence to state that the
Hizmet Movement of Canada needs to join in alliances and networks for success. This initiative
should be taken to improve the movement‘s condition, although its organizations should begin to
receive grants from the government or private resources despite the fear of losing independence
status. This is a big debate, dilemma and contradiction for the future of the movement‘s success.

The Hizmet Movement of Canada uses every single one of several different political,
economic and cultural opportunities, activities, and existing resources for mobilization in order
to approach a rhetorical frame for support for its collective actions. I have observed that
solidarity is a key tactic in this social movement and that, with the augmentation of conscious
raising groups, the campaign for any social movement would be strengthened. Apparently, the
upward scale shift operates a direct diffusion that passes different classes through individuals and
groups, and plays a transitionary role through brokers throughout Canadian provinces. Tactics,
political opportunities and shifts have relied on human rights instruments in the context of
different campaigns to achieve the movement‘s objectives. However, the Dicle Society is unable
to get franchise agreement with the HHRF to operate anti-poverty programs more effectively in
Canada. Due to hiring limited paid or regular staff and relying on only volunteers, weaknesses
and limitations for the Hizmet Movement of Canada have arisen. Volunteers might face
inequality internally and need to have legitimacy and trusts that provide ongoing support and
maintain the movement‘s solidarity and continuity of actions. The Dicle Society‘s actions are
goal-oriented and built based on a fairly cohesive and homogeneous identity internally, which
strengthens the physical and psychological interaction and, in turn, facilitates collective action.
Profits are not the goal in international service projects. Neo-Marxist theorists hold that the
representation of movements as largely homogeneous subjects is no longer feasible (Lofland,
49
1996: 177). Gross-roots organizations are often seen as weak, fractured and disorganized, and
are prevented from getting the work done (Tang, 2005:51-56).The Dicle Society is registered as
a Non-Governmental-Organization(NGO), although it is structured like a corporation with a
board of directors, has by-laws, and is able to collect private donations without affiliation to the
state of Canada. However, belonging to a community-based project or a service-network in the
Hizmet Movement of Canada signifies the integration of an individual into a collective, de-
centralized, democratic and volunteer-based anti-bureaucratic system where there are appropriate
channels for the expression of claims, working more independently and sticking with core
objectives. On the other hand, the main weakness at hand is that programs are unable to get or
even seek government funding, as funds become a suspicious aspect to preventing the
achievement of the Hizmet Movement‘s central goals.
The Hizmet Movement of Canada also focuses on disunity problems in Canada. Since
2005, with several other sisters of non-profit organizations and nine newly established branches
throughout Canada, the Intercultural Dialog Institute (IDI) formed a new organization in 2010.
The Canadian Interfaith Dialogue Center had changed its name from ‗Interfaith‘ to be replaced
with ‗Intercultural‘ in 2008, and now has changed to ‗Institute‘ as a new tactic. The interfaith
area has many limitations and biases related with discriminations and segregations in Canadian
society. The unifying concept is fractured and fragmented within interfaith borders based on
media, academia and bureaucrat perceptions. IDI‘s main purpose is to forge bounds of lasting
friendship among diverse Canadians by identifying what it is that all Canadians have in common,
by learning to appreciate and honour differences, and by collaborating on mutually led beneficial
projects. The Hizmet Movement of Canada‘s division of labour is based on formal rules in
institutionalized organizations, while, in relational networks, tasks are allocated in an informal
manner, and mainly according to the skills that each member proves to possess and their
willingness to contribute to projects. Team work and competition along with co-operation and
consultation among service-projects are encouraged; competition between individuals is not.
There is no official membership for those who do not belong the movement but rather support its
collective action, and such participants‘ occupations are highly diverse and widespread from
engineers, teachers, professors, doctors, and nurses to factory workers or business men. Neither
newcomers nor existing participants are disintegrated, excluded or marginalized. Non-Turkish
managers and directors can be seen in the Hizmet Movement of Texas, but not yet in Canada.
Moreover, this movement is supported at large by modest, but crucial financial
contributions from members of the Turkish-Canadian community, although not from other
nations or the Canadian government. This limitation causes less resource availability. Equal
contributions are the generous contributions of time and talent by a huge number of volunteers
dedicated to the movement‘s vision of a global human solidarity. Some of the activities that are
held are dialogue and friendship dinners, talk series and seminars, neighbourhood visits,
community-based dialogue programs, courses and learning activities and cultural events that
reach out to Canadians, and as described, as short time goals (IDI, 2010). The movement has
many non-profit organizations in Canada which promote respect and mutual understanding
among all cultures and faiths through partnership with other communities and cultural, religious
and interreligious organizations by organizing educational and cultural activities, such as
seminars, conferences, discussion panels, luncheons, interfaith family dinners and cultural
exchange trips, with the aim to eliminate or reduce false stereotypes, prejudices and unjustified
fears through direct human communication as median term goals (IDI, 2011). The movement
defends the position that a discussion on cultural differences does not have to digress into

50
confusion, fighting, and anarchy. On the contrary, real peace can be achieved by sharing
different perspectives by listening to each other through the sphere of love, respect, tolerance,
mercy, and compassion, which will be the solution to end capitalism. This target is a long-term
target and takes time to be achieved. I suggest that government grants have no conflict or threat
for the autonomy principle of the movement because new tactics allow legitimating what the
movement offers, unifying Canadian identity (Tang, 2005: 54).

Conclusion
In conclusion, the Hizmet Movement has found its own interest for solidarity and
established mutual bonds between cultures, collaborated with visible and invisible networks at
the international level in its counterparts, and fought back against capitalism in a common way,
opposing American consumerism similar to the way of Situtionists, although without violence
and cultural jamming methods. The Hizmet Movement of Canada has been demonstrated as a
civil, moral, and holistic engagement and shows a social altruistic model as a non-governmental
organization, and offers non-political and non-violent enforcements which complete the gap
between the national state goals of Canada and individuals by providing the solutions to
ignorance, hopelessness and disunity. The Hizmet Movement targets the real humanization of
people and share of common goals for all humanity through educational, social and cultural
projects, and it has created many sustainable organizations which have been transformed to
revolutionary collective action wherein individuals commit themselves to their work, while
removing egoism from individuals to build a trust that is strongly possessive to the
consciousness to engage in and solve somebody else‘s struggles (Freire, 1993: 36-42).
Frame alignments, gender segregations, frame extensions, transformations of new ideas,
public representations and cultural innovations are still limitations and weaknesses of the Hizmet
Movement of Canada, whereas collective action and the collective conscious have become
strongly identified with the movement, although it is unlikely that Marx and Engels predicted
that the collective identity can be replaced with the class or collective consciousness (Bantjies,
2007: 161-163). I strongly claim that the movement will be able to cope with the identity crisis,
internal colonization, state interference, cultural politics and international world order to
establish stable organizations in Canada and abroad. However, the Hizmet Movement of Canada
has some limitations to expand its inside and outside resources, and such limitations have caused
the failure to adapt to numerous Canadian social programs and access available government and
private grants or funds, and in turn have caused the movement in Canada the inability to hire
more paid staff to operate existing programs efficiently. Gülen is a charismatic leader, but he has
chosen to be a servant leader, as he has offered a decentralized power structure and given power
and autonomy to local organization forms, choices and decisions that are made by the local
leaders of the movement.
The Hizmet Movement does not need to have an umbrella organization to co-ordinate or
rebuild a coalition of various NGOs for lobbying or collecting resources, since already some of
its sister organizations have formed formal chains of institutions that are not centralized or
heavily bureaucratic (Cetin, 2009: 203). This can be seen as an advantage for the short term,
although the movement needs to establish more of a hierarchical structure for achieving its long-
term goals. Gülen believes in the integrity of the individual; his approach to social restoration
and peace building, therefore, is one of the "bottom-up" social change that is similar to
Durkheim and the famous Muslim sociologist Ibn Khaldun's understanding of building peace
through the willingness of the individual to subordinate the group (Saritoprak, 2007). I do
51
believe in the individual responsibility within social actions and oppose structurelessness
because any social movement or organization should have some systemic structure for moving
forward towards further development. The one area that is still problematic in terms of the lack
of modernization in the movement is one that Ebaugh and Turam who have mentioned the
attitudes towards the role of women in the world. Women are seldom seen as public figures in
the movement, either in key positions, public events or of the dominant employee grouping in
the movement‘s institutions. Women cannot stay in their tradition roles anymore, however, such
as childcare, housekeeping and cooking as the movement adapts to other broader cultures. The
movement has become more worldwide and less Turkish over the last two decades, as it has
spread to modern, industrialized countries such as Canada and will be faced with the challenge
of redefining the role of women (Ebaugh, 2010: 121).
As a result, Gülen and the Hizmet Movement of Canada insist to follow the non-violent
strategy that through education, openness and inclusion, empowerment over oppressors is
possible; this strategy resembles Freire's pedagogical method of having the consistency and
richness of the types of interaction between many individuals on a multi-scale, and of having
strong multiple affiliations that result in an adaptive, spontaneous, and self-organizing network.
Such a network should also consist of representative leaders generated from people‘s
organizations through the bottom-up approach. Participants need to share the culture of Canada
and be recognized individually as social and collective actors, as the identity of the movement is
integrative to the current system rather than alienated. In fact, any forced identity is vulnerable,
risky and does not quarantine continuity and stability. This is why the Hizmet Movement of
Canada does not impose any identity and avoids meeting reactions and defensiveness. Degrees
of transparency and visibility in this movement can further be defined through the public
availability of information in virtual spaces, and through participants‘ social actions that have
been using public spaces, although the movement needs to open its borders to academia to
investigate for more inclusive and further empirical research.

References
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Social movements in an organizational society : collected essays edited by Mayer Zald and John
McCarthy (1987): 293–317. Reader
Akbar, S. Ahmed. (2009). Foreword to ―The Gulen Movement: Civic Service without Borders‖
Blue Dome Press, Xi.
Alinsky, Saul. Rules for Radicals. http://www.jasongooljar.com/AlinskyTactics.pdf

Bantjes, Rod. Chapter 2. State and Co-operative Movements, Social Movements In A Global
Context. Toronto : Canadian Scholars Inc, 2007. Print, 41-66

Bantjes, R. 2007. Chapter 3, Movement innovations in the 1960s – Resource mobilization, Social
Movements In A Global Context. Toronto : Canadian Scholars Inc, 2007. Print, 67-100
Bantjes, R. 2007. Chapter 4, Resistance to State Terror, Social Movements In A Global Context.
Toronto : Canadian Scholars Inc, 2007. Print, 101-134

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Bantjes, R. 2007. Chapter 5, Culture and the Politics of Identity, Social Movements In A Global
Context. Toronto : Canadian Scholars Inc, 2007. Print, 135-168
Bantjes, R. 2007. Chapter 6, Bureaucratization and Anarchist Resistance, Social Movements In A
Global Context. Toronto : Canadian Scholars Inc, 2007. Print, 169-190
Bantjes, R. 2007. Chapter 12, In search of Global Public Space, Social Movements In A Global
Context. Toronto : Canadian Scholars Inc, 2007. Print, 350-381
Cetin, Muhammed. (2009). ―The Gulen Movement: Civic Service without Borders,‖ Blue Dome
Press, Xxii, 104, 107, 167, 225, 229.
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Fundamentalism: Another Interview with Helen Rose Ebaugh. Editor: Aingeal
Flanagan/Qantara.de . Accessed on December 21, 2010 and retrieved from
http://www.fethullah-gulen.org/interviews/alternative-fundamentalism.html
Delaney, Joan. 2007. Religious Schools Funding Debate Rages as Ontario Election Nears. The
Epoch Times, published on September 28, 2007 and available at
http://www.theepochtimes.com/news/7-9-28/60187.html
Ebaugh, Helen Rose. (2010). The Gülen Movement: A Sociological Analysis of a Civic
Movement Rooted in Moderate Islam, Springer Press, p 7-8.
Edwards, B& McCarthy, J.D. (2004) Resources and Social Movement Mobilization. Blackwell,
116-52
Freire, Paulo. 1993. Pedagogy of the Oppressed, York University, Chapter 1, 26-51.
Harvey, David. 2005. The new Imperialism. Oxford University Press. Paper edition, p 34,
135,137, 22
Jolly, Stephen. (2010). The Gulen Movement. Department of Sociology, Old Dominion
University, accessed on 27 November 2010 at http://www.fethullah-gulen.org/op-ed/gulen-
movement.html
Klein, Naomi (2007). The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Publisher Metro, 24
Marx, Karl. 1978. The Secret of Primitive Accumulation‖ in Capital, Vol 1, Publsiher Penguen,
pp 148.
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Lofland, J. (1996) Social Movement Organizations: Guide to Research on Insurgent Realities.
New York: Aldine De Gruyter.
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Perlmeter, Rosemary. 2011. State cannot afford to shortchange public education. Dallas Business
Journal, published on January 28, 2011, available at
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shortchange.html
Robbins , Richard H. (2008). Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism, Fifth Edition, The
Nation-State in the Culture of Capitalism, Hunger, Poverty and Economic Development,
Religion and Anti-systemic Protest, Pearson Publisher, p 313
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Saritoprak, Zeki. (2007). Fethullah Gülen and His Global Contribution to Peace Building.
"Muslim World in Transition: Contributions of the Gülen Movement" was held at SOAS
University of London, House of Lords and London School of Economics on 25-27 October, 2007.
Smith, Morgan. 2011. Lawmakers May Come to Charter Schools‘ Aid
The New York Times, published on February 19, 2011, available at
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/education/20ttcharter.html?_r=2
Tang, Eric. 2005.―Non-Profits and the Autonomous Grassroots‖ from The Revolution Will Not
Be Funded. Left Turn, no 18, 51-57
The Dicle Islamic Society. 2011. http://www.islamicteaching.info/
The Intercultural Dialogue Institute (IDI). 2011.
http://www.interculturaldialog.com/about/who-we-are/
Turam, Berna. (2001). ―Between Islam and the State: The Engagements between Gulen
Community and the Secular Turkish State‖, unpublished PhD in McGill University., p i
Weber, Max. 1930. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism‖ in the Protestant Ethic and
the Spirit of Capitalism, pp 67-77.

54
Chapter 5

The Egyptian Movement: Was the crisis and revolution in Egypt one of its

own making or from MNCs‟ intervention?

The Arab World seeks out happiness through a liberal democratic model that assumes to
promise the core principles of human rights. The desperate people of Egypt are demanding to
have an ideal society, although the country`s entire corrupt system of governance, economy and
culture of political corruption must be dismantled. Creative destructions, foresighted predictions
and political manipulations cannot control humans and chaos; however, it is a certain fact that a
new Middle East can come out unexpectedly, when no one anticipates it to. NGOs‘ successes
and failures in mobilizing support and bringing about change can be understood by looking at
their creative use of tactics and strategies in response to the actions of other political players: the
media, competing NGOs, counter-movements, and the hegemonic power of MNCs and the state.
I will critically examine two main theoretical concepts and provide contrast and compare
analyses in Egypt with social theories and politics derived from the Marxist economic class
struggle and Weber`s political power on legitimacy. These theories have been involved in and
impacted the recent Egyptian revolution as they are concerned with political, cultural and
economical factors that have sparked the rising social movement and directly influenced it
because people are either proponents or opponents of the current situations.

I will answer the following several questions concerning this paper. Change is forthcoming, but
why now? Why not before? What are its main social causes? Whose interests will it serve? Is
this change all about Multinational Corporations (MNCs) and meant for capitalistic profiting
interests? Was the crisis and revolution in Egypt one of its own making or from MNCs‘
intervention? I will discuss a long battle between Marx and Weber on class and power struggles.

Class Struggle of the Egyptian Youth Movement

The question is how a class struggle has arisen in Egypt; and why has it done so now?
The international, financial, and economic crises have negatively affected the Egyptian economy
since mid-2008. The Egyptian banking sector has limited integration to the global financial
market. The impact on the real economy has been reflected by several indicators, such as the
decline of the GDP growth from 7.2% in 2008 to around 4.5% in 2009, a reduced flow of
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), and a decline in domestic investment. Due to these export-
oriented sectors, manufacturing and tourism have been affected (CJPME, 2011). Internal
Migration began in the 1950s and has been strongly influenced by poverty, economic difficulties,
and improper socioeconomic policies occurring after the 1990s that involved both skilled and
unskilled workers. Rapid population growth is one of the crucial problems that have hindered
development efforts in Egypt, for instance, the country`s population is about 72 million today.
About 95 percent of its population is crowded within five cities that constitute five percent of the
total land area that follows the course of the Nile, which represents the main source of water for
agriculture, and consequently is a major determinant of the spatial distribution of population and
economic life. The remaining 95 percent of the land is desert. Although this situation can be seen
55
as a kind of ‗natural response‘ to the geography of the country`s economic opportunity,
migration to large cities has further imbalanced Egypt‘s population distribution. The very poor
families send their young males to Cairo, since this is the cheapest alternative to escaping rural
poverty (Zohry, 2005). Unemployment has been a chronic problem amongst women and youth,
where vulnerable employment among females has amounted to 53% compared to 21% for men.
Food prices and shortages have increased since 2008, while President Mubarak responded by
raising the salary of all public sector employees with 30%, which was allotted to and thus
benefited only government employees, including police and security forces. There are no real
political parties in the Western sense of political movements developed by certain segments of
society with a particular ideology or programme in Egypt (CJPME, 2011).
Starting from the 25th of January, 2011, large scale demonstrations were organized in 18
days in different cities around Egypt by the 6 April Youth Movement, calling for an end to
President Hosni Mubarak‘s three-decade rule. Dissatisfactions over corruption, lack of freedom
of speech, economic issues such as food price inflation, high unemployment, low wages and the
enrichment of the ruling elite were the reasons for the protests. State terror evidently seemed to
be a response to sedition, although both it and civil terror are illegal acts to overthrow the
government by non-parliamentary means, such as through rioting. Being a part of a country, or
having some sort of citizenship, might also suggest the idea of individuality in which people
construct their own meanings about certain practices or beliefs within their everyday lives. With
state terror in place, a sort of fear is instilled in people to make them feel afraid of individuality;
possibly it is meant for people to conform in accordance with the desires of the state.
After 18 days of angry protests and after losing the support of the military and the United
States, Mubarak resigned on February 11, 2011, ending the 30 years of his autocratic rule. The
military stepped forward and took power. It quickly suspended the unpopular provisions of the
Egyptian Constitution, even while cracking down with continuing demonstrations conducted
mostly by youths. On March 19, 2011, a set of constitutional amendments that paved the way for
elections was overwhelmingly approved in a referendum that drew record from numbers of
voters. Although the 6 April Youth Movement didn‘t support the new constitutional
amendments, surprisingly the NDP, or Mubarak`s party, and Muslim Brotherhood did. In
addition, the 18-member ruling council has promised to hand over legislative powers after the
parliamentary election in September 2011, declaring that executive powers would be transferred
after the presidential election, which will be held on November 2011. Egyptian civilians are still
skeptical about how this revolution is moving forward, despite that the military and all security
forces haven‘t met a list of unaccomplished goals which were proposed by protesters, including
the arrest of leading members of the old government, serious trials for corrupt businessmen, and
the removal of university presidents and provincial governors appointed by Mubarak. Youths are
not happy and suggest that protests and popular pressure must return, because they are the only
real method of realizing the people‘s demands.
Marx‘s famous claim describes that under capitalism all that is solid melts into air and
comes face to face with the economic nature of our relations with each other and the material
power of the ruling class (Bantjes, 2007). A small minority of people central in the Egyptian
economy, or capitalists, make huge profits by exploiting workers, and thus extracting surplus
value from their labour. Egypt has been forced to adopt a new neo-liberal global economy that
imposes productivity, competitiveness and high-speed informational technology. Capitalism has
made old certainties such as metaphysical, religious and political beliefs as merely useless
thought, claiming additionally that modern science can be the only factor to solve problems. As
Marx believes that the result of capitalism enforces the opening of markets wherein everything
can be bought and sold and which are run by the new global economy network, a capitalist
56
group. Marx seems to think that the development of capitalism is something we all have to suffer
centrally until something better comes along, however, for now the capital is driven by industrial
production and the class struggle, which show the main theoretical case in Egypt.
As Marx had said, modern capitalism has carried with it a tendency to constantly
revolutionize the means of production and lend a cosmopolitan character to economic activity,
within which it dominates, leading to mean that capitalism has an inherent drive to spread its
tentacles around the globe as it globalizes. Capitals fly very fast today and MNCs are like
commanders from pirate ships that sail them with neo-liberal economists and weakening national
states in secretive and anti-democratic ways, while capitalists use democracy, liberty and human
rights as efficient tools. Marx and Engels theorized and expected that the model of class
formation and conflict would provide a solution to the problem of how the powerless can gain
power, and they offered the culture of mutualism and decentralized democracy to unify workers,
which then built up working class communities in turn for changes in working conditions as
capitalism lurches from crises to crises toward its final end (Marx and Engels, 1848). Marx sees
the long history of humanity as the history of class struggle. All class societies have existed
based on one operating principle: exploitation.
Classes emerge because the dominant class exploits the labouring class; the exploited
classes always struggle against their oppressors. Sometimes these class struggles take on violent
forms, but are generally non-violent. The basics of Marx and Engels‘ original formulations of the
‗reserve army of labour‘ and ‗alienation‘ and many of their predictions are seen throughout
capitalism and globalization today in Egypt. The capitalist dictators in Arab nations who retain
power and the working class remain in the bottle of hierarchy, which is illustrated with the
definition of the ―reserve army of labour‖ (Engels, Marx, 1848). Marx‘s theories explain that
capitalistic crises occur in response to falling rates of profit, unplanned over-production and
technological halt and waste (Rahbarir, 2011).
There is the dilemma that the freedom fighters of Egyptians want to consume more
American goods and adapt the hegemonic culture of Americanism even whilst they hate the
USA. The global economy and globalization dangerously depend on a ―US based recovery of
consumerism,‖ and the US is a hegemonic power as well as MNCs (Harvey, 2005). On the
contrary, the workplace has become like a prison in Egypt; workers are slaves in such prisons
where exploitation and alienation have grown much more, even though worker hatred and
rebellion have diminished, although this dehumanizing progress is under the control of the
reserve army of cheap labour, which is ready to replace current workers. As large corporations
close down small town business owners, they begin to gain a type of monopoly, wherein the
working class is forced to work under any condition. They are so desperate for work that if an
employee objects to the working conditions, it is no problem to fire them and replace them in a
matter of minutes. This is the idea behind the reserve army of labour. In a sense, there is a line-
up of working class citizens who are so desperate for money that they will take any job available.
The capitalist system and capitalists have used the economic crisis and oppression to exploit
potential rebellion workers, but unlike this they have encouraged and funded rebellion groups in
Egypt because MNCs have planned to put forth worse working conditions during the transition
period of democracy and within the liberal economic model, which simply promotes the
―homogeneity and sameness‖ that is associated with Westernization and Americanization, or the
new faces of colonialism (Harvey, 2005).
Marx argued that in order for a revolution to be successful, you have to have the
proletariat as organizing leaders; the bourgeoisie are too comfortable with their state and position
in life to offer a full-hearted commitment to this cause. However, it is in fact that the recent
Egyptian revolution wasn‘t the result of working class Marxists, new leftist political figures or
57
even radical Islamist groups, but rather the unemployed university-educated secular, young
segregated population that had simply whistled their efforts to crystallize, or clarify, anti-
capitalist, anti-colonialist and anti-American struggles, although the method they chose to
achieve this goal was not by basically criticizing the entirety of the capitalistic way of life.
Neither did they follow the practises used by Provos and Situationists in the 1960s, who had
provided critiques of capitalism by using such protest tactics as the alienation of consumption,
driving or riding a bike, wearing underwear, using drugs, and following eating habits against
consumerism because of socialist ideas due to collapsed ideology of Soviet Union (Mann, 2009).
Marx`s dialectical theory is very important for social change in Egypt. Systems as
wholes, constant fluxes (wherein changes aren‘t static and naturals take place) and primary
sources of change are internal. Mainstream societies have no external conflicts. Human being
principals of social changes are external centres that depend on the view of internal
contradictions. The Marxist theory talks about how cultures are structured in ways that enable
the group holding power to have maximum control with minimum conflict. However, every
member of society should have equal rights of use and the control of production, which are
called communal and private ownerships. The source of relation is different in different types of
societies, so where inequalities exist, in fact, Marxists` target to idealize communism has never
been achieved yet (Rahbarir, 2011).

Weber‟s bureaucracy, legitimacy, Iron Cage and power


Weber ignores Marx`s conflict theory and understands society at the micro level.
However, the competition for political power in Egypt is strictly limited, since the NDP had been
headed by president of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, since 1981 and it had also been the dominating
party in Parliament. Elections in Egypt are not free nor are they held in line with democratic
norms. A turning point for legitimacy, the Emergency Law was renewed by the government for a
term of two years, having begun on 26 May, 2008, and so Mubarak`s regime lost its legitimacy
and support from the U.S. and MNCs. The Emergency Law makes it possible for Egyptian
authorities to detain anyone who criticizes or challenges the government, without any juridical
justification or fair process, as several basic rights and liberties are suspended. The dehumanized
population in Egypt was sick of having a dictator who allied with the hegemonic powers that
took control over them in order to increase such powers` own profit without being looked upon
as monsters. The idea of unity and cultural innovation emerged through a shared sense of
dehumanization. While the population`s cultural views have changed, those of the government
have not, resulting in conflict and imbalance between the two. The recent rebellions and
resistance of Egyptians is a case that is the best example that proves the fallibility of
dictatorships, and at the same time, street protests have portrayed the rising of civil society
collectively; furthermore, the social network and global civil society are playing important roles
for consciousness. The realm of civil society, the free press, independent political parties, unions
and NGOs whose existence are needed to organize a powerful social movement were
simultaneously limited in Egypt and caused the loss of the power relationship between
government and society.
One of the several controversial Weber approaches explicitly shows the spirit of the
modernity of capitalism as one that impacts culture, economic behaviour as in the capitalism of
products, and unique cultural totality, which is the most rhetorical objective of materialism that
establishes the superiority of idealism, which attempts to change the system. Weber states that
the spirit of capitalism is available only in the West, as the ``Calvinist movement has ethnos and
58
economic action that is peaceful profit pursuit. Acquisitiveness is maximum possible
accumulation‖ (Weber, 1930). In fact, the Political Opportunity Structure impacts the Egyptian
movement‘s legitimacy based on collective action and the resources of political space, the social
network, and international funding, which are crucial to challenging the authoritarian illegitimate
regime, although the movement needs to ―have internal and external alliances to eliminate
extreme forms of nationalistic types of state repression, terror tactics and power inequalities‖
(Edwards and McCarthy, 2004). Theorists haven‘t yet predicted that Egyptians could act with
self-sacrificing behaviour, which Weber called ―value rationality‖ rather than instrumental
rationality (Rahbarir, 2011). Instead of thinking of personal benefits and costs, Egyptians have
acted based on whatever is right no matter what the consequences they will face, including
torture as physical brutality or psychological repression.
There are cultural, historic, and geographic differences on top of the political and
economic aspects of social order, that produce the wide range of social power relations and
repertoires of contention to balance political and economic power. The Egyptian state has used
terror created through violence, torture and assassination as a means of governance and as a way
to try to eliminate all institutions within the civil society that could mediate on behalf of its
citizens against sedition. There are three types of resources that gave rise to the protest formation
of the human liberty rights in Egypt: The survival of civil society organizations and spaces,
personal networks that people could trust, and external links to supportive networks and
organizations and funding from outside the country. Many Arab protests have been organized in
a less bureaucratic structure, taking risk of protestors` lives and putting people at the risk of
assassination for a greater cause, for something they deem right and truly believe in.
Weber saw the bureaucratic organization as technically superior to other forms of
hierarchy and class. In the light of the Egyptian revolution, it would be a misconception to
assume that millions of Egyptians were centrally organized through a small bureaucratic system.
According to Weber, for most of human history, people lived in small face-to-face groupings that
were relatively egalitarian and where the exercise of individual leadership was limited and
occasional, whereas his explanation of oligarchy is a feature of social systems created by humans
(Mann, 2009). Specialized tasks seem to bring individuals to a point where because their work is
constant and repetitive, they are able to complete their work without actual attention or full
consciousness because it becomes like second-nature to them. The division of labour can also be
further broken down into temporary task allocation and leadership acts. This might be where
individuals are assigned a temporary responsibility to allocate specific or various tasks, and other
individuals are given the responsibility to act as leaders though the individual has limited power
in the system, whereof ―there is no moral foundation and spirit at all within the capitalism‖ (
Rahbarir, 2011). Weber was right to state that freedoms and democracies are not the product of
capitalism (Rahbarir, 2011). As a matter of fact, the most of Egyptians have been living in
Weber‘s ―Iron Cage‖ in a highly socially constructed bureaucracy, trapped and with nowhere to
go and thus cannot survive in the current system.

Marx versus Weber Discussion


Marx takes on a wider, macro view of capitalism, like when stating it is the upper classes
that trample on the working class, whereas Weber looks at capitalism in a more micro fashion,
by looking at how people interact with one another. Weber accepts that a middle class exists;
whereas for Marx it's just the bourgeoisie and proletariat. The social class theories of Marx and
Weber both recognize the importance of private property in the differences between classes. But
59
they differ over the causes for the creation of different classes. According to Marx's view, the
interests of the proletariat are the abolition of the private property and class, and that those of the
capitalists are the maintenance of private property for increasing profits (Marx, Engels
1986). Weber recognized that inequality was also created by status and power, and believed that
people could use these to gain privilege and wealth whereas a ―class is ultimately defined by
market situation; status is defined by rank or position and a person‘s way of life‖ (Bendix, 1962).
Weber claims that power can be gained in three ways: party power, status, and economic power,
whereas Marx says that economic power is the only form of power (Rahbarir, 2011). Marx
devised Classical Marxism, within which workers are united to make change in order to allow
equality via the working class`s uprising. Weber says that in society one should aim to achieve
seeing the world through someone else's shoes. This would show that Weber‘s idea of power is
more idealistic, although more coercive and legitimate in the Egyptian case.
Weber sees the source of the new form of labour as the main idea for primitive
accumulation, and that the source of class struggle comes from feudalism, for instance, most
Egyptians are living within an agrarian society. Land means of production is needed in order to
survive, and nothing but to escape. Unlike Marx, the roles of ideas, such as religious ones, are
important for Weber. There is a no-rules basis within colonialism, imperialism, or slavery in
Weber‘s view, although they are not developed by capitalism, which is against humanity and
supports slavery. Marx says that without colonialism, there is no capitalism. In evidence,
Weber‘s thesis was based on mythology and perspective. Egypt has a long history of colonialism
and slavery. The Marxist division of labour has led to alienation because capitalists have
exploited the workers spiritually and physically like a machine (Rahbarir, 2011).
The center idea of Marxism understands human beings, and how their social structures
are. A social relation of production is not realistic; so Marxist political economies exist together
and are related to each other with each mode of production bringing social, cultural and
economical relations together. Marxists‘ analysis suggests that capitalists own banks, factories,
media, corporations, and businesses, that is, the means of production - profit from exploiting the
workers (Hill, 2008). The survival of subsistence is the reason of human production. Most
importantly, distributions characterize reciprocities, equalities and inequalities. Egyptians have
tried to survive on consumption based on the Marxist term of materialistic needs (Rahbarir,
2011).
Marx and Engel‘s predictions of the future are being fulfilled in today‘s world, if not in
the avoidance of mainstream media that would better aid the mobilization of transitory teams.
According to Marx, there is no true natural desire for the human being, since protesters have
been living in a matrix and hyper-reality in the public space—the Tahriri Square—that has
become a desert of reality (Rahbarir, 2011). There is an emphasis on the idea of media being a
sort of a facilitator in transferring messages from one dissatisfied individual to another, allowing
the organization of individuals into NGOs in the recent Egyptian movement. Marx says that the
bourgeois have the need to constantly revolutionize the instruments of production and they are
facilitated in doing so by the means of communication. Marx did not live to see the speed of
communication through telephones, fax machines, cell phones and the internet, and with
networks such as facebook and twitter, as used by the recent Arabs movements. However, it is
easy to see how they serve the causes of globalization. Capitalism has been global since its
inception, but these forms of communication have turned the planet into a single factory. They
are able to manufacture easily and find raw materials readily.

60
In conclusion, the idea of undesired citizens might be taken into consideration with the
historical contexts behind the current uprisings and rioting in Egypt that were organized on such
citizens` own behalf, and they pose some sort of threat to the quality and integrity of particular
elites because class conflicts and the abolishment of ideologies have dehumanized and
dismantled the collective identity of the population which was replaced by collective
consciousness. Internal migration is a response to unemployment, the failure of economic
policies, improper allocation of international assistance, and to limited survival opportunities in
Egypt. International remittances and internal-like migrants especially to the Arab Gulf countries
are higher than internal migrants, and Egypt ranked fifth among developing countries in
remittances (Zohry, 2005). Mostly the Marxist class struggle and alienation theories have proven
to be true in Egypt because Marx believes that class is based on the existing economy and
various groups` relationship to the means of production, whereas Weber believes in the social
condition and ―rational systemic pursuit of scientific knowledge‖ of the West that created
modern capitalism because of the ―culture of nationality, and systematic thinking,‖ although
classes were created by the inequalities of the market and the skills of individuals, as well as
recognizing the role of status and power (Weber, 1930; Marx 1986). Western colonizers and the
United States have established ―a series of global patronage system-military junta-dictator
relationships which are subordinated to organize capital to serve the interests of capital in a few
capitalist hands in Egypt, in both its local and global forms‖ (Nazemroaya, 2011).
Rationalization and dehumanization techniques used by the oppressors to justify their
exploitation of others are the construction of belief in their entitlement for over centuries in
Egypt. They have risen now because MNCs and hegemonic power may get more benefits from
the recent revolution, while they sell liberal democracy and the economic model within
capitalism. Egypt will less likely be living in an egalitarian society and gaining equality for all in
the neo-liberal capitalistic globalism. Individuals will barely be satisfied because their needs
meet criteria limitless in the new free enterprise system and require liberal democracy in the near
future. Egypt made its own crisis with the help of MNCs` intervention as the global hegemonic
power interest. Despite the advances in production and communication, capitalism has not been
able to alleviate the vast majority of people from conditions of absolute dire poverty. In fact,
capitalism can only thrive in such a condition where the masses are dispossessed and the few
own and control all. Marx says that in doing so, they have managed to sow the seeds of their own
destruction. The revolution that Marx predicted has not come about yet. However, looking at the
events of recent Arab civil rebellions, it is increasingly clear that capitalism is in crisis.

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Development Research Centre on Migration, Globalisation and Poverty University of Sussex,
July 2005, 1, 88, 91

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Chapter 6
Stopping Abuse by Canadian Companies in the DRC

By Faruk Arslan, Gregorio Imeneo, Justin Kowalesky, Katie Pipitone, Allan Roy, Lina Sovani,
Mariana Huesca, Ashley Amendola

Abstract:
What is Conflict Mineral? ‗Conflict Minerals‘ are minerals mined under conditions of armed
conflict and human rights abuses, most notably occurring in the Democratic Republic of Congo
(DRC). If you own a mobile cell phone, mp3 player, or laptop computer, then it is likely that you
have a little piece of the Congo in your pocket right now. The Congo possess 80% of the worlds
‗columbite- tantalite (coltan)‘, a mineral that is able to hold a high electronic charge and is now a
vital component to many small electronic devices. With its abundance of natural mineral
resources, the DRC could be one of the most prosperous countries in Africa. Mines are now
controlled by both government and rebel troops who are at war with each other, and occupy and
control the communities, forcing men, women, and children to serve as miners under hard labour
slave-like conditions with unsafe inadequate tools. The minerals are then smuggled across the
border and sold by rebel groups for guns and weapons to fund their war, leaving no profit to the
workers or the country, as today the Congo remains one of the poorest nations in the world. The
conflict in the DRC has claimed more than 5 million lives, making it the planets deadliest
conflict since World War II – yet this forgotten war rarely makes headlines in the world media.
Unfortunately this new mineral is now responsible for much of the turmoil, death, and
devastation in the Congo, fuelling a bloody conflict where rape, forced labour, and brutal
violence is used to paralyze communities at the expense our appetite for high-speed, small
electronics.
Key words: Congo, coltan, cell phone, social movement, power, exploitation

How We Spoke Up in the Name of our Social Movement!

We have created a group from forth year honour degree sociology students and focused on
Congo‘s conflict minerals. Our group members are Gregorio Imeneo, Faruk Arslan, Justin
Kowalesky, Katie Pipitone, Allan Roy, Lina Sovani, Mariana Huesca, Ashley Amendola. We
should mention Matthew Sheasgreen as honourary member who dropped this class the end of the
February 2011. How it is that people speak up in the name of a social movement or issue? How
to generate a popular movement on an issue, the members of a social movement must choose
from different avenues such as whether they wish to form alliances, lobby the state to make
changes in legislation, or use a specific platform or a physical and discursive space within which
to advance (Bantjes, 2007: 292). This is something that we, as a group, had to really think about.
Beginning back in January of 2011, we had to first have to decide on an issue, which in itself
took a lot of time in trying to come to a consensus. Then there were all of the major and minor
decision making processes along the way. Our vision, objective and mission statement took
63
several weeks to form as it was initially difficult to gain a consensus on what we were actually
trying to fight for, change, or bring awareness to with this project.

Eventually our vision was formed: Our mission is to create a public awareness campaign that
reveals the significant role those electronic corporations in Canada and abroad play in
contributing to the unethical trade of 'conflict minerals' that has further led to the political
instability and ongoing human rights abuses in the DRC. The electronic industry is a multi-
billion dollar entity that has unethically traded resources with the DRC in order to make popular
high-demand consumer products such as cell phones, laptops, iPods, digital cameras..etc, and we
would like to publicly educate consumers (by disclosing the companies which use conflict
minerals) on how their purchases contribute to the dangerous mining and civil war in the DRC,
so that they can then make informed choices. Through public education, awareness, and
demonstrations, we will attempt to have the general public sign petitions to put pressure on
corporations who use conflict minerals - in hopes that through the power of numbers, we can
pressure corporations to produce conflict free technologies. We will ally with ‗WarChild‘, an
international non-profit organization, with the intention of raising money for their cause and
directing additional people to their organization. Through our public awareness campaign,
‗Wake Up to the Conflict‘, we hope to raise awareness by informing the general public of the
human rights abuses that are occurring in the Democratic Republic of Congo, due to the
extraction of ‗conflict minerals‘.

With our vision set, we began working collectively on our Wake Up to the Conflict campaign.
We were able to accomplish the following:
- Create a petition to the government of Canada with upwards of 500 signatures
- Create a public awareness flyer to be handed out on our tabling day (300 distributed)
- Made contact with political representatives and politicians, two of which wrote
official letters of support for our campaign.
- Made contact and allied with the international non-profit organization ‗WarChild‘
who agreed to work closely with us (we raised $56.67 for their cause on our tabling day)
- Made various eye-catching and effective posters to be display on our campaign day
- Created a FaceBook page called ‗Wake up to the Conflict in Congo‘
- We had an article explaining our cause published in a York newspaper
- Wrote letters and sent emails to electronic corporations urging them to stop and
regulate the use of ‗conflict minerals‘.
- We had a table reserved through York University, and on Wednesday March 23 from
2-4:30 pm, we held our public awareness demonstration
- We wrote multiple blogs reflecting on the processes and direction of our campaign
... all of this was done on a whopping budget of $0 !!!

Our group work has started in the early February 2011 in the Political Economy of Social
Movement class with one of the powerful articles called "Blood Cells" states that, two former
Canadian prime ministers have links to mining in the Congo. Brian Mulroney sits on the board of
Barrick Gold. According to a 2005 Human Rights Watch report, Barrick operated a gold mine in
64
the Congo's Haut Uele District until 1998. In the mid 1990s, Joe Clark was both leader of the
Progressive Conservative Party and a special advisor on Africa for the mining company First
Quantum Mineral, according to a 2007 report by The Dominion. First Quantum's website
indicates the company is still doing business in the Congo (Browne, 2008; French, 2009).

While former prime ministers have been active in the Congo, Canadian governments have been
almost completely silent on the Congo and the impacts of Canadian mining companies operating
in the country. This, despite several United Nations reports drawing attention to illegal corporate
exploitation of the Congo's minerals. Eighty per cent of the population in the Congo live on 30
cents a day or less, with billions of dollars going out the back door and into the pockets of
mining companies,' says Maurice Carney, who works with the Washington-based Friends of the
Congo. "It was against this backdrop that Apple released its eagerly awaited 3G iPhone in July,
selling more than one million units its first weekend out. "Does the new iPhone use Congolese
coltan? Several calls to Apple's corporate office failed to get an answer to that question.
So what can people do who don't want to be indirectly fueling a war but aren't ready to stop
using their phones? Carney suggests three things:
"1) Call their cell phone manufacturer and ask if their phones contain Congolese coltan.
"2) Do what they can to make sure their personal savings or pension money is not invested in
companies doing business in the Congo.
"3) Support the Congolese people by raising awareness of the war.

Carney also says that recycling cell phones can help by reducing overall demand for coltan. Cell
phone recycling services are available in some Canadian cities. Switching phones less often also
helps lessen demand. "For manufacturers, Carney believes it's not about getting Congolese coltan
out of their products. Rather, "they can use their enormous power to pressure their governments
to take action on the Congo. Carney states his organization would like companies to urge
governments and their suppliers to ensure that any coltan coming from the Congo is acquired
legally and benefits the Congolese people (Browne, 2008). Congo's Angels states this: "Major
United States players include: Cabot Corporation, Boston, MA, OM Group, Cleveland,
Ohio,AVX, Myrtle Beach, SC, Eagle Wings Resources, International, Ohio, Trinitech
International, Ohio, Kemet Electronics Corporation, Greenville, SC , Vishay Sprague. Malvern,
PA‖ (Browne, 2008).

Corporations from other countries have been a part of the coltan exploitation chain. These
companies include but are not limited to Germany's HC Starc and EPCOS, China's Nigncxia, and
Belgium's George Forrest International. Once the coltan is processed and converted to
capacitors, it is then sold to companies such as Nokia, Motorola, Compaq, Alcatel, Dell,
Hewlett-Packard , IBM, Lucent, Ericsson and Sony for use in a wide assortment of everyday
products ranging from cell phones to computer chips and game consoles. Amnesty International
details that there have been many human rights violations reported due to the economic
exploitation (Browne, 2008; Toronto Star, 2009).

For example:

 Thousands of Congolese civilians have been tortured and killed during military
operations to secure mineral-rich lands.
 Foreign forces from Rwanda and Uganda have promoted interethnic conflicts and mass
killings as a means to secure mining zones.
65
 Combatants of the various forces in the region have killed or tortured independent miners
and traders for their minerals or money.
 Many of the hundreds of thousands of inhabitants, driven from their homes into
neighboring countries or other parts of the DRC, have died from malnutrition and lack of
access to humanitarian assistance.
 Children as young as 12 have been among those forced into hard labor in the mines.
 Human rights defenders who have reported or criticized such abuses have been beaten,
detained, forced to flee, or killed.

Figure I: Electronic companies ranked by progress on conflict mineral

These are top ten Canadian Companies involved the mineral conflict in Congo: ―Paladin Energy
Ltd., Namibia First Quantum Minerals Ltd., AMGOLD Corp., Katang Mining Ktd., Anvil
Mining Ltd., Minerals Ltd., Mining Inc., Banro Corporation, Egypt Ltd., Mantra Resources Ltd.
(McCarthy, 2010). At the end of 2008, Canadian companies had mining assets of $21-billion
(U.S.) in 33 countries, although 92 per cent of that was concentrated in just eight countries:
Democratic Republic of Congo; Madagascar; Zambia; Tanzania; South Africa; Ghana, Burkina
Faso and Mauritania. The strong Canadian presence is the result of the country‘s traditional
mining prowess and the financial clout of the Toronto Stock Exchange, which is the world‘s
largest capital market for the mining sector. The exchange has 169 listed companies that have

66
projects in Africa, from giants like Barrick Gold Corp. to exploration companies like Orezone
(McCarthy, 2010).

Figure II: Distribution of Canadian Mining Investment in Africa

Source: Natural Resources Canada - Figure is taken from McCarthy‘s article, 2010.

Our plan:
 To increase public awareness regarding Conflict Minerals and their use in the electronics
they are purchasing.
 To write e-mails to the companies listed in the graph above, asking them what they are
doing to progress towards the responsible sourcing of Minerals in the Congo.

How we approached this:


 We made flyers with this graph on it and information and set up a table at York.
 We talked to people to increase awareness.
 We both encouraged companies as well as pressured them by using the competitive
nature of the electronics market as a tool.

What are some of the problems that can be encountered with this approach?
 People being so detached from the products means that awareness may not alter their
purchasing decisions.
 Unless we can prove to be a threat to companies‘ income, we may not be taken seriously.
67
 Outsourced labour can be used as a way to escape responsibility and accountability.
 Even if we are successful, we are indirectly perpetuating inequality by using a system
that creates oppression, to fight oppression.

What you can do to help?


 *Educate yourself - about the significant role electronic companies in Canada play
in contributing to the unethical trade of 'conflict minerals' that has further led to the
political instability and ongoing human rights abuses in the DRC.
 *Make informed choices – ask manufacturers where their minerals are coming from
before you purchase their product.
 *Sign Petitions and write to your MP - to put pressure on corporations who use conflict
minerals, or the governments who turn a blind eye to the regulation of the technology
industries - in hopes that through the power of numbers, we can pressure corporations to
produce conflict-free technologies.
 *Donate to organizations who are supporting the people of the Congo- such as
‗WarChild‘, an international non-profit organization that has a special division in the
DRC to help to reduce the effects of poverty, provide an education to, and defend and
promote human rights for children effected by the atrocities that are now occurring due to
the extraction of conflict minerals.
We have allied with a Member of Parliament for Scarborough-Guildwood, John McKay
who sent letter to support our campaign he was the sponsor of Bill C-300, An Act
Respecting Corporate Accountability for the Activities of Oil, Mining and Gas in the
Developing World in 2009. McKay wished to extend his support to the Wake Up to the
Conflict Campaign. McKay mentions that,

“In certain cases, the activities of mining, oil, and gas corporations, operating in developing
countries can contribute to and even ignite conflict. The resources that are extracted from these
areas are then sold to developed countries, and used to make many of the electronic devices
that we enjoy today. The current government however, has done little to curb the practice of
the unethical trade of conflict minerals, and has demonstrated its apathy for corporate social
responsibility through the defeat of Bill C-300_ Along with the Wake up to Conflict campaign, I
urge the Canadian government to follow the lead of the United States, and implement
legislation to prohibit the trade of conflict minerals from the violence prone Great Lakes region
in Africa. I also urge the government to implement the recommendations of the 2007
Roundtable Report on Corporate Social Responsibility, and create an independent Ombudsman
to investigate the allegations of abuse by Canadian companies. I commend the Wake up to
Conflict Campaign for championing such a worthy cause.” (McKay, 2011).

Our second ally was MP Rob Oliphand who has sent letter as well at the following:

“I am pleased to inform you of my support for the Wake Up to the Conflict campaign at
YorkUniversity.
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Wake Up to the Conflict addresses a very serious issue, and one that is highly relevant to
Canadians.Natural resources are an important part of Canada's economy. It is, therefore, crucial
that we, as a community concerned about ethics, sustainability arid transparency, ensure these
minerals are extracted in a fair way. Furthermore, it is our duty to ensure that all minerals
present in the electronics we use are produced ethically and fairly. The Congo, on which the
project focuses, has been rife with conflict for years, and is certainly in need of Canadian
assistance. We should do our part to raise this issue strongly and thoroughly to help build an
economy based on justice and equality. It is-unfortunate that Liberal MP John McKay's
Corporate Social Responsibility Act failed to pass as it would have placed controls on our mining
companies overseas. As informed citizens, we must work to pressure any and all abusive
companies, particularly until such time as effective regulative legislation is passed. I lend my
strong support to this project, as well as groups such as Human Rights Watch, WarChild and
Mine Watch, to spread awareness of Canadian mining activities overseas and its impact on our
daily lives.”( Oliphand, 2011).

We have created a petition to address this issue and collected over six hundred signatures
with this statement:

We, the undersigned residents of Canada, draw the attention of the House of Commons to the
following:

“The government of Canada failed to pass the Bill C-300 which was designed to put controls on
mining companies overseas in 2009. Conservatives have vowed to kill the bill, which is opposed
by Canada's mining industry. Mining companies are big business in Canada and, with about 200
active lobbyists, a powerful voice in Ottawa. We target to build the consumer voice for conflict-
free electronics – cell phones, laptops, and other devices that do not finance war in eastern
Congo.

Canadian companies have to respect host governments and local communities. Watchdog
groups like MiningWatch Canada and the Halifax Initiative, both based in Ottawa, allege some
companies spend money buying guns, employing paramilitaries, bribing officials and forcefully
relocating entire communities. Not only is there a behavioural risk to individual companies, but
there is also a risk to our national reputation. We would like to see a new Bill with an
ombudsman for taxpayer money to investigate allegations of Canadian-financed abuses in the
developing world in the future and rebuild our national reputation.

Therefore, our petitioners request that parliament must put pressure on the minister of foreign
affairs and the minister of international trade for the responsibility of holding corporations
accountable for their practices by submitting annual reports to the House of Commons and the
Senate for review. The New Bill should also allow transgressors to be publicly lambasted and
deprived of investment from the Canada Pension Plan and other government investments. “

69
We used the ideas from the networked politics article by being collaborative and not
competitive. Our article was published April 4th in the York‘s Vandoo Newspaper, we have
reached out to York‘s student body to collaborate with us and try and pressure the companies to
stop exploiting the Congolese workers. Moreover, as stated in a previous blog we targeted
consumers to collaborate together and look for electronic providers that participated in conflict-
free minerals. In the article Networked Politics, it talked about how the new economic order has
impacted the way social movements have organized. Or rather ―movements broadened the idea
of politics into the realm of the personal relationships between people and the relationship
between humans and the environment.‖ In our campaign ―wake up to the conflict‖ we used
media outlets to create a more inclusive environment for people to learn and respond to our
social movement. This approach aimed to help us participate in a big culture that promoted peer-
to-peer learning. Once our article is published we hope that York‘s Student body will become
more aware and educated on this issue as well as contact us and help further our education on
this topic. This will allow our network to expand and the mobility of our movement will have
increased. Moreover, being published in a student run newspaper helps up speak directly to the
students. This way they are able to participate with our campaign at multiple levels. Whether it is
by spreading the word to their friends or whether it is to stop using service providers who use the
most conflict minerals. By using the newspaper to reach people, along with other media outlets
like Facebook we think that this collective action will transform peoples vision and stand up for
the cause by taking a commitment to change.

Our purpose to use the newspaper to reach out to the student body is because we live in a very
technological world and this facilitation allows us to be widely recognized and have more
legitimacy. In Networked Politics it talked about three ―Charter Principles:‖

1) Respect for diversity

2) No individual can speak in the name of the network

3) Decisions are made on consensus

By connecting with York‘s student body through the school newspaper we hope that first we are
respecting diversity by constantly extending the network to new actors. Secondly, we want the
student body to know that if you do collaborate with us we are not institutional in the sense that
we have one mandate that fits all. We are here to create awareness in the hopes that we save lives
in the Congo by making people aware of service providers and mining companies that take part
in this act. Moreover, we list you companies that are most interested in using conflict minerals
and ones that are interested more in conflict free minerals so everyone can choose on their own
and have their own mandate. Lastly, all decision are not from a structured organization but by a
consensus and that it why we created an open Facebook group where people can go and post
their ideas, views and opinions of this matter.

It is important to mention that this ―open source‖ that the article talked about is a key element in
our campaign, because we hope to create legible, transparent and openness. This has been
achieved through our newspaper article that has illustrated to the York body what our vision is
and what we hope to achieve (transparency). Moreover, our openness come by asking the student
body to take part in our campaign by uniting with us and doing whatever they can to contribute
to this cause, so as a collective identity we can fight for this issue. We hope that this inclusion
70
and connectivity through our media tactics will bring the York student body together and
participate in our campaign.

We think that this project truly showed us just how much time and effort must go in to a
social movement, and some of the difficulties that are associated with the process. Having a
budget of $0 is a problem for many grassroots movements, as it is very difficult for people to set
aside the time and energy to participate and complete this unpaid work. In our case, it was a
school project, so our reward was a high letter grade for hard work, so we were compensated for
our efforts in some way, but if this was not the case, then effort or even participation at all from
members may have decreased.

There is also difficulty in trying to get the general public (or in our case students at York
University) to stop and even take the time to look at our cause. On our tabling day, it took much
effort to get people to stop, listen, and sign the petition. Our members had high energy and
desperately tried to engage with the crowd using various tactics, ranging from yelling ―You have
blood in your cell phones!!!‖, to stopping passerby‘s with a concerned face asking them to
―please take the time to think about the human rights abuses in the Congo‖, to handing out
candy, and asked for spare change in a jar which read ―Change for Change‖. Overall, we found
that it was extremely difficult to get people to listen to our cause.

―The only way that you can take on global capitalism is with a global movement of
people‖(Bantjes, 2007: 320), and this project truly made me realize just how difficult the process
of getting people involved in your movement is, let alone the intended result of getting people to
make changes in their life that support your cause. Now that the end of our project is soon
approaching, I am left to wonder if we did contribute to making a change on this important
issue... It is doubtful that our monetary fundraising effort of $56.67 will make any real change in
the lives of the people of the Congo, however, we did get over 500 signatures, many of whom
never even knew what a ‗conflict mineral‘ was prior to us telling them. And so, it is my hope that
maybe even a few of those people will think about the issue before purchasing their next
electronic from a company who uses ‗conflict minerals‘. It is very difficult to create and
implement a social movement that leads to long term change, especially in the context of a three
month time constraint- but in the end, at least we can say that we tried to make a change, and that
it something to be proud of!

‗Coalition Building‘ is strategic collaboration with another organization whose social


identities are similar and overlapping in some ways, yet distinct in others (Bantjes, 2007:343).

 We decided to network and ally with international non-profit organization with a


division in the DRC - it was not a practical financially viable option to all just pick up
and head to the Congo and help.
 WarChild is an international non-profit organization which sets up local programs for
children in the Congo which help to reduce the effects of poverty, provide and education
to, and defend and promote human right for children effected by the atrocities that are
now occurring die to the extraction of ‗conflict minerals‘
 Our allying with WarChild brought a sort of authenticity or legitimacy to our public
awareness campaign.
 We raised $56.67 to give to their cause with our ―Change for Change‖ donation jars

71
 WarChild was very impressed with our public awareness flyer, asked if they could post it
is a fact-sheet on their website!
 The new economic order has impacted the way social movements have organized. Or
rather movements broadened the idea of politics into the realm of the personal
relationships between people and the relationship between humans and the environment.
In our campaign ―wake up to the conflict‖ we used media outlets to create a more
inclusive environment for people to learn and respond to our social movement.
 We used the ideas from the Networked politics article by being collaborative and not
competitive. In our article that will be published April 4th in the York‘s Vandoo
Newspaper, we have reached out to York‘s student body to collaborate with us and try
and pressure the companies to stop exploiting the Congolese workers. Moreover, as
stated in a previous blog we targeted consumers to collaborate together and look for
electronic providers that participated in conflict-free minerals.
 This approach aimed to help us participate in a big culture that promoted peer-to-peer
learning. Once our article is published we hope that York‘s Student body will become
more aware and educated on this issue as well as contact us and help further our
education on this topic. This will allow our network to expand and the mobility of our
movement will have increased. Moreover, being published in a student run newspaper
helps up speak directly to the students. This way they are able to participate with our
campaign at multiple levels. Whether it is by spreading the word to their friends or
whether it is to stop using service providers who use the most conflict minerals. By using
the newspaper to reach people, along with other media outlets like Facebook we think
that this collective action will transform peoples vision and stand up for the cause by
taking a commitment to change.
 Our purpose to use the newspaper to reach out to the student body is because we live in a
very technological world and this facilitation allows us to be widely recognized and have
more legitimacy.
 It is important to mention that this ―open source‖ that the article talked about is a key
element in our campaign, because we hope to create legible, transparent and openness.
This has been achieved through our newspaper article that has illustrated to the York
body what our vision is and what we hope to achieve (transparency). Moreover, our
openness come by asking the student body to take part in our campaign by uniting with
us and doing whatever they can to contribute to this cause, so as a collective identity we
can fight for this issue. We hope that this inclusion and connectivity through our media
tactics will bring the York student body together and participate in our campaign.

Emma Cosgrove, Manager of Stakeholder Relations for ‗WarChild Canada‘ has sent an e-mail
and mentioned that, ―... I am very impressed with all of your and efforts towards the cause. I
would love to have the information you come up with once you are completed your project to
share with other volunteers and supporters. I am also excited to hear how the awareness and
fundraising goes, as I am sure there are many students walking around with conflict minerals in
their backpacks and have no idea about the cause and effect of it all. Your plans sound great,
very well organized! I think it will be interesting to see students‘ reactions to your information...‖

We used culture jamming techniques to help illustrate our message and relate it to the
consumers within our school. I created slogans and ads that tried to attach products that most
people have come across to our conflict in Congo. We Attacked big name brands, such as HP,
Cannon, and Nintendo, and exposed their hidden truths. These images caught their attention and
72
led to many to ask questions about the conflict, even though they seemed reluctant to sign the
petition, the ads were successful in educating them about the seriousness of the issue, and in
some cases the ads brought the conflict so close to home that some wanted to sign after seeing
them. Stuart Hall talks about Images produce meaning within society, so if we break the
common images of these companies and start attaching their products to war, and conflict
minerals, we break down the meaning the corporations intend to produce and create one that
exposes the truth behind their products. We used it as a tool to express ourselves and our
opinions, a tool to express our freedom of speech; we can‘t sit outside HP, Canon, and Nintendo
headquarters trying to express how we feel about their products because it simply won‘t have an
impact on those who buy their products. By expressing ourselves through these ads, it educated
consumers, showed them the reality behind the products and it‘s more of a beneficial tool to
express opinions and gain support at the same time. The only thing i do regret is not making
more copies of these images we produced. If we had hundreds of copies we could of left a
greater impact around York. If we scattered these culture jamming ads around the school we had
more potential of delivering our message without even having them come to our table, we could
of reached so many. I made sure also that all of our ads had our Wake up to the Conflict brand
because those that read the image can automatically know where it came from and if interested
can search us on Facebook and then they could understand our cause and what our goals are.
This would of been more beneficial and effective if we printed hundreds of copies and spread
them throughout the school, not only are we building consumer awareness but they can know
who we are, therefore our group gets more exposure. Also, moving into branding... i tried to
choose a name that can cause a reaction to those who read it.

We thought that readers might want to see what Nintendo responded to our e-mail. They
gave a general response to taking human rights on a global scale very seriously, but did not
mention anything specific to the issue of conflict minerals. We expected that this is what would
happen, however the e-mail does give me some information to look into. The next step for us is
to look into the CSR Procurement Guidelines and see how they apply to our specific social
movement issue Another thing we find interesting is that, as we mentioned their commitment to
ensuring human rights are met are focused on the inspections conducted of the factories of their
production partners. I looked through their corporate social responsibility report and while it may
be true that they take this responsibility seriously, it is limited in scope as it only involved the
rights of workers in the factories and has no specific reference to anything involving the sourcing
of minerals or other resources used in the actual production. Anyway, here is the response from
Mike Chandler, Nintendo of America Inc:

―Hello, we take our responsibilities as a global company very seriously. Nintendo outsources the
manufacture and assembly of all Nintendo hardware to our production partners and therefore is
not directly involved in the sourcing of raw materials that are ultimately used in our products.
Yet we are committed to an ethical policy on sourcing, manufacture and labor and we expect our
production partners to take those responsibilities seriously as well. In order to ensure the
continued fulfillment of our social responsibility throughout our supply chain, we established the
Nintendo CSR Procurement Guidelines in July 2008. We require that our production partners
comply with these guidelines, which are based on relevant laws, international standards and
guidelines that focus on protecting human rights, ensuring workplace safety, promoting
corporate ethics and safeguarding the environment. In addition, we carry out on-site inspections
of our production partners to understand actual workplace conditions and try to raise awareness
about corporate social values, including the importance of respecting human rights and ensuring
73
safe labor conditions. By visiting and communicating with production partners, we deepen
mutual understanding and build trusting relationships for promoting CSR procurement. We
provide all production partners with the results of these inspections, which include specific
suggestions for improvement as appropriate. If we were to find that any of our production
partners did not meet our guidelines, we would require them to modify their practices according
to Nintendo policy. For more information about Nintendo‘s Corporate Social Responsibility
report, please visit our web page. Sincerely‖ We don‘t have to believe their respond but we
respect their explanation.

We did ‗The Power Flower‘ exercise that we looked at during class truly got us thinking,
not only about us as students inside of the classroom at that current moment in time, but also us
as a group trying to create a social movement, and more importantly us in relation to the people
in which we are trying to help with our cause. During the exercise, it became clear that for the
most part, the majority of the class and thus our movement scored between 8-10+ on the ‗power
flower‘. As we had just previously had a meeting with a representative from the WarChild earlier
in the week, our thoughts went directly to their cause in trying to help the children of the Congo
who are facing the atrocities due to the extraction of conflict minerals. I wondered how a child or
even a young adult in our age demographic would rank on this flower in relation to the dominant
norm in which power tends to rely. We suppose that it would look something a little like this (on
average, for the most part)…

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Figure III: The Power Flower

Category The Powerful Us Them


Human/Non Human Human * Human * Human *
Ability/Disability Ability * Ability * Ability *
Relationship to Nature Dominate Nature * Dominate Nature * Live off the land
Geographic Region Western World * Western World * Third World Africa
Origin
Geographic Region Urban Space * Urban Space * Undeveloped Space
Current
Sexual Orientation Heterosexual * Heterosexual * Heterosexual *
Sex Male * Male/Female Male/Female *
Race White * White/Ethnic Congolese
Ethnic Group Anglo-European * Anglo-Euro/Others * African
Language English * English * Congolese
Religion Secular/Christian * Secular/Christian/Other Probably not Christian

*
Family Nuclear * Nuclear * Deceased members
Social Class Upper Class * Middle Class Impoverished Lower
class
Age Group 40-65 years * 20-30 years 20-30 years
Education University * University * Illiterate

Total= 15 11 4

Although this chart is indeed an overgeneralization, especially considering the fact that the members
within our group are of different gender and ethnic origins- for the most part, we sit fairly high in
numbers. Whereas, those in the Congo who are most effected by the devastating consequences
brought about by the mining sit very low in numbers making it difficult to gain power in their
positions. The number 4 given to the Congolese was actually a generous estimate giving an
automatic point for male and female, and heterosexual and disability, therefore it should be noted
that a women living in the Congo with a disability could potentially only score one point, and that is
for simply being human. Completing this exercise with the average Congolese in mind, truly
reinforces the need for our campaign that we are currently working on, and the need for us to help to
advocate for their rights.

We have some success because we have studied how to build social movement and defined our
roles and tasks democratically. Are we bureaucratic or democratic structured movement? Are we
defined roles and tasks? How was the role of technology? What is our power Structure? Has our
group inevitable become bureaucratic or authoritarian?

75
Conclusion

The main question being, are we a bureaucratic movement, or more of a democratic


structure? We would like to think that we are democratic, but then we keep thinking of Katie
staying on top of everyone, basically making sure everything gets done. At this point we think,
alright, she's the leader for the way she distributes tasks, and the way she stays on you to make
sure you're focused. Then we think of Faruk's power, he knows anyone and everyone that's
important, and his academic background, and accomplishments are impeccable, so he demands
the most respect. Also, he takes on the most difficult tasks, and always gets them completed
easily. The next person that comes to mind is Justin, he encourages the team, just by going
around and asking for high fives before we meet and joking around with him definitely makes
the group atmosphere fun. Then there's Gregorio, according to Katie, he is always the one
calming everyone down, sometimes negatively, by telling her to stop worrying and that
everything will get done. Analyzing our group we are definitely a democratic group.
None of us have defined roles, as Michel-Weber state is the most efficient way of doing things,
like a bureaucratic structure, but our roles are self defined. It's almost as if our personalities take
on our roles within the group, and it works. We don't know how much of a coincidence it was
that our personalities mesh so well, but based on our democratic group, it feels as if everything is
going well. If we were to evolve to a larger organization, and end up with 10 people like Justin
and Gregorio, and only 2 Katies then maybe there wouldn't be enough Katies pushing us, if it
were the opposite then maybe we would become a fast paced organization, probably more
bureaucratic. However, the way our personalities are right now, it works well.

Part of our approach is to target the companies who are not doing enough to ensure they
are not using 'Conflict Minerals' and in turn are helping to finance the war in the Congo. We are
targetting these companies by spreading public awareness and sharing the ranking graph
provided by The Enough Project which ranks electronic companies by their progress in the
responsible sourcing of minerals used in their products. We are then writing letters to the
companies, both at the top of the list (those doing well) and the bottom (those doing badly). The
purpose of this is to both pressure the companies that are not making any progress and to let the
companies that are making progress know that we are noticing their efforts. Now, all of this
relates to last class's subject matter because the bottom line is that we are ultimately targeting
these companies' income, in other words, using the market as a social tool. We are pressuring
them by letting them know that we are making others aware of the part they are playing in the
deaths of so many people in the Congo. The letter we were writing to Nintendo for example will
be letting them know that we like their products but that with the competitive nature of the
gaming industry, it would be in their best interest to take the necessary steps in the direction of
responsible sourcing. We will be catering the letter specifically to Nintendo by stating that as
they must be aware, recently Play station 3 came out with motion sensor controllers and Xbox
360 now has the Xbox Kinect, both of which are now able to compete with Nintendo
Wii's motion sensor controllers, which was previously the main advantage that the Wii had over
the other systems. We thought of this after our class discussion on how a lot of people wouldn't
stop buying certain items all together. It occurred to me that while that may be true, there are
other companies making the same or similar products and thus, we can still affect the profit
margin of companies who are not willing to work towards responsible mineral sourcing by using
public awareness and the competitive market to pressure them.

76
By naming ourselves Wake up to the Conflict we left room for questions for the reader.
Those that passed by and saw the name automatically wanted to know what conflict they have
been missing; the first reaction is... what conflict? And that‘s where we step in. Because we
didn‘t specify what conflict it was in our name, this forced those interested to ask questions,
which made them instantly engage with us, allowed us an opportunity to explain our cause. If we
specified in our name what the conflict was and where, it would probably lead to less people
coming to our stand and asking us about the issue. This name creates a initial reaction from the
reader, this is what we wanted, to get them interested from the start, before explaining the issues
involved.

That being said, we still maintain what we said in class about how using the market as a social
movement tool can help to affect individual issues but does not serve to make sure that the same
kind of exploitation doesn't arise again. We think that our group is doing a great job at
approaching our social movement in a multi-faceted way. We realize that when it comes to the
issue of 'Conflict Minerals' in the Congo and the war it is causing, there are many players
involved and many layers to consider targeting. This came about greatly in part to the fact that
we all have different approaches and focuses we think are most important or effective in
accomplishing our goals. That is something that we genuinely thought was going to be
problematic at first because we spent a good class or two arguing on what our focus was going to
be. But it turned out to be a good way to get ideas out and realize that there is no way to really
make an impact on this social issue with a single focus. We can work on pressuring individual
companies, but we also have to increase public awareness on the issue and at the same time try to
pressure the government to implement better regulations by putting together petitions. We are
also making sure we are making allies with groups like War Child and people who could help to
influence others on our cause, like John McKay and Rob Oliphand. This project taught us how
difficult the process of getting people involved in a movement is, let alone the intended result of
getting people to make changes in their life that support your cause. Upon completion of our
campaign, we are left to wonder whether we did contribute to making a change on this important
issue? It is doubtful that our fundraising effort of $56.67 will make any real change in the lives
of the people of the Congo, however, we did get over 600 signatures, many of whom never even
knew what a ‗conflict mineral‘ was prior to us telling them. And so, it is our hope that maybe
even a few of those people will think about the issue before purchasing their next electronic from
a company who uses ‗conflict minerals‘. It is very difficult to create and implement a social
movement that leads to long term change, especially in the context of a three month time
constraint- but in the end, at least we can say that we tried to make a change, and that it
something to be proud of!

References:

Bantjes, R. 2007. Chapter 3, Movement innovations in the 1960s – Resource mobilization, Social

Movements In A Global Context. Toronto : Canadian Scholars Inc, 2007. Print, 67-100.

Bantjes, R. 2007. Chapter 4, Resistance to State Terror, Social Movements In A Global Context.

Toronto : Canadian Scholars Inc, 2007. Print, 101-134.

77
Bantjes, R. 2007. Chapter 5, Culture and the Politics of Identity, Social Movements In A Global

Context. Toronto : Canadian Scholars Inc, 2007. Print, 135-168.

Bantjes, R. 2007. Chapter 6, Bureaucratization and Anarchist Resistance, Social Movements In A

Global Context. Toronto : Canadian Scholars Inc, 2007. Print, 169-190.

Bantjes, R. 2007. Chapter 12, In search of Global Public Space, Social Movements In A Global

Context. Toronto : Canadian Scholars Inc, 2007. Print, 350-381

French Cameron. 2009. Proposed Canadian law would police miners abroad, Reuters.

Browne, Robin. 2008. Blood Cells. Coltan in phones exacerbates crisis in the Congo. The
Dominion News from the grassroots. A version of the article appeared previously in rabble.ca
Retrieved and available at

http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/2052
McCarthy, Shawn. 2011. Canada a quiet powerhouse in Africa‘s mining sector. Globe and Mail.

MacKay, John. 2011. The Support Letter for for the Wake Up to the Conflict.

Oliphand, Rob. 2011. The Support Letter for the Wake Up to the Conflict.

The Toronto Star. 2009. Canadian mining firms face abuse allegation.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. January 2010. Violence displaces 15,000

Congolese civilians over past two months. 26 Jan 2010. http://www.unhcr.org/4b5f143c9.html

78
Chapter 7

Analyzing a Case Study

Ethanol versus Gasoline: The Contestation and Closure of a Socio-technical

System in the USA

For over a century, one of the greatest debates concerning the future of energy usage
surrounds the differences between ethanol vs. gasoline use in the USA, and how they have
impacted the world at large. In this case study, there are controversies that have come to view
today after the technological revolution in the techno-science system, although ethanol is still an
alternative over fuel. However, the assumption that ethanol isn‘t economical, efficient or feasible
continues and suggests and portrays, within the cultural and political context, that issues and
causes have generally worked against the use of alcohol and in favour of gasoline since the
1940s in the USA. Michael S. Carolan (2009) focuses on the success stories of ethanol in the
later decades of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, avoiding the reductionist
tendencies of many Whiggish historian accounts of fuel and other scientists‘ previous descriptive
accounts of alcohol fuel‘s past. As a controversy study, his thesis is that ―no one factor can be
linked to alcohol fuel‘s ultimate demise as a legitimate alternative to gasoline‖ (Carolan,
2009:422). Carolan explores to redress a fundamental gap within STS literature on the subject of
the automobile socio-technical system, reporting why and how fuelled automobiles have been
locked in as a consumer choice. In fact, the world's energy system has faced a period of
unprecedented change since World War II, as a global struggle is intensifying over who controls
the energy sector. Carolan seeks to examine nature mostly with explanatory stories and causal
explanations, detailing various factors, including wars, economic depressions, and low estimates
of oil, and describing strong networks such as automobile, petroleum and agricultural industry
sectors.

Government and the Temperance and Farm Chemurgic movements‘ positions had shaped
the development of the ethanol industry over fuel usage preferences within the US during the
first five decades of the twentieth century and reshaped them later on. Carolan‘s article uses the
Strong Programme‘s symmetrical principle, but I refer to it as the Anglo-ANT, and it preserves
the emphasis upon the network of associations/allies, without giving up its explanation and
allowing nature and the social world to be divided into explanans ( See Appendix I) . Ethanol
still improves rural economies, air, soil and water qualities, as they are renewable, reliable, and
sustainable domestic qualities. I will argue that the ethanol versus gasoline debate has not ended
yet because a strong domestic ethanol industry has established new markets in North America as
the key means of environmental and economic production and subsistence with producing an
alternative for fuel, since the post 9/11 era.

79
TOPIC

Carolan provides the early historical account of the gasoline and ethanol debate that was
a contested area until the gasoline engine was stabilized, and then had competed in the socio-
technical system that required a carrier of energy during the later decades of the 19th century and
the earlier decades of the 20th century in the USA. A major player in the debate, ―by 1879,
Standard Oil Trust controlled 90% of all the oil refined in the USA,‖ focused to replace coal to
fuel oil, and not alcohol, although ―Rockfellers was against the tax repeal on alcohol fuel to
increase costs when the President of America, the Temperance Party, the Automobile Club of
America, many auto manufactures, media and the wide public supported the bill‖ (Carolan,
2009: 424-425). Many developing countries had created an emergency fuel system and imposed
tax incentives or mandatory ethanol blending programs as temporary dimensions in place during
war periods for supporting farmers, and reducing payments for foreign oil until the 1940s;
however, nearly all countries abandoned their ethanol programs when cheap oil imports from the
Middle East advanced. In this period, the proponents of alcohol and gasoline battled for scientific
credibility. There were no clear winning and losing sides because the alcohol fuel tax was
embedded to political values and company interests, and the scientific community praised
alcohol fuel blends, since gasoline had no superiority over alcohol in socio-technology. The
Farm Chemurgic Movement, the Great Depression and wars led to reduced grain prices in the
1920s which further declined in the 1940s. In fact, oil and automobile companies eventually won
the case in the end because of the problem of dependency on a non-renewable resource and the
shift of the idea of using a finite resource when new oil fields were discovered, oil prices
decreased, and the engine knock problem was solved to offer a perfect runner engine for fuel
(Carolan, 2009 :431-436). Enemies and allies switched their sides after the 1940s.

AUTHOR POINTS:

Carolan is impartial and avoids making the claim that the transition from coal to fuel
made ethyl alcohol inefficient and uneconomical as a fuel alternative rather than a legitimate
alternative, because the automobile engine still had to use ethanol energy until the 1950s,
whereas Carolan claims that a historical background is not entirely accurately provided by Whig
historians (Carolan, 2009: 422). Carolan found ―little scientific controversy dating before the
emergence of leaded gasoline over which fuel offered a smoother running engine, greater power
and gains in engine efficiency‖ (Carolan, 2009: 436). Carolan discusses the competing socio-
technical systems that had remained in play during the earlier decades of the 20th century and
later on provides descriptive details on how gasoline and ethyl alcohol fuel were changed to
affect a broader system (Carolan, 2009: 422). Carolan avoids to debate on the political economy
of this controversy within limited space, making no claims about ‗global closer‘ around
petroleum to offer an exhaustive analysis of the controversy. Carolan explores the aspects of
alcohol fuel‘s past, redressing the gap within STS literature on the subject of automobile socio-
technical systems, where ―the story of ethyl alcohol remains conspicuously absent‖ (Carolan,
2009: 443). Therefore, the author‘s goal was to understand why previous sociological accounts
of the early automobile socio-technical system forgot to mention alcohol usage, whereas alcohol
versus gasoline systems were competing on a far more similar scale than those underlying them
such as steam, fuel, oil, and wood cars. Carolan aims to describe the emerging driver behaviours,
clean burning, steady power, engine efficiency and engine noise factors in the marketplace that
are explained by the author as related to how consumer choices shifted over alcohol to fuel based
on oil companies‘ and governments‘ interests (Carolan, 2009: 442-443). Carolan has no intention
80
to find a clear indication as to which was considered ―the clearly superior fuel: gasoline, alcohol,
or a blend of both‖ (Carolan, 2009:427). This shows Carolan‘s impartiality and unbiased
approach.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

I think Carolan captures the idea that ethanol has recently become the king of the
challengers of petroleum as an ideal renewable and reliable resource again, as it is already found
blended with gasoline at pumps across the USA where production had consisted of 115 plants
operating in 19 states with 79 additional plants under construction in 2007 and continuing to
ramp up (Clean Fuels Development Coalition, 2007). Carolan‘s work used to be provided with
30% of descriptions and 70% of explanations, although was later on changed to re-describe
controversies and explanandum by causal factors when Carolan mistrusted issues from past
experiences that had influenced his explanation of the phenomenon to be explained, such as the
effects of government and private corporations‘ influences. Carolan sets claims that make clear
the explanandum and the details of the provided explanations. Carolan is able to get away from
controversy by explaining nature and reporting the interest groups in the social world, providing
a network which describes the actors and agencies involved during the controversy, and still
putting aside actors, respecting the questions of both sides‘ controversies and making distinctions
between actors and analysis questions impartially. There is an incomplete truth, however, and
Carolan refers to facts only and makes no claim as a contribution. Carolan utilizes Collin‘s and
Bloor‘s symmetrical approach, in which the same types of causes are invoked to explain truth
and error as differing outcomes. This is because Carolan not only tells the story as a social
relativist, but also analyzes confidently in many valid structural interpretations on what shaped
social factors, whereas Carolan is successful to use the ANT analysis in a competing network.
Theoretical resources and interest groups are also examined in this debate scientifically and have
been re-constructed by nature and social agencies alike within new arguments of the STS as both
constructive and an interpretive.

As a matter of fact, governments used to advocate for alcohol fuel that can see the
potential to help the poverty balance between urban cities and farming areas in the controversy
period. The Temperance Movement was influential in the American Government, and it heavily
supported the Chemurgic Movement to allow cultural and traditional conservatism to reduce
poverty during the Great Depression and the two world wars‘ years; but after the 1940s, the
movement lost its credibility when seeded commodities for the alcohol blend, such as Jerusalem
artichokes and sweet potatoes, explained symmetrically that they would ―disobey science‖ and
use ―non-scientific trickeries‖ because ―powerful interests were threatened‖ (Carolan, 2009: 436-
437). Fear tactics will become unnecessary when oil reserves soon run out and the dependency of
foreign oil causes frustration. Already, the old-fashioned paradigm has started to lose reliability
since the plastic revolution, as synthetic chemistry emerged during and after World War II and
caused new, huge oil fields to be found in the U.S. and allowed hegemonic power to control
countries in the Middle East and increase in oil estimates while reconstructing a new paradigm
(Carolan, 2009: 439). Carolan claims that if the Standard Oil Trust in the alcohol industry has not
changed its position and favoured to expand the capital in oil fields, the ethanol industry may
establish a more sustainable and stabilized sector today, whereas after ―the Interstate Oil cartel
started to coordinate state production policies and helped remove market fluctuations that created
spaces of opportunity for alcohol‖ (Carolan, 2009:440, 442).

81
Ideas have changed and shifted in the social world. Insurance companies, city ordinances
and company laws have placed restrictions on the use of gasoline in this time in certain areas,
and ―many scientists and automobile engineers have supported to use alcohol blend at the
pump,‖ however, oil has become cheaper and the engine design stabilized after the 1930s to
―determine the efficiency and effectiveness of engines powered by alcohol and gasoline, and the
alcohol/gasoline blend‖(Carolan, 2009, Giebelhaus, 1979). The U.S. Geological service and the
U.S. Navy conducted tests in the early 1900s favouring alcohol, but it was contested when the
American Automobile Association (AAA) operated a similar test and got the result that ― the car
powered with alcohol had poorer mileage and less power whose study brought socio-
technological reality to controversy‖ until one of the major problems of knocking had been
resolved and ―gasoline was being universally recognized as superior to alcohol when built with
high compression ratios‖ (Carolan, 2009: 429). The separation of alcohol and gasoline in the
presence of water was problematic for both in the early years when alcohol fuel had to be free of
water and still be sold at reasonable costs, and at the same time more available and profitable to
use than the fuel used today, whereas ―the oil industry has justified the abandonment of the
alcohol blend‖ that was attributed to alcohol‘s instability in the presence of water, where
―alcohol remained problematic when cleaning fuel storage tanks‖ (Giebelhaus, 1980b; Carolan,
2009: 429). The automobile industry had fixed the engine design around gasoline, stabilizing and
standardizing the gasoline engine to become less risky, noisy and give maximum power
privileges over the alcohol fuel engine, while interest groups‘ power to shape the public‘s mind
and force influence on the government and media helped favour the gasoline engine (Carolan,
2009: 426-428).

In the author‘s footnote, actors, allies, enemies and networks are pointed out in detail and
mentioned separately, and they are described as the ―automobile, clubs, representatives from oil
producing states and elements of federal government, many cities‘ business owners, the Standard
Oil, General Motors, and fuel dealers, which had been involved as beneficiaries during the late
1920s and late 1930s‖ (Giebelhaus, 1980a; Wright, 1993). As matter of fact, fuel dealers lacked
the necessary issued ethanol licence, and were ―forced to sell gasoline only rather than alcohol
blends,‖ from the time when Ethyl Gasoline Corporation had been bought by General Motor and
Standard Oil of New Jersey until the 1940s (Kovarik, 1998). Carolan notes external factors and a
number of reasons for this, for instance, the institutional connections, lobbying power, and media
saturations network and the petroleum industry‘s oil estimates that took on ―greater weight by
policy makers and the public which greatly undermined the effectiveness of the national energy
dependence frame utilized by alcohol proponents‖ (Carolan, 2009: 433). Enemies and allies
were changed, and General Motor and Standard Oil of New Jersey, the Ford automotive industry
and petroleum industry had switched their sides and become enemies of ethanol, and the
government changed its position from farmers‘ interest to the auto and petroleum industries‘
interests, as Carolan mentioned in his footnote and bibliography.

Carolan suggests some generalizable points that are explicit about politics, history,
culture and the nature of science and technology, such as ―former alcohol‘s poor fit within the
latter‘s socio-technical world‖ when elitist behaviour and the organizational structure had shifted
and favoured ―the mass production of the gasoline-driven automobile that began to be the car of
the masses‖ (Carolan, 2009: 443). Power, clean burning, engine efficiency, engine noise, and
emerging driver behaviour were different in previous sociological accounts of the early
automobile socio-technical system and changed over time where alcohol fuel was forgotten.
Carolan uses externally oriented, social and corporate reflexivity and flexibilities, which are
82
given choices and show the distribution of power and analyze redistributions. For example, the
same factors were not equally similar in Europe, such as the absence of industrial alcohol ‗sin
tax‘ that existed in the USA for 50 years, whereas, some events were common to countries on
either side of the Pacific including World Wars I and II, falling grain prices after World War I,
and later on, the Marshal Plan; however, ―European countries around gasoline was a multi-
variable event, yet those variables cannot be universalized across vases absent a multi-case
analysis‖ (Carolan, 2009: 443). Carolan uses the macro level of externally oriented reflexivity as
―oil price stabilization was an effect of an interstate oil cartel‖ since the 1930s, and Standard Oil
was lobbied to defeat pre-alcohol legislation and force fuel dealers in marketplace, identifying
both side interests as having undergone pressure on the decline of the Farm Chemurgic
movement (Carolan, 2009: 443-444). Carolan gives a re-description of the social world when he
suggests that oil and automobile companies are organizational actors and profit from
maximization, for instance, the increase of private organizational interests within the US, as
―their interests are enacted through relation with a network of other organizations,‖ and the
changing interpretation of oil estimates and companies that influenced fuel usage (Bowden,
1985: 209). Figures 1 and 2 show how the relationship between registered automobiles and the
production of crude oil has shaped oil and auto sectors‘ minds to favour ethanol over fuel
between 1909 and1920 ( Boyd, 1921).

Carolan is impartial and shows that there are no clear indications of winning and losing,
true or false, and of who is the underdog or the overdog, because science is very messy and
complicated, quite controversial itself. In addition, Carolan uses external reflexivity when
providing data of recent development on ethanol in the USA, and there is still enough evidence
that supports that ethanol is a crucial alternative both economically and environmentally because
the ethanol industry has been on the rise, and governments have favoured the green revolution
since 9/11. Carolan externally focuses on the institutional, political and cultural levels both to
neglect the mere fundamentals and put spotlight on the ambiguity and complexity of the external
world to account for the contingency of events. Carolan points out the similar stories that
analysts tell of the form of reflexivity as an outgrowth of original Strong Programme sentiments.
Automakers, policy makers, petroleum companies, farmers, ethanol producers, governments and
consumers of gasoline and ethanol are the direct audience. However, broader points are made to
the scientific audience and indirectly it is given to the general population that scientific
knowledge has always limits and boundaries on what to do politically and ethically, although
there is no boundary on what science tells and what to do in the real world. This is why Carolan
uses explicitly the Anglo-ANT to explain and advocate why fuel usage has expanded over
ethanol usage, although ethyl alcohol remains absent while providing the cause of claims,
network and cause of claim of the STS where the social worlds are competing each other and
where one network is more powerful than others, which the author did nice explanatory and
descriptive work elucidating. Carolan is a social realist, not a naive scientist, as he showed the
case as it was and explained both sides‘ stories. Although Carolan had critically engaged in the
case and used the social world theory, he avoided to make a strong claim about the global closure
around petroleum because of different variables in effect in Europe.

In conclusion, I am not happy with the author‘s position in the dispute, since Carolan is
too impartial, as he provides a sufficient explanatory approach to the natural cause of claims and
a thorough description to nature and society, despite not taking a side for ethanol or gasoline.
Carolan could have used extra external reflexivity on the ruthlessness of the petroleum industry
over ethanol as another symmetrical explanation in this case and extend his network with other
83
powerful actors, such as environmentalists, and additionally use recent ethanol reports to firmly
claim that nature and technology at stake. Carolan instead re-describes the concepts of the issue,
provides re-categorization, and re-satirizes when necessary, doing some credible, workable and
flexible and associated with broader claims that ethanol cannot be eliminated. Carolan is able to
separate himself from the case, and provide a separation of the actors and the analysis. However,
I disagree with Carolan, since he could have found more indications to have shown the lack of
fuel superiority scientifically; and thus make the suggestion of the combined usage of a blend of
both. Watching the gas prices fluctuate from holiday to holiday and season to season, it‘s easy to
see that gasoline is a big business in our social world. Nations have fought wars over the
precious supply of oil that is difficult to find, drill, and refine. Still, there are concerns from
environmentalists of the effects of reckless farming methods that may take advantage of land and
labour in Third World nations. Ethanol vs. gasoline is an important debate concerning which it
is important for consumers to know the way energy use is changing.

Latour claims that science is a war game of Roma and the biggest network to win. Today,
the social world and techno-science is watchful for cars that will run on mixed fuels or ethanol
only. Ethanol usage will be increased in the future and become mandatory if petroleum reserves
will decline and oil prices increase. This case shows hybrids, co-productions, translations and re-
descriptions in ANT translating one thing to another. There should be environmental concerns
because there are many differences between ethanol and gasoline and controversies concerning
their debate. There is no question that the combustion of fossil fuels has made way to many
environmental concerns. In fact, it has been proposed that transportation fuels are America‘s
largest polluters. The burning of petroleum-based fuels produces the majority of pollutants such
as carbon monoxide, reactive organic gases, and nitrogen oxides that American cities suffer
from. For this reason, many fuel oxygenates have been created to counteract these emissions.
When comparing ethanol with gasoline, it is important to understand that ethanol can either be
used as an additive to gasoline or on its own. The use of ethanol either mixed within gasoline or
on its own can have a powerful impact on the amount of pollutants produced. The use of ethanol
can reduce the carbon monoxide emitted from the tailpipe of automobiles by 30 percent (Clean
Fuels Development Coalition, 2007). Ethanol is significantly less harmful as it is a non-toxic,
renewable fuel, whose use has the potential to increase human health, and in addition is both
biodegradable and water soluble. However, I can say that nobody can diminish alcohol fuel‘s
expansion, which has still been seen as a legitimate alternative to gasoline in North America and
Europe since the 9/11 event.

Bibliography

Bowden, Garry (1985) ‗The Social Construction of Validity in Estimates of US Crude Oil
Reserves‘, Social Studies of Science, Sage Publication 15: 207-240.

Boyd, T.A. (1921)‘Motor Fuel from Vegetation‘, Journal of Industrial and Engireng Chemistry
13(9):836

Carolan, Michael S. (2009). ‗Ethanol versus Gasoline: The Contestation and Closure of a Socio-
technical System in the USA‘. Social Studies of Science 39/3, SSS and Sage Publications, pp
421-448.

84
Clean Fuels Development Coalition (2007) The Ethanol fact Book (Washington, DC: Clean
Fuels Development Coalition, available at www. ethanol.org/pdf/contentmgmt/2007.

Clean Fuels Development Coalition (2007) Optimal Ethanol Blend-Level Investigation, the Final
Report available at

http://www.ethanol.org/pdf/contentmgmt/ACE_Optimal_Ethanol_Blend_Level_Study_final_125
07.pdf

Giebelhaus, August (1979). ‗ Resistance to Long-term Energy Transition: the Case of Power
Alcohol in the 1930s‘, in Lewis Perelman, August Giebelhaus &Michael Yokell (eds), Energy
Transition: Long-term perspective, Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 35-63.

Giebelhaus, August (1980a)‘Farming for Fuel: The Alcohol Motor Fuel Movement of the 1930s,
Agricultural History 54(1):173-84.

Giebelhaus, August (1980b) Business and Government in the Oil Industry: A Case Study of Sun
Oil, 1876-1945, Greenwich, CN: JAI Press

Koverik, Bill (1998) ‗Henry Ford, Charles F. Kettering and the Fuel of the Future‘, Automotive
History Reviews 32: 7-27

Wright, David (1993) Alcohol Wreck a Marriage: The Farm Chemurgic Movement and USDA
in the Alcohol Fuels Campaign in the Spring of 1933‘, Agricultural History 67(1):36-66.

85
Appendix I - Carolan‘s Symmetrical Diagram of the Anglo-ANT

ALLIES NETWORK SOCIAL WORLD


Agency to Humans Interest of social groups
Social explains to nature
Non-humans have Social causes aid in
equally powerful settlement of dispute
Social causes are doing more than nature
Allies/enemies re- Analysis of different among
describe-switched more actors and agencies

Non-humans settle Competing science &non-


dispute (Oil &Engine) science- it is messy

THE ANGLO-ANT THE STRONG PROGRAMME

ORIGIN NATURE

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Chapter 8

A comparison of haloperidol plasma levels among Japanese, Korean


and Swedish psychiatric patients

I study ―a comparison of haloperidol plasma levels among Japanese, Korean and Swedish
psychiatric patients‖ in which analyzes identical samples with treating them HAL monotherapy
per os orally, and comparing the steady-state plasma levels of HAL determines the relationship
between Japanese, Korean and Swedish patients. The study found significant differences among
the three ethnic groups, while age, gender, weight and ethnicity factors were underdetermined
with given possible explanations and observations while mentioning some limitations. The study
suggested that ―second-generation‖ antipsychotics have become the main pharmacotherapeutic
tool for various psychiatric disorders all over the world, disputing first-generation antipsychotics
such as haloperidol (HAL) that have lost their clinical value and given the thesis that interethnic
differences in concentrations of HAL can effect patients differently between Caucasian and
Asian (Morita et.al 2010:24-25). I will demonstrate that the pronounced interethnic differences
are too large to be explained only with the C/D ratio, low or higher doses of HAL or the
metabolic capacity of xenobiotics among the small controlled ethnic subjects because the
quantitative research usually has the lack of experiment inter-observer consistency of reliability,
external validity as well as construct validity. Is it really an ethnicity matter to have low or higher
doses of HAL? What are the significant differences between the 3 ethnic groups? Is the study
sufficient enough to explore to reach the result of interethnic differences and handle limitation
factors with data and theories which have led to the ability to generalize it? Is the study reliable,
valid and replicable based on quantitative research methodology?
Using an individual neutral perspective, the study used a small number of subjects, the
data gathered from 245 patients in three different countries, and “the majority of the Asian
subjects were Chinese” (Morita et.al. 2010:25) as these control groups are only samples of the
larger population. More than one observer is involved in these studies and there may be the
possibility of a lack of consistency in their decision. The Empirical Program of Relativism
(EPOR) demonstrates more than one interpretation, analyzing closer to achieve a wider social
structure. That is why Collins focused on a ―core set‖ of experts and laboratories while Pinch
and Bijker extended the EPOR program to be linked to the Social Construction of Technology
Program (SCOT) and replacing some terms such as ―stabilization of technology‖ with ―the
closure of scientific controversy‖ as examples of a network concept in SSK (Hess 1997:94). This
study demonstrated interpretive flexibility and is given as a closer confident to researchers who
have provided the tentative suggestion that plasma HAL levels are higher among Asians than
Caucasians and it seems this indication is related to ―these limited reports‖ (Morita et.al.
2010:25). There is still a truth to explain to outsiders with the confident statement that “the
steady-state plasma levels of HAL at doses lower than 20 mg were significantly different in the
three main CYP2D6 genotype groups in Asian patients” because two reports had reached
symmetric results in Japanese patients (Morita et.al. 2010:25). Roh and colleagues discovered
something in the lab which they stated to have found with their team. Plasma levels of HAL in
Korean, Swedish and Japanese patients were determined by HPLC with different intra- and inter-
assay coefficients of variation, and the only possible differences in the analytical results of
Japanese and Swedish patients was that identical frozen plasma samples were used with HAL in

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both Japan and Sweden institutions; in fact, there was a close linear relationship between the two
values determined in the two laboratories (Morita et.al. 2010:26). For another example,
interethnic differences in the metabolic capacity of xenobiotics, for instance nicotine, in the
statistic have been reported in two ethnic groups, Korean and Japanese. Morita et.al. again gave
another possible explanation and tentative suggestion that “the unknown pathway(s) responsible
for HAL metabolism has a metabolic capacity,” and after this suggestion Morita et.al. provided
the relational component that “ a metabolic capacity is different between in two ethnic groups”
(Morita et.al. 2010:29).
In this quantitative research, data was compared and statistically analyzed among three
ethnic groups with a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) where a multiple of Bonferroni‘s
test was used for a direct pairwise comparison of ethnic groups and revealed significant
differences. Another moderate kind of confident has a claim which should be acknowledged as a
statement that has tried to reach the result that ―a significant positive correlation was observed
between the steady-state plasma concentration of HAL and the daily dose of HAL in the three
ethnic groups” (Morita et.al. 2010:26). There may be a perfect positive correlation here because
of the correlation‘s coefficient that is established between two groups‘ indicators. These
experiments involved quantitative comparisons between experimental and control groups on a
dependent variable which means there is very low external validity. These subjects are not
representatives of a general population, instead experiential treatment may have been distinctive
because only three ethnics matter and are comparable with the limitation of age, gender, and
weight boundaries. The study used ethnicity and gender, each as significant factors, but the daily
dose of HAL and age factors were not significant in Japanese and Korean patients, whereas age
was a significant factor because Swedish patients‘ ages were higher than those of the other two
ethnic patients. There was speculation for the result that “the finding of study cannot be
attributed to the effect of age” (Morita et.al. 2010:28). Further research is needed to study age
factors. Gender was a significant factor in the study, in which gave the possible explanation of
body weight differences between men and women. Male subjects‘ weights were heavier than
those of female subjects‘ among the Korean and Japanese, and even after the correction of the
C/D ratio, the study was tentative to make the suggestion that “ there was no significant
difference in this parameter between male and female subjects” (Morita et.al. 2010:29). It is a
very speculative suggestion that there are no differences between male and female subjects if
they have a similar weight. This issue is questionable and needs to be retested in future studies.
The researchers sought to be like confidents in this issue, which may have affected the reliability
of their study. Korean and Japanese subjects for whose body weights were available got their
data analyzed, whereas only 14 Swedish patients were weighed for comparisons in which
affected the result of the statement because “such a comparison could not be performed for the
Swedish patients” (Morita et.al. 2010:29). Marito et. al. may be denied the existence of an
external world to be called weak idealists, but they challenged and analyzed the credibility of
scientific concepts for which Kemp said that ― advocates of the Strong Programme are guilty of
idealism in this weaker sense because, for hem, scientific discourse is ‗free-floating and
unrelated to the world of things‘‖ ( Bloor 2007: 211).
This study tried to construct validity whether the study‘s variables correlated in the
expected way. As a social constructivist, Latour explained both the micro- and macro-
sociological perspectives with the Actor Network Theory (ANT) in which involved the social
construction of scientific knowledge that ―rhetorical explanation of the argumentative cogency of
a scientific idea: how acceptance depends on effective redefinitions of social agency‖ (Rehg

88
2009: 74). Marito et. al. seemed to be struggling to construct validity of the measurement of the
steady-state plasma levels of HAL which determined the relationship between Japanese, Korean
and Swedish patients while Marito et. al used the principle of ANT to identify that ―the
construction of facts and machines is a collective process‖ (Latour 1987: 29). For example, daily
dose usages were different in the study, as this is one possible explanation that “ the pronounced
interethnic difference in the C/D ratio among Korean, Japanese and Swedes in the present study
might be too large to be explained only by ethnic differences in CYP2D6 plymorphism” (Morita
et.al. 2010:29). There was controversy in the study because one report‘s suggestion didn‘t fit
with another report‘s as both reports didn‘t confirm each other. Then the study tried to explain it
with the possible tentative suggestion that “another isozymue(s) may be responsible for the
metabolism of Hal individuals treated with higher doses of HAL” (Morita et.al. 2010:29). Morita
et. al. here made a balanced wish to make a stronger claim with their own evaluation of the
strength of the evidence as a balancing act and reach a collective conclusion. In fact, the
metabolism of HAL in the individuals among three different ethnic groups was treated with high
and low doses of HAL; this may have had a negative effect on this study. Morita et.al. accepted
in a vitro studies suggestion and alternative theory that researchers may have forgotten “the
involvement of different enzymes” needed. As matter of fact, Hsieh and colleagues have reported
and suggested that “novel mutations of CYP3A4 may decrease CYP3A4 activity” (Morita et.al.
2010:29). This statement report was included in the discussion part as it meant that the
researchers weren‘t satisfied with their study and that a new task should be achieved. It seems
that the researchers attained the implicit knowledge from a pharmacogenetic perspective that
“Koreans and Japanese are closely related,” and also provided the expectation or bias that “the
plasma levels of HAL in Japanese and Korean patients would be very similar” (Morita et.al.
2010:29). Morita‘s plus more others‘ expectations were claimed to be wrong, contrary to their
expectation with the typical scientific assertion, ―the C/D ratios in the Korean patients were
significantly higher than those in the Japanese patients” (Morita et.al. 2010: 29). This statement
was followed by a tentative suggestion that “ that might be partly due to the higher incidence of
CYP2D6*10 in the Korean population (53.8%) in Koreans compared with 25-43 in Japanese”
(Morita et.al. 2010:29).
In conclusion, despite the different methodologies that were used to determine the plasma
levels of HAL in Japan and Sweden in which data was explained with the interethnic differences
in the HAL concentrations, there is the problem of the need of a test or re-test of the results.
Under-determination handled with a control management, the increasing degree of certainty,
minimizing of potential by adding several modalities, and explicit or implicit knowledge, were
however studied only in small controlled ethnic subjects. This is why the study can be questioned
as having the lack of experiments and inter-observer consistency of reliability, external validity
as well as construct validity. The study was granted from several sources in three countries;
however, it studied with ethnic consents and harm reduction consideration in Sweden and Japan
at the beginning, although there was no ethical committee at Seoul National Mental Hospital in
Korea to get approval, as the study declared no biomedical or financial interests or political
conflicts of interest directly influenced to the context, concept or content of the experiments
(Morita et.al. 2010: 25). Morita plus more others came up with a theory and theses that can be
related with the association of the ethnicity of HAL using the comparison of antipsychotic usage
in similar-like psychiatric disorder patients. The concepts used in the research relate to each
other in a way that is consistent with what their theories would predict. Morita et. al. argued
sometimes with confidence in their results and generalized them, but these researchers
sometimes also contradicted themselves for providing the correct expectation, for instance
89
CYP2D6 genotyping wasn‘t performed to explain the interethnic differences to provide absolute
right or wrong claims. Furthermore, the study used limited reports, and relatively small was the
number of subjects, as the researchers indicated that the result of the present study only reflected
the ―real world‖ clinical usage of HAL in the three countries studied (Morita et.al. 2010:29). The
study is concerned with the consistency of measures because the experiments have internal
reliability, concurrent validity and repeatability for future studies.
References
Bloor, David.‖Idealism and Monisms: Recent Criticism of he Strong Programme in the
Sociology of Knowledge‖ in Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science, 38(1), pp 210-
216, 229-232. 2007 Elsevier.
Hess, David. ―The Bath School, Replication, and Controversies ―in Science Studies: An
Advanced Introduction, pp 94-99. 1997 NT: New York University Press.
Latour, Bruno. ―Literature‖ in Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers
Through Society, pp 21-29. 1987 Harvard University Press.
Morita, Sachiyo, Roh, Hyung-Keun, Shimoda, Kazutaka, Someya, Toshiyuki, Shibasaki,
Morikazu, Hirokane, Genta, Svensson, Jan-Olof, Bertilsson, Leif. ―A Comparison of haloperidol
plasma levels among Japanese, Korean and Swedish psychiatric patients‖, pp 24-31. 2010 The
Japanese Society of Clinical Neuropsychopharmacology (CNPT).
Rehg, William. ― Latour‘s ANT Rhetoric: How to Win Friends and Influence Society/Nature‖in
Cogent Science in Context: The Science Wars, Argumentation Theory, and Habermas, pp. 71-
79. 2009 MIT Press.

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Chapter 9

My Presentations

First Presentation: Seeking My Happiness!

What is so important in my life to introduce in my presentation if I am going to die in a


month? This can be a life secret or life target that I have been trying to accomplish. Shortly, I
found that my childhood dream was becoming a famous writer that it is still alive where I
discovered my peace and happiness, which is in my writing career. My father thinks that only a
good paying job brings happiness and he still does think this. I was not sure that a comfortable
life is leading happiness in society. I observed everyone else believing in the same things or
acting that money is very important, more than happiness.

When I was a 10 year old child, my childhood dream was becoming a famous writer. I
loved reading books a lot. My mother had opposed my wish to become a writer because she was
always sick and she wanted me to study in the medical field and become a doctor. My father
was against me too; he thought that writers are poor people, barely making money to survive. He
was an officer in the Turkish Air Force who pushed me to do the same job. He sent me to a
boarding military medical school in Ankara, the capital city of Turkey, when I was 14. Actually,
I was angry at my father because he had not led a life like mine.

I have non-stop been writing novels, poems, researching & writing memory books since
the age of 15. I have been a journalist since 1992 and a writer since 2004. Why am I writing?
This is a typical question we writers are asked most often, and my favorite question that follows
this is by how and what do you write? I was kicked out from military medical school when I was
18 because I was a rebellious leader of a student group and I was a political activist. Do you
know how hard the military boarding school was? I couldn‘t find happiness there but
unhappiness. I decided to write a military school secret life but my father thought I was out of
my mind. It was illegal to write the military‘s secrets.

I spent two years patiently trying to discover the second human being inside me, and I
saw the world as an imaginary piece of garbage. I shut myself up in my room and first went on a
journey inside myself. I said to myself that I must narrate my own story and my other
classmate‘s stories, and tell other people's stories as if they were my own. I must first travel
through other people's stories and books. I have to explore knowledge and hunt it down in order
to get the reader‘s attention.

I completed my boarding school story when I was 21 as a novel but the publish houses
were scared to publish it. One Turkish famous writer told me that I was very young to go to jail
for my writing, and he offered to keep my book for a time and publish it when it was felt as the
right time. It never published for the last 20 years. The right time never came. I didn‘t find my
happiness; I should search for it.

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My writing story didn‘t end here, and it was just beginning. I had followed my childhood
dream all my life. I studied international relations and the international law in my university
years. I found my first job as reporter in the Zaman newspaper in Istanbul, but suddenly they sent
me over to Azerbaijan, a former Communist country, as a war reporter when the Soviet Union
had collapsed.

I wrote more than three thousands pieces of news and articles on energy resources of the
Caspian Sea, and on Karabakh, Abkhazia and Chechnya conflicts that were published in both
Turkish and foreign press in the 1990s and I became a sort of famous journalist. Also, I wrote in
a column called ―Letter From Baku" for two years. I was one of the first publishers of Tomurcuk,
which is the first magazine for children published in Azerbaijan. I still couldn‘t imagine how I
managed this many things.

Until the end of 2000, I was a reporter for diplomacy, foreign policy and energy for the
second biggest daily Turkish Zaman (Time) newspaper in Ankara, Turkey. While preparing
special investigation documents for the Zaman newspaper which were published in 14 different
countries, I worked as a travelling reporter for the Turkish World. I have travelled to more than
35 countries since 1992. I came to Canada in 2000 and worked as a Toronto reporter, and I
published for the ―Sunrise‖ newsletter and Canadaturk newspaper, which is the free monthly
journal in Canada, around 5 thousand copies. I have never stopped writing, making research and
exploring knowledge.

In 2004, my first book was published, and it was a Turkish edition called ―Matrix‘ in 11
Eylul Kurgusu‖ which sold 5 thousand copies in Turkey. This book was translated into English,
and was entitled ―September 11 Fiction of Matrix‖. 2005 was my great publication year. My
second book published in Turkey was entitled ―Wolves Valley of Caspian‖ and it speaks of a
petrol war in the Caspian Sea area, was 447 pages, and already made a third edition. It is my
greatest book that I have written since 1995. My third book is about Iraq and Afghanistan wars
and is called ―Net Breaking,‖ which is 400 pages and was published last month in Turkey. My
fourth book is about the connections of the Turkish mafia-Deep Government and a world secret
organization that placed effect on the Turkish economy and policy, called ―the Code of the
Valley is Being Solved.‖ I have just sent my last book to my Turkish publisher and it is called
―How to Come To Canada- Rescue Us Canada.‖ I am happy to introduce Canadian to Turkish
reader attention from all aspects, such as history, economy, politics, education, immigration, etc.
I will write more books about Canada.

My mentor is Orhan Pamuk who is one of the winners of the Nobel Prize of Literature in
2006 and who made a powerful speech about ―My Father Suitcase‖ before receiving his prize in
the Swedish Academy in Sweden. When I get bored writing or have given up, I read his speech
again, again, and again…

―I write because I have an innate need to write! I write because I can't do normal work
like other people. I write because I want to read books like the ones I write. I write because I am
angry at all of you, angry at everyone. I write because I love sitting in a room all day writing. I
write because I can only partake in real life by changing it. I write because I want others, all of
us, the whole world, to know what sort of life we lived, and continue to live in. I write because I
love the smell of paper, pen, and ink. I write because I believe in literature, in the art of the
novel, more than I believe in anything else. I write because it is a habit, a passion. I write
92
because I am afraid of being forgotten. I write because I like the glory and interest that writing
brings. I write to be alone. Perhaps I write because I hope to understand why I am so very, very
angry at all of you, so very, very angry at everyone. I write because I like to be read. I write
because once I have begun a novel, an essay, a page, I want to finish it. I write because everyone
expects me to write. I write because I have a childish belief in the immortality of libraries, and
in the way my books sit on the shelf. I write because it is exciting to turn all of life's beauties and
riches into words. I write not to tell a story, but to compose a story. I write because I wish to
escape from the foreboding that there is a place I must go but – just as in a dream – I can't quite
get there. I write because I have never managed to be happy. I write to be happy.‖

I find my happiness and peace while I am writing. My childhood dream became true after
long years. I am an author 13 books, and 2 more of them will publish this year. The writer's
secret is not inspiration – for it is never clear where it comes from – it is their stubbornness, and
their patience. A lovely Turkish saying – to dig a well with a needle – seems to me to have been
said with writers in mind and I agree that happiness comes after patience, compassion and hard
work.

Second Presentation: How to Make Turkish Coffee

Have you ever tried Turkish coffee?

If you don‘t, you missed 40 years lasting friendship that one cup of Turkish coffee promotes. I
will teach you how to make real Turkish coffee, before that let me tell you little story behind it.

The term "coffee" comes from the Turkish word "kahve." In this form, coffee roughly translates
to mean, "a drink made from the berries of plants," just like wine.

The women of Turkey began at a young age, to learn to properly prepare Turkish coffee.
Potential husbands would judge whether a woman was a good match for marriage, based upon
her ability to make coffee. Vooow. What a criteria for a marriage!

In Turkey, coffee has played an important part in the lifestyle of the Turkish people. Even though
many of the rituals of drinking coffee are not prevalent in modern Turkish customs, coffee still
remains a major part of Turkish culture.

Two Syrian traders brought the first coffee beans to Istanbul in 1555. It was first used in
ceremonies by the mystic Sufi religions in Yemen. The drink helped the Sufi mystics stay up
later to recite their nightly prayers.

Coffee berries were eaten whole at first, or they were crushed, mixed with fat, and then eaten.
Later on, a drink was made from the fermented pulp of the coffee berries. This new drink was
given the name "the milk of chess players and thinkers."

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This drink became very popular with the Moslem dervishes. Elaborate Turkish coffee
ceremonies were performed by royal coffee makers called "kahveciusta," and forty assistants
were needed to properly serve coffee to the sultans of Turkey.

In the years that followed, coffee drinking became a major part of Turkish social interaction.
Wealthy families had special rooms built that were used only for coffee drinking. Coffee houses
in Turkey became commonplace. However, there was a downside to the popularity of these
coffee houses. The more people socialized within the coffee house, the less they spent time
praying in the mosques.

Coffee became a threat to the Ottoman Empire, because when the people gathered together, they
began to question the political doctrines of the time. At least, that is what the leaders of the
empire thought.

They believed the coffee drinkers were banding together to exchange unpopular political
philosophies, to create social unrest, and to possibly cause people to rise up against the empire.

In 1656, the Ottoman Grand Vizier Koprulu established laws that shut down the coffee houses,
and outlawed coffee drinking all together. If a person broke this law, they were beaten with a
club called a 'cudgel.' The second time they were caught, they were sewn up in a leather bag, and
thrown into the nearest river to drown.

The laws, however, did little to stop coffee drinking in Turkey. The laws actually made coffee
even more popular. This caused other countries to take notice of coffee drinking.

Historians tell us that coffee was first introduced to Europe by an accident of war. In 1683, when
the Turkish army fought a battle with the Austrian army, the Turks accidentally left sacks of
coffee beans behind when they retreated from the gates of Vienna. The Austrians quickly
realized what kind of treasure the Turkish army had been given them. So the Austrians decided
to develop their own special blend of coffee. This is the coffee you are drinking right now.

Let me demonstrate how to prepare Turkish coffee: You will need a Turkish coffee pot also
known as cezve, ground coffee, sugar and some water.

For one cup fill the cezve with 1 cup of water. Add sugar to taste (if you like your Turkish coffee
sweet) and top it with two teaspoons of finely ground coffee.

Stir the coffee a bit. Put on low fire (you can also use your stove or a tabletop burner).

As the water begins to heat it will foam up through the coffee.

When the foam ring starts appearing start stirring the coffee slowly.

As soon as the crema-foam increases and fills the top layer turn off the fire and lift the cezve.

Pour slowly into a small demitasse cup and it's ready for serving.

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Pay attention to the stirring and foaming because if you don't, the coffee will foam up and create
a mess everywhere!

There is Turkish Coffee Tips such as:


• Turkish coffee must always be served with foam on top.
• If you can't find finely ground Turkish coffee, you can purchase a bag of coffee at any
coffeehouse and ask them to grind it for Turkish coffee. You need to have a powder-like
consistency.
• Do not stir after pouring into cups; the foam will collapse.
• Always use cold water

In modern Turkey, the coffee houses continue to be a place to meet with friends, and to socialize
over a nice hot cup of coffee.

However, a few hundred years ago there was an old Turkish law that made it legal for a woman
to divorce her husband, if he did not provide her with a daily quota of coffee.

So remember, don't forget the coffee. This is friendly Turkish coffee for ultimate friendship,
offering one cup of coffee for lasting 40 years, it is not Tim Hortons for the short term.

Third Presentation: The Real Legend of Dracula

Who is Dracula? He has been a well-known character for the last 100 years in movies.

I have kept a Dracula picture in my wall for ten years since 2000. I put it on my wall for over six
years until suddenly when my wife was sick of seeing a vampire guy on our wall and pulled it
off. Our Ginger Chris reminded us last week about what secret would be hidden in our
basement. So I found this picture for this presentation. Guess what! There is an amazing story
behind it. You are not going to believe it.

Tales of the supernatural had been circulating in Romanian folklore for centuries and Irish writer
Bram Stoker picked up his immortal tale story of Dracula and first published it in 1897.

Count Dracula, a fictional character in the Dracula novel, was inspired by one of the best-known
figures of Romanian history, Vlad Dracula, nicknamed Vlad Tepes , who was the ruler of
Walachia between 1456 to1462.

Although the writer never traveled to Romania, he wrote it in the London library according to
Saxon trader reports. Stoker crammed his book with descriptions of many real locations that can
still be visited in present-day Romania. I am not Stoker, and I cannot write a story without
visiting its setting location.

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So, I went to Romania with my two journalist friends to discovery his story. I followed Dracula‘s
legends, which are still told, to the city of Brasov where Vlad led raids against the Saxons
merchants had taken place, and, of course, Bran Castle where he lived. I found that he was a
Romanian national hero; his name is everywhere.

In his Bran castle I was searching for a local expert and also a good story teller. Our tour guide
introduced me to a Romanian professor who told me the real story behind this legend. By the
way, we were filming, photographing and recording.

His father name is Vlad Dracul. The Holy Roma Imperator named him this, which in the
Romanian language means "Devil;" Dracula means ―the son of the Devil.‖ His mother had skin
cancer and took baths with virgin girl blood to cure her sickness. Father Dracul became prince of
Walachia which was among one of the three Romanian provinces and took up residence at the
palace of Targoviste, the princely capital.

Dracul sent his son, Vlad, and his younger brother, Radu, to Constantinople (today Istanbul) for
better education. Ottoman Sultan Murat II welcomed Vlad and put him in an Enderun school in
his palace right next to his son, Fatih Sultan Mehmet, who became the conqueror of Istanbul later
on. This information was interesting and new to Turkish readers and the public. I didn‘t know
that the legend of Dracula was related to our history.

Dracula received perfect education in his time, learned many languages and learned how Turkish
people lived peacefully in harmony. He was surprised when he saw there were no poor in this
country and that gold money was being taken from bags in front of the mosques for those who
were in need. Rich people didn‘t want to embrace poor people, so the poor only picked that
which they really needed. Nobody was picking up this gold bag for several months and nobody
stole it either. There was no crime. Only one committed killing crime happened in a year. He
discovered his justice method from Istanbul, and converted it to his culture a little bit differently.

When he was 17 years old, Dracula was supported by a force of Turkish cavalry. Pasha Mustafa
Hassan lent him Turkish soldiers and made his first major move toward seizing the Walachian
throne. Vlad became the ruler of Walachia in July of 1456. During his six-year governing period,
he committed many cruelties, establishing his controversial reputation.

Vlad Tepes adopted the method of impaling criminals and enemies and raising them aloft in the
town square for all to see. Almost any crime, from lying and stealing to killing, could be
punished by impalement. Being so confident in the effectiveness of his law, Dracula placed a
golden cup on display in the central square of Targoviste. There was no one who dared to steal
it. Crime and corruption ceased; commerce and culture thrived, and many Romanians to this day
view Vlad Tepes as a hero for his fierce insistence on honesty and order.

But something was wrong because he did one major mistake. He killed two Ottoman
ambassadors who were carrying Ottoman Sultan Mehmet ‗s messages for warning him that he

96
should be more careful when providing justice. To punish Dracula, the Sultan decided to launch
a full-scale invasion to Walachia.

Dracula was scared and prepared a horror scene in which hundreds of stakes held the remaining
carcasses of Turkish captives, and that‘s why the forest was ultimately nicknamed ―The Forest of
the Impaled." This terror tactic, deliberately stage-managed by Dracula, was definitely
successful, though it was not good enough. He escaped to Hungary but Sultan Mehmet managed
to pick him up from there easily.

Sultan Mehmet encouraged and supported Vlad's younger brother, Radu, to take the Walachian
throne. The legend says that Dracula's wife tried to escape capture, and committed suicide by
hurling herself from a tower. What truly happened to Dracula? Some Romanian legends say he is
immortal, while others say he was assassinated by his own brother, Radu.

This is not the fate he faced in real history, as a Romanian history teller and professor denied it.
Sultan Mehmet wanted to judge him according to law in Istanbul and put him in a jail named The
Seven Towers. He stayed there for more than 6 months. Of course, after a fair trial, the court
made a decision to hang him in At Meydani which is in the center of Istanbul. Before hanging
him, Sultan Mehmet put him in a wooden cage and showed him to all people of Istanbul, and
taught that justice cannot be brought with horror methods.

Now, I am going to tell to you his secrets. When the British army took over his castle of Bran in
1916, they discovered a secret passage between downstairs and upstairs. He pretended showing
up in two places at the same time. He placed a person who resembled him to another one of his
castles, 10 km away from Bran, to trick everyone that he can fly between two castles.

I wrote this story in Aksiyon magazine in August 2000, and one Turkish film company made a
cartoon movie based on my story without paying me a writer loyalty fee. This is the true story of
Dracula.

Fourth Presentation: Introduction to Naomi Klein

 She was born May 8, 1970 in Montreal- still living in Toronto with her husband.
 Her father, Michael Klein, is a physician and war resister against the Vietnam war.
 Her mother, Bonnie Sherr, is a documentary film maker, against anti- pornography.
 Her grandparents were communists who later turned against the Soviet Union.
 Her parents are both left-wing activist, she has brought in this Jewish family.
 Her parents moved to Montreal from the U.S. in 1967 as war protesters.
 Her husband, Avi Lewis, is a leftist TV journalist and documentary filmmaker.
 She is best known as a Canadian author, an award-winning journalist, syndicated
columnist and activist rather than a Sociologist but her books talks itself extensive and
full of Sociology.
 Her two political analyses are crucial consumerism and her critics of corporate
globalization.
EDUCATION
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 Her mother had a stroke and became severely disabled right before she was planning to
attend for the University of Toronto, while she was 17. She sacrificed her education for
one year.
 She joined female engineering student feminist movement in 1989, and couldn‘t study
again.
 In her third year, she dropped out the UOFT take a job the Toronto Globe and Mail.
 In 1995, she returned to the UOFT to finish her degree but left the University for the
Journalism.
 She couldn‘t acquire the final credit required to complete her degree.
 She once lectured as a Miliband Fellow at the London School of Economics.
 And holds an honorary Doctor of Civil Laws from the University of King‘s College,
Nova Scotia.
CAREER AND WORK
 As editor-in chief, her writing career started at The Varsity, a student newspaper.
 Toronto Globe and Mail, This Magazine, an editorship, The Nation- the Canadian
equivalent of the American magazine and The Guardian.
 She also contributes in These Times and editor for Harper‘s and reporter for Rolling
Stone, and writes a regular column for The Nation and The Guardian that is syndicated
internationally.
 The New York Times Syndicate. In 2004, her reporting from Iraq for Harper’s Magazine
won the James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism.
 In 2004, she co-produced The Take with director Avi Lewis, a feature documentary about
Argentina‘s occupied factories. The film was an Official Selection of the Venice
Biennale and won the Best Documentary Jury Prize at the American Film Institute‘s Film
Festival in Los Angeles.
 The six minute companion film, created by Alfonso Cuaron, director of Children of Men,
was an Official Selection of the 2007 Venice Biennale and Toronto International Film
Festivals.
BOOKS
 No Logo: No Space, No Choice, No Jobs (2000) became a manifesto for anti-
globalization movements, it also an international bestseller. Translated over 28
languages.
 The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. (2007) The New York Times
bestseller. In 2009 it won the inaugural Warwick Prize for Literature. Translated over 25
languages.
 Fences and Windows (2002) a collection of her articles and speeches about anti-
globalization.
 Going Rouge: Sarah Palin, An American Nightmare (2009) as a contributor.
CONCEPTS
 Rejecting of brand oriented consumerism which operates by large corporations at global
level.
 Looking at the dark side of capitalism, neo-liberalism, privatization and hegemonic
power.
 Achieving control to Other by imposing economic\ political and cultural shock therapies.
REFERENCES:

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 Mac Farguhar, Larisssa (2008 ). Outside Agitator: Naomi Klein and the New Left, The
New Yorker
 Cockburn, Alexander ( 2007), On Naomi Klein‘s The Shock Doctrine, Counterpunch
Newsletter

Klein ranked 11th in an internet poll of the top global intellectuals of 2005, a list of the
world's top 100 public intellectuals compiled by the Prospect magazine in conjunction with
Foreign Policy magazine.

 Klein was involved in a protest condemning police action during the G20 summit in
Toronto, ON. She spoke to a rally of hundreds seeking the release of peaceful protesters
in front of police headquarters on June 28, 2010. She talked about real cirime was inside
of the G20 summit.
 Naomi Klein‘s words and her ideas are seen as a serious threat for G20 countries,
especially US and multinational corporations because her words are a source of
inspiration for many social movements for those who are being radicalized by the anti-
globalization, anti-colonial, and anti-poverty movements and the demands to change the
system totally and completely.

The Shock Doctrine

In THE SHOCK DOCTRINE, Naomi Klein explodes the myth that the global free market and
critics it democratically.

More than 500 pages of amazing writing, Klein may well have revealed the master narrative of
our time because she govern our future as well, The Shock Doctrine could turn out to be among
the most important books of the decade for everybody, especially for Sociologist.

Since her book ―The Shock Doctrine‖ was published in 2007, Klein, now forty years old, has
become the most visible and influential figure on the American left—what Howard Zinn and
Noam Chomsky were thirty years ago.

She speaks every few days, all over the world, and hundreds of people turn up to hear her. They
visit her Web site and subscribe to her newsletter and send her passionate fan mail. She has
become an icon‘s icon: Radiohead and Laurie Anderson promote her books to their fans; John
Cusack‘s comedy ―War, Inc.‖ was inspired by her reporting from Baghdad. The Mexican film
director Alfonso Cuarón felt so strongly about ―The Shock Doctrine‖ that he made a short
promotional film about it for free. Now, suddenly, she was in demand everywhere. The
economic crisis had looked at first like a textbook enactment of her ―shock doctrine‖ theory, and
everyone wanted her to go on TV and explain it.

Exposing the thinking, the money trail and the puppet strings behind the world-changing crises
and wars of the last four decades, The Shock Doctrine is the gripping story of how America‘s
―free market‖ policies have come to dominate the world-- through the exploitation of disaster-
shocked people and countries.

• Swift regime change

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• Swift changes to the economy
• Repression of opponents

The Shock Doctrine follows the application of these ideas through our contemporary history,
showing in riveting detail how well-known events of the recent past have been deliberate, active
theatres for the shock doctrine, among them: Pinochet‘s coup in Chile in 1973.

Klein concludes that the Chicago School is ―a movement that prays for crisis the way drought-
struck farmers pray for rain.‖ Worse, Friedmanites are impatient—sometimes too impatient to sit
around praying for acts of God. Natural disasters are tricky to engineer, but coups and terror are
always possible. ―Some of the most infamous human rights violations of this era,‖ she writes,
―which have tended to be viewed as sadistic acts carried out by antidemocratic regimes‖—
Pinochet‘s in Chile, for instance, or the Argentinean junta—―were in fact either committed with
the deliberate intent of terrorizing the public or actively harnessed to prepare the ground for the
introduction of radical free-market ‗reforms.‘ ‖

The central thesis of the book is that capitalism and democracy, free markets and free people, do
not, as we‘ve been told, go hand in hand. On the contrary, capitalism—at least fundamentalist
capitalism, of the type promoted by the late economist Milton Friedman and his ―Chicago
School‖ acolytes—is so unpopular, and so obviously harmful to everyone except the richest of
the rich, that its establishment requires, at best, trickery and, at worst, terror and torture.
Friedman believed that markets perform best when freed from government interference, so he
advocated getting rid of tariffs, subsidies, minimum-wage laws, public housing, Social Security,
financial regulation, and licensing requirements, including those for doctors—indeed, virtually
every measure devised to protect people from the market‘s harsh logic. Klein argues that the only
circumstance in which a population would accept Friedman-style reforms is when it is in a state
of shock, following a crisis of some sort—a natural disaster, a terrorist attack, a war. A person in
shock regresses to a childlike state in which he longs for a parental figure to take control;
similarly, a population in a state of shock will hand exceptional powers to its leaders, permitting
them to destroy the regulatory functions of government.

Based on breakthrough historical research and four years of on-the-ground reporting in disaster
zones, The Shock Doctrine vividly shows how disaster capitalism – the rapid-fire corporate
reengineering of societies still reeling from shock – did not begin with September 11, 2001. The
book traces its origins back fifty years, to the University of Chicago under Milton Friedman,
which produced many of the leading neo-conservative and neo-liberal thinkers whose influence
is still profound in Washington today.

Fifth Presentation: Food Fascism and Poverty

The capitalist system has developed a system of food production that is in favour of the capitalist
or the small elite group and capital intensives, which only support large-scale state-control or
state-subsidized agribusiness, reduce the use of labour, and make more people depend on wage
labour in which they can consume the food that they cannot produce. There is enough food
production to feed the whole world—there should be no hunger and poverty—but one-sixth of
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the world‘s population still faces hunger and lives under the poverty line because the culture of
capitalism is eager to produce and overproduce goods, which are put under the control of
capitalists who have the ability to pay for their interest and profits, while they don‘t care of one
who needs to eat or is unable to purchase basic foods. Until the 20th century, most of the world
population lived in farms, which meant families grew their own food and what they consumed,
were able to sell their surpluses to local markets and keep seeds for the following year. This was
before the food fascism era started. The evolution of food production can be broken down from
the Neolithic to the Neocaloric periods, and it can be extended to the Green Revolution I and the
potential for green revolution II.

The Neolithic Period


The gathering and hunting societies shifted in the Neolithic period which goes back to about
10.000 years in Mesopotamia where the human population produced such plants as wheat,
barley, rice, etc. and began to use animals such as sheep, goats, pigs for human consumption.
Land, water, labour and energy were used for swidden agriculture—land intensive only—
because only basic tools such as an ax and a digging stick were needed. Generally, men cleared
the land, women worked on the cutting and gathering of the harvested plants and cared for the
crops. When plow and irrigation agriculture started to come into use, they required more
complex and political structures in which canals and dams needed to expand in production
through salinization of the soil, even though this would increase diseases such as cholera and
malaria, whereas it also changed the division of labour between men and women.

The sixteenth to the eighteen century


Throughout the sixteenth to the eighteen century and so forth, food became a commodity like
any other of the commodities, such as silk when world trade and population increased to open
the opportunities of life in big cities. The creation of competition of labour between the
agricultural and industrial sectors of the economy shaped profit seekers‘ mentality, and the state
and companies began to place interest in food availability because the majority of the population
depended on others for food and did not depend on solely the farmer‘s ability to produce, deliver,
store and market. The markets need to be regulated to maximize food availability and minimize
the food prices structured by the state. That‘s why import quotas and tariffs had to be set. New
lands needed to be colonized to keep farmers‘ wages controlled and food production profitable.

The Industrialism Period


Increasing technology needed new investment on agricultural sectors and those people who
accessed the capital wanted this sector to become more profitable. Due to the reason that the
farmers‘ wages were low they were unhappy for their condition to live rural areas; a small elite
of capitalists had forced state-subsided farming which kept farmers‘ wages lower, and it created
food monopolies that were potential for a rise in food prices. The state financed irrigation and
land reclamation projects, conducted agricultural researches, and subsidized farm prices and
energy costs. As a result, the reduction of agricultural labour and increase in technology were
causing:

 The dependence of capital intensive systems on the use of subsidized energy


 The exploitation of farms, labour, foreign lands to keep food prices low, profits high
 A large labour pool that made wages down by competition and provided cheap food.

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The Neo-caloric Revolution
After the culmination areas had extended since the 1950s, the new agricultural system developed
to adopt the intensive technological advances of the time and had substituted nonhuman energy
for human energy, which devoted to food production in the form of fertilizers, pesticides,
herbicides and machinery—which was so-called the neocaloric revolution. To measure the
number of kilocalories, one kilocalorie was produced per hectare of land in every crop and was
compared to the amount of both human and nonhuman energy expended in kilocalories to
produce per crop. For example, American farmers harvested about 7000 kilograms of corn per
hectar which was 7 times higher than what Mexican swidden farmers produced, but at the cost of
almost 25 million kilocalories. The input and output ratio had later declined because the crops
are energy intensive.

The Green Revolution I


High intensive technology usage resulted from Green Revolution I. This began with research
conducted in Mexico by American scientists in the 1940s and 1950s sponsored by the
Rockefeller Foundation. Their goal was to develop higher yielding hybrid strains of corn and
wheat suitable for Mexican agriculture where farmers began using the High Yielding Varieties
HYVs, especially for wheat, corn and rice. Water and fertilizer usage increased and was
encouraged by petrochemical and fertilizer industries. More farmers began the use of fertilizers,
but the problem arose when new plants required greater inputs of fertilizers and water. When oil
prices went up, farmers returned to the old method of farming and skipped intensive fertilizers
and water usage and still got similar yields, whether crops were adapted or not to the changes.
HYY, now called EIVs, was one of the energy-intensive varieties. More fertilizer use caused
more farmers to give up farming and the numbers of small farms reduced and were taken over by
either big farmers or a few rich capitalists, as more people fled to cities in search of employment.
Only wealthy farmers could afford fertilizers and irrigations.

The Green Revolution II


The Green Revolution II refers to the application of genetic engineering to agricultural
production. Genetically modified crops are still controversial whether they cause a bad effect on
both crop and environment as well as those who will eat them. Some believe that such crops will
help us feed large, hungry populations, reduce poverty and famine worldwide; as well, they will
try to correct the damage done by capitalist agriculture. Some others see that genetically
modified foods place a risk over health.

QUESTION: What did free trade do to farmers?


Free trade proponents argue that farmers benefit from the increasing production for export and
increasing levels of agricultural trade. According to the Statistics of Canada, from 1996 to 2001,
the number of Canadians working in farms declined, with a 26.4 percent drop in Canada as a
whole, while in some provinces the figure was much higher: Alberta saw a 37.6 percent decline;
Saskatchewan 36.2 percent; and Ontario 31.5 percent. As the number of farmers declined, the
remaining farms were getting larger. The neo-liberal agricultural policies benefited from
agribusiness TNCs. Free trades do two things:

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 By removing tariffs, quotes, and duties, these agreements erase the economic borders
between nations and force the world‘s one billion farmers into a single, hyper-
competitive market.
 At the same time, these agreements facilitate waves of agriculture business mergers that
nearly eliminate competition for these corporations.
A SOLUTION

Food sovereignty organizes food production and consumption according to the needs of local
communities, giving priority to production for local consumption. Food sovereignty includes the
right to protect and regulate the national agricultural and livestock production and to shield the
domestic market from the dumping of agricultural surpluses and low-price imports from other
countries.
► What is the main targets for food sovereignty?
► Food: A Basic Human Right
► Agrarian Reform
► Protecting Natural Resources
► Reorganizing Food Trade
► Ending the Globalization of Hunger
► Social Peace
► Democratic control.

WRAP UP: Reducing pesticide use can provide growers with direct economic benefits by
decreasing the cost of inputs and increasing net returns. Some alternative methods may be more
costly than conventional chemical-intensive agricultural practices, but often these comparisons
fail to account for the high environmental and social costs of pesticide use. The economic and
environmental impact of our farm policies on pesticide reduction also deserves scrutiny and
policies that encourage the adoption of ecologically sound farming practices need to be
implemented.

QUESTIONS:
► Do you agree with that development meant nothing less than protecting the American
model of society on the rest of the world?
► Do you think growing integration into the world economy for the third world countries
results increase poverty and thousand dying of starvation?
► What is your solution for hunger, famine and poverty in micro/macro levels?

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Sixth Presentation: Public Space and War Drama!

Negotiations of global treaties require physical space which is also known as public space.

I talk about the Seattle: battle over public space.

- Tuesday November 30, 1999 during a WTO meeting


- many demonstrators wanted to challenge what they saw as the WTO‘s democratic
exclusion zone
- NGO‘s were not invited to speak at the meeting or given observer status
- Activists responded by locking themselves down on Seattle streets to create their own
WTO exclusion zone
o Because delegates need to crisscross public space from moving from one venue to
another, this posed a problem and scheduled meetings had to be cancelled
- Police resorted to force to remove peaceful protestors from the streets
- Mayor declared a state of emergency where a 25-block no protest zone was created and
police got to define what ―protest‖ was and arrested people for handing out simple
leaflets and wearing buttons
- Whole downtown was pretty much put on lock down making it illegal to be out at night

Quebec City: Pre-emptive Closure of Public Space


- FTAA meeting in April 2001
- Quebec wanted to seal off public space in advance so they created a 3 meter wall made of
steel and concrete which ran 4km long
- Only summit delegates and residents of the area were given a security pass to enter
- Extra police and military personnel were assembled for a total of 6000

Qatar: Elimination of Public Space


- Similar acts of exclusion zones and further refused visas for NGOs
- The only NGO that got near was Greenpeace by anchoring a ship near the coast

Diversity Tactics
- 3 different types of demonstrations
o Festive demonstrations
 Joyful, creative and artistic
o Obstruction
 Civil disobedience or other defensive, non-confrontational tactics
o Disruption
 Maximum disruption of the summit and might include an attack on the
fence

- Jennifer Bennet was part of a demonstration with the CLAC and she describes the protest
as a battlefield where ―military strategy is a problem of geography—the direction of the
wind, position of forces, and routes of attack and retreat‖
- Police in Quebec shot tear gas canisters directly at people however the wind carried the
gas back to the police

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- The crowd eventually got the trucks and police to move back however the police figured
out how to use the wind to their advantage and shot the tear gas behind the protesters in
order to allow the wind to carry it into the crowd and then blocked off routes to funnel the
crowd into the tear gas

Challenging the State to ―Speak‖ in the Language of Violence


- Some protesters try and provoke the state to use violence as it ―reads‖ better as injustice
and would be seen by the media as state violence towards peaceful protestors which is a
tactic many protesters use in order to get a message across regarding who is in power

Virtual Theatre of Violence


- Modern demonstrations take place on physical streets as well as on a virtual media stage
o Demonstrations become global thanks to technology and the media
- However the media are not neutral in the way that they structure the power dramaturgy
o Biases occur based on who‘s viewpoint the media is being taken and shared by
o Messages can be taken differently based on what is being shown and how it is
being shown

Civil Society
- Composed of voluntary civic and social organizations and institutions that form the basis
of a functioning society separate from the government
o Community groups, faith based organizations, social movements, trade unions,
coalitions, etc.

―Durkheim understood that the physical spaces of public assembly and procession were
necessary sites for the ritual embodiment of our abstracts‘ conception of society.‖

―Benedict Anderson‘s term states that public ritual in these spaces is a technique for making
tangible those anonymous, trans-local ‗imagined communities‘ of which we are a part‖ (Bantjes,
2007: 369).

Solidarity action in Public Space

Global civil society as an imagined community organizes parallel events: civil society
conferences or people’s summit and demonstrations. These events demand the physical space
and logistic capacity in public or in open public space. Public space has become private,
controlling powers have eliminated public protest by controlling public space. Modern
technology forces us toward superficiality and human disconnection. The Internet allows us to
have many virtual selves in different places. Virtual presence is a type of being we experience in
e-mailing, net surfing, facebook checking, and cell phone chats.

How many of you have cheated professors while pretending to listening to a lecture?

We are living in a Matrix and Hyperreality, since the public space has become a desert of the
real.

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Solidarity action needs human connection. Face-to-face dialogue and one-on-one interaction are
important in networking. They help to cement virtual connections and extend networks of
collaboration. How do we crate trust and solidarity during campaigns, meetings, public
demonstrations, tabling events, and so forth?

Sharing food is an ancient human ritual of affirming social bonds. Painting, music and dance are
other ways of creating a positive atmosphere. Touching and making physical human connection
such as dancing together is about physical, collective co-presence.

Providing medical assistance is valuable of human commitment and mutual aid that shows
solidarity. By breaking the racial segregation of people of colour and gender lines, a crucial step
to building and getting universal network support can be made.

Are people willing to endure arrests, tear gas and rubber bullets to fight for a needed
change? What does one need to make this sacrifice? Of course, you need to trust your project,
members of action, and establish unity like a soccer fan, and one that will be not your short term
goal but for the long run as it is for a humanitarian cause.

Any collective action, such as the idea of hearing one voice and blocking a street in public space,
also represents solidarity. Other examples are holding hands and repeating slogans together
loudly, and visiting your members while they are tortured and jailed.

War drama is always effective in protesting culture on the virtual media stage. Don‘t forget,
there has always been an electronic sensorium. Demonstrators have little control in the electronic
global mass media stage. Media attention is less likely to occur without violence and bloodshed
in the event. On the other hand, a peaceful mega-demonstration scale is impossible for the global
media to ignore.

For example, on February 15, 2003, anti-war protests have mushroomed, for instance, it was the
Humongous Fungus effect that showed a virtual physical hybrid in which countless micro-sites
might be coordinated in ritual action as a global hybrid of physical public space showed
thousands of local networks beyond that invisible network. Media had reported the event only
when protestors invoked War Drama against the state.

There is a big debate: is War Drama losing its tactic or helping to intensify bonuses among
demonstrators?

Changing the Spatial logic of Parallel Summits

Since the 9/11 event, states and city governments have been more vigorous about demonstrations
and posed security panicking for any simple case. New legislation, regulations and policies have
passed and been implemented to provide more hostile positions toward demonstrations of civil
society at the cost of civil liberties.

106
The FTAA meeting held in Miami in 2003 concerned the event where powerless protestors had
to use scissors to protect themselves from police oppression, and as such it has been called a
Miami Model. World class cities have become hostile to global demonstration. Brutal military
and police tactics have been imposed, for instance, during the recent the G-20 Summit in
Toronto when the city of Toronto was divided by yellow, green and red lines. It was licensing
violence from the tactics that had been imposed by the police, with their consequences on others.
In fact, anti-war demonstrations have mostly been centred in Europe and summits in Canada
after the 9/11 era.

Who is part of a smart mob? How do such people change their tactics to suit current
circumstances?

A smart mob means communicating through text messaging with cell phones, thus learning how
to self-organize action on the fly. For example, the Direct Action Network provides logging and
blogging on at free internet portals for breaking physical barriers. The trans-local network of
global society is non-linear.

An emerging master frame for global civil society revolves around the values of universal
jurisdiction and popular sovereignty. In fact, social movements turn to the global scale. The
Humongous Fungus is an apt metaphor for global civil society. The trans-local networks of
activists and NGOs are normally invisible to the casual observers. The mushroom is represented
here as parallel summits, demonstrations and other public events which makes social movements
visible at the global level.

Main questions:

Are civil societies and civil liberties important or the neoliberal agenda of global governance and
its corporate corporation‘s interest? How do we draw the lines between?

Is civil society a global governing project of hegemonic power to control counter-mobilization?


How do we distinct between people‘s organizations‘ and state/corporate supported or financed
NGOs? Whose interests do they serve?

Are we trapped in the virtual presence where hegemonic power wastes our time and spaces with
the internet, cell phones, and electronic technologies which cause fewer connections between
humans?

Seventh Presentation: The Site Memory and the Holocaust

Memory as a Cultural System: Abraham Lincoln in World War II


By: Barry Schwartz (Atoosa and Faruk)

 One might observe WWII as an ―object of memory‖, however Schwartz combats this
idea and refers to WWII as a ―site of memory‖ (Schwartz: 908). He goes on further to

107
state that his goal is not to address or understand the ―memory of a crisis‖, but rather the
―memory in a time of crisis‖ (Schwartz: 908).
 At the top of page 909, Geertz defines culture as ―an organization of symbolic patterns on
which people rely to make sense of their experience‖ (Schwartz: 909). Therefore,
Schwartz defines memory ―as a cultural system‖, a system in which memory is seen as a
―symbolic pattern of commemoration‖ (Schwartz: 909). Schwartz analyzes images of
Lincoln as they come up across cases, rather than within cases, meaning that through one
analytical lens, the author will look at similarities and differences between the images of
Lincoln throughout different points in history, moving from WWII to later wars and
world events (Schwartz: 909).

The Social Frames of Memory – page 909

1. ―Eras and generations appear as ever-changing 2. ―generational comparisons-


memory as
communities of memory‖ contested object of
differently empowered
communities‖
(Schwartz: 909).

“politics of memory 1”conception “politics of memory 2”power is


of the past is traced to an assumed spread out and not concentrated and
Two Faces of Memory – page 910
prevailing ideology supported by the that collective memory emerges out
privileged to preserve their of intersecting networks and
hegemony (Schwartz: 909). enterprises (Schwartz: 909politics of
memory 2”power is spread out and
Collective memory as: Model of society Collective memorynot as:concentrated
Model forand society
that collective
memory emerges out of intersecting
-an expression of societies ―needs, problems, -a way to ―define its experience,
networks andexpress its (Schwartz:
enterprises
fears, mentality, and aspirations‖ (Schwartz: values and goals, and provide cognitive 909). and
910). moral orientation for realizing them‖
“politics of memory 2”power is
(Schwartz: 910).
spread out and not concentrated and
-reflective aspect: memory is ―an expressive -orienting symbol: ―a that
map‖ collective memory
that guides us emerges out
of intersecting networks and
symbol‖, a language for expressing current through present day issues by linking where we
enterprises (Schwartz: 909).
issues (Schwartz: 910). are presently and where we have been in the
past (Schwartz: 910).

-past events are keyed to the present -past events are keyed by the present
(Schwartz: 911). (Schwartz: 911).

108
 All social systems encounter four problems (Parson‘s AGIL paradigm):

1. Adaptation, 2. Goal attainment, 3. Integration, 4. Latent pattern maintenance-tension


management

Memory as a Social Frame


“Framing/recognizing” “Keying/pairing”

-shared memories become symbols a way to -tool for interpretation (Schwartz: 911).
understand and perceive current issues
(Schwartz: 911). -Changes the meaning of activities in regards
to one event by comparing it with activities
understood in regards to another event
(Schwartz: 911). Ex. Roosevelt‘s death and
Lincoln‘s death

-―primary framework‖ since it does not depend -through keying, memory is morphed into a
on any previous explanation (Schwartz: 911). cultural system, not because it is made up of
unseen mental thoughts, but because it
-seen as reproducing what would in other cases connects publicly available models of the past
be a meaningless part of an event into to the issues of today (Schwartz: 911). Ex.
something that is meaningful (Schwartz: 911). Symbols within music and images connect and
past and the present.

-cultural symbols are made visible through


public discourse that works through institutions
and organizations of the social
realm(Schwartz: 911).

-it is only primary if its existence and -―communicative movement‖: image making,
definition comes before the event it is talking, writing  separate moments of history
attempting to analyze (Schwartz: 911). Ex. are connected through these mediums.
Lincoln‘s assassination

-Schwartz: primary if it brings the society


together and reorients it. (Schwartz: 911). Ex.
WWII Civil War

Abraham Lincoln
 ―Devotion to Abraham Lincoln as an ideal person cut across class, ethnic, racial, and
religious lines and was one of the sentiments that members of an otherwise fractious
society shared‖ (Schwartz: 913).

109
 What do you think is the importance of Lincoln being able to connect to all types/groups of
people? What are the benefits of being able to cross intersectional boundaries in regards to
memory?

Historical Discourses – page 914


Legitimation Orientation Clarification Inspiration Consolation

-―presidential - -―hybrid that -―discourse of -―making the


powers in a ―mobilization concerns encouragement,motivation ultimate loss, death,
national for war and action and sustained through the understandable and
emergency‖ strategies for values‖ pattern maintenance bearable‖(Schwartz:
(Schwartz: fighting it‖ (Schwartz: machinery‖ (Schwartz: 919).
915). (Schwartz: 915). 917).
915).

-ex. Lincoln -ex. -ex. Meaning -ex. Writing patriotic -ex. The Gettysburg
was a role Roosevelt and purpose songs, musical address and letter to
model for had to deal of the war productions Mrs. Bixby
presidential with public‘s clarified
conduct disinclination through
during times to go to war media
of danger posters

-keying -keying -keying -keying present to past ex. -Letter as a symbol


present to present to present to Using Lincoln‘s images to of the boys‘
past through past ex. past ex. justify the costs of war identities between
discourse Roosevelt Word their families and
quoting ―liberty‖ the nation
Lincoln in does not
his press have to be
conference defined it
is ambiguous

Schwartz, B. (1996). Memory as a cultural system: Abraham Lincoln in World War II. American
Sociological Review, 61, 908-927.

Questions:

1. ―Under what conditions and for what purposes is the past invoked as a frame for
understanding the present?‖ (bottom of page 911)
2. At the beginning of his work, Schwartz states that for some people/intellectuals, WWII is
seen as an ―object of memory‖. However, he sees WWII as a ―site of memory‖. He goes
on to say, ―My objective is not to understand memory of crisis, but memory in a time of

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crisis‖ (Schwartz: 908). What do you think he means by this and is there a distinction
between something/someone/an event being a site of memory rather than an object of it?
3. On the bottom of page 924, Schwartz states that, ―Through decades of struggle for racial
justice in America, for example, African-American leaders have held up Lincoln as a
model of justice for Black society and White society alike. Nevertheless, Americans now
look less often to the past as a model for the present than ever before‖ (Schwartz: 924).
Presently, do we look less often to the past to learn, and if so, why do you think this is?
 Has Obama ever brought up Lincoln in his speeches?
4. Should collective memory be a model of society or a model for society?
5. What is antidote to the freezing of memory?
6. What are neoconservative, socialist and liberal believe about social and collective
memories and creation of the museums and the monuments?
7. Why Israel, Germany and Europe, the United States, East European and Soviet memorial
site implications are different in the terms of the mythic memory?
8. Why no single monument will ever be able to convey the Holocaust?
9. How can we manage to sustain the tension between the numbing totality of the Holocaust
and the stories of the individual victims, families, communities?

Huyssen‘s Monument and Memory in a Postmodern Age

Remembrance as a vital human activity shapes our links to the past and the ways we remember
define us in the present. Under the attack of the new media technologies, as defining amnesia as
a dangerous cultural virus, unreliable individual memory can be always affected by forgetting
and denial, repression and trauma, more often not, serving the need to rationalize and the
maintain power. In the case of post-modernity, a society‘s memory is negotiated in the social
body‘s belief and values, rituals and institutions; it is shaped by such public sites of memory as
the museum, the memorial, the monument. (Huyssen: 249) We need monument, in frozen
memory; the past is nothing but the past. (Huyssen: 260)

We feed our unconsciousness desires to guiding our most conscious action, including our
mistaken belief in some ultimately pure, complete, and transcendent memory, at the same time,
the strongly remembered past may turn into mythic memory. (Huyssen: 250)

The place of memory in any culture is defined by an extraordinarily complex discursive web of
ritual and mythic, historical, political, and psychological factors which leads political
totalitarianisms, colonial enterprises and ecological ravages as the dark side of modernization
(Huyssen: 250-251)

There is an obsessive war against memory, practicing ―an Orwellian falsification of memory,
falsification of reality, negation of reality‖, as the Holocaust seen as with the failure of Western
civilization in general to practice amnesia which locks in with the memory of the Holocaust.
(Huyssen: 251)
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Some neoconservative believes that social and collective memory, as paradigmatically organized
in the museum, in historiography or archaeology, is not the opposite of modernity, but rather its
very product. Some other believes that the creation of museum is ―end-of-the-century
melancholy‖, in both views are very structure of memory in the Western tradition. (Huyssen:
252)

There is still lacking in answers for our predicament, this is expansive historicism of our
contemporary culture, for instance, Western culture in the 1970s and 1980s when museums and
memorials were built as if there were no tomorrow. (Huyssen: 253)

It can be seen either as key paradigm in post-modernity culture or suffer from an overload of
memories and a glut of museums, the monuments are shamelessly legitimizing politics with its in
poor aesthetics after its nineteenth-century. (Huyssen: 253)

The problem is victim falls to its magical power of image protection as the strategy of
narcissistic derealization. Real difference, real otherness in historical time or geographic distance
can no longer even be perceived as a game played by nihilistic intellectuals. (Huyssen: 254)

The new museal culture is either reaction formation or amnesia because the new museum and
memorial culture betrays any real sense of history, has turned to spectacle and entertainment
instead. (Huyssen: 254)

Capitalism creates another problem that our culture‘s undisputed tendency toward amnesia under
the sign of immediate profit and short-term politics. Since the museum has been not an elitist
bastion of knowledge and power, the old critics of the museum as fortress for the few and of the
monument as medium of reification and forgetting, but there is no guarantee that today‘s
monuments, designed and built with great public participation rather than new found possibilities
in a memorial media culture. (Huyssen: 255)

Holocaust museums, memorials and monuments cannot be seen as somehow separate from this
post-modern memorial culture because these museum are built and monument erected in Israel,
whereas, Germany and Europe as well as the United States is clearly part of that larger cultural
phenomenon for whom the Holocaust is either mythic memory or cliché. (Huyssen: 2555-256)

The unchecked proliferation became a sign of its traumatic ossification, its remaining locked in a
melancholic fixation, the building more memorials and monument may not offer a solution to the
problems of remembrance either because it representations once again freeze memory in
ritualistic images and discourses in the face of a cult object. (Huyssen: 256)

The monument has freed memory to focus on more than just a fact, but without facts, no real
memory. The genocide of the Jews and its monuments understood differently country to country,
some sees as the Jews lost its ethnic identity or as narcissistic inquiry, ritual breast beating, and
repression or as liberator of the camps and haven for refugees and immigrants; However, Israel
sees history of suffering, starting point of new national history, self assertion and resistance.
(Huyssen: 257)
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There is different discourses and presentation of memories that reach from documentary to soap
opera, survivor testimony to narrative fiction, concentration camp art to memorial painting.
(Huyssen: 258)Holocaust understood as unimaginable, unspeakable, and unrepresentable horror.
(Huyssen: 259)

The ultimate success of a Holocaust monument would be to trigger such as mimetic


approximation, but it can achieve that goal only in conjunction with other related discourses
operating in the mind of the spectator and in the public sphere. We need a traumatic fixation on
an event which goes to the heart of our identity and political culture. (Huyssen: 260)

QUESTIONS:

1- What is antidote to the freezing of memory?


2- What are neoconservative, socialist and liberal believe about social and collective
memories and creation of the museums and the monuments?
3- Why Israel, Germany and Europe, the United States, East European and Soviet memorial
site implications are different in the terms of the mythic memory?
4- Why no single monument will ever be able to convey the Holocaust?
5- How can we manage to sustain the tension between the numbing totality of the Holocaust
and the stories of the individual victims, families, communities?

Reference:

Huyssen, Andreas. 1993. Monument and Memory in a Postmodern Age. Yale Journal of
Criticism. 6:2 pp 249-261.

Eighth Presentation: The Politics of Moral Order: A Brief Anatomy of Racing

About the Author


Diane Austin-Broos is the Radcliffe-Brown professor of Anthropology at the University of
Sydney, Australia. She has done extensive fieldwork both in Kingston, Jamaica, and in Central
Australia. She is the author of three books, two on the Caribbean and one on settler Australia,
and is currently working on a collection of critical and ethnographic essays on the Western
Arrernte.
The Main aim of the Passage
This article focuses on the discrimination of race and class that involves moral denigration, and
elevation in terms of redefining the politics of moral order. ―Moralized spaces and inscriptions
that objectify moralized bodies both confirm as real, and are made coherent by forms of
discourse as described as the politics of moral order.‖ In particular, economic and social
marginalization of people or of the community in the state is categorized as a cognitive system of
classification; also, this system lies in geographic spaces as the product of moral deficit, deviance
and degeneracy. Spatializing race and class in the towns and cities of a state involves creating
stigmatized zones that are naturalized. These zones are described as slums, ghettos, and fringe

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camps. A state gives value to place across various types of terrain. The politics of moral order
provides an account of the way in which forms of marginalization have been produced. The state
activates moral politics with its teaching and projecting onto those against whom that power is
used.
Key Concepts
The signifier of blood objectified
Blood is a key signifier of moral values linked to its descendant. On the body‘s surface,
objectifying blood value is the central idea to how racing and enclassing continue as popular
practices. Being black in a world where blackness is objectified as a moral deficit is an example
of racial discrimination. Fighting against the process of racing is defined in terms of being a
moralized semiology on the body‘s surface. The state mobilizes fear for dispossession and
subordination, in which are explained by the politics of moral order as parts of the nation‘s
capacity.

Feminization of morality
This is seen to derive from deviant gender-relations. This domestic disorder means that there is a
link between child, and mother as nurturer. The bad blood of nature of this descent is determined
by a milieu of moral disorder. The threat can be identified and managed by the state, and it must
be transformed or contained by the nation.
Race-making morality
The assumption is that the existence of bad blood, in turn, renders up the experience of another
race. Two examples indicate how Australia and the US dealt with experiencing the race-making
policy. The reconciliation was addressed for apologies to the Austrian Indigenous people,
especially their half-caste children for wrongdoing in the past. This process turned to a scandal,
and some politicians saw it as the disruption of national morality and a threat to hierarchy. The
president of the US in the 1960s, Lyndon Johnson, argued that the black community was
marginalized because of social inequality and humiliation. There were two reasons why ―Negro
Americans‖ failed; the first reason is that they were trapped in gateless poverty; the second
reason is that the breakdown of the ―Negro family‖ structure underwent long years of
degradation and discrimination.

In conclusion, the race-making morality is the central idea of the state politics that unmask
violence, injustice and crimes committed against certain races. But this morality also masks
many violations of human rights, such as sexual and labour exploitations, disrespect towards
other cultures, etc. The poor are the victims of class politics, in which marginalize the poor to be
bound in powerless spaces that are played out on designated urban and rural areas. These spatial
slums symbolize the economic and political crises‘ of the state and of the dominant class‘ fear of
loss of social status. Space is a product literally filled with ideologies, where the state owns the
political moral order. According to universal human rights regulations and chapters, race,
culture, ethnicity, and religious affiliations must be optional for the autonomous of individuals
and a group identity; but in practice, the state still needs to protect the nation while it
disadvantages the troublesome population.
Discussion questions
1. When does the political moral order enter the society, and what kind of social inequality and
discrimination does it produce? Discuss the two examples of the experiences of Australia and the
US…
2. When did the sufferers themselves become scandals, and why did people support their state in
its maintenance of policies? How does the state benefit from the strategy of race-making?
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3. Why and how have the ―Negro- Americans‖ been suffering according to the former president
of the US, Lyndon Johnson? Discuss his two possible reasons…

Ninth Presentation: From Hong Kong to Canada: Immigration and the

Changing Family Lives of Middle-class Women from Hong Kong

Objective: Hong Kong-originated Chinese women have integrated into Canada differently from
other immigrants because of the differences in their social organizations, such as the family.
Duration: Our video clip will last 10 minutes.
Choice of Concept: I would like show the third wave of Chinese immigration from Hong Kong
to Canada. You have read the first and second waves in chapter 28.
Theme: How are Hong Kong immigrants maintaining their lives and families within
transnationalism?
Sub-theme: We are going to look at the family dynamics and relations in middle class women
who had emigrated from Hong Kong to Canada.
Concept: Many of the middle-class Chinese immigrant women from Hong Kong are highly
educated, and so urbanized women do not necessarily enjoy a liberating or less oppressive
experience when they settle in Canada.
Study: This study focuses on the silence of what women have experienced, using voices of their
stories from their own perspective, and from work centered on the concept of adaptation and
adjustment.
Micro-structure: Individuals and the immediate family.
Macro-structure: A look at how society has constructed opportunities and limitations.
This study uses feminist methodology. The individual Chinese woman is subject to this account.
What are structural processes and individual negotiations and their (middle-class Hong Kong
women) experiences and transformation in two different societies?
Categories: Employment opportunities, housework, childcare, relation with husbands and
children, and social life.
Sample: Interview with 30 recent middle-class women from Hong Kong. All women married
have at least one child and have immigrated between 1986 and 1990. Open-ended questions have
been asked to all 30 Hong Kong women, and 28 of these women have communicated with the
Cantonese dialect in Chinese, while only two have spoken in English.

Study Findings myths:

They haven‘t moved from a lesser developed country to a more developed country
They don‘t reject their tradition roles in the family when entering the job market
They don‘t need to gain a high status and more equitable position through waged work or
economic independency because many of them already have these.

Study Findings:
Many of these middle-class women had help with their housework and children from either
members of their extended family members, such as the mother or mother-in law, or hired help
from Hong Kong citizens (while in Hong Kong)
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This support system enables them to pursue their careers in interest and allows them more free
time for social life and recreational activities in Hong Kong
When they were transplanted to Canada, these women lost their support system and a conflicting
demand arose between family life and career interest.
Most of these women‘s children have a dependency on their mother, and that‘s why they feel
unequal distribution in household labour under the traditional role, and with gender and sexual
oppression in the home
Not only Chinese woman, but also men have faced underemployment or unemployment that
have made women become more economically dependent on their husbands, while their
husbands face similar discrimination and racism in Canada
Some women enjoy togetherness, and it brings a new dimension to their marriage because they
create new intimacy relationships with the husband- though he has been reduced their work to
business activities or underemployment
Some suffer communication problems and the marriage breaks down
In the astronaut family, the husband has a job on both sides- and when their husbands travel,
women feel the burden and loneliness of maintaining the household on their own
Some of them have their experience diminished by the lack of reaching power and a general lack
of opportunities

Questions:

1- Is it really gender relations that become more equal in couples who move to Canada from
cultures which are patriarchal?

2- How have women from Hong Kong organized and shaped their gender relations in
transnationalism?

3- Why did the Canadian media focus only on the wealthiest of business immigrants from Hong
Kong in the second wave of immigration during the transfer of government processes before and
after 1997?

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Chapter 10

Canola: Advantages and Disadvantages of Alternative Fuel

ABSTRACT:

Bio-diesel is a biodegradable and cleaner burning diesel replacement fuel made from natural,
renewable sources such as new and used vegetable oils and animal fats. ―Driving forces behind
increasing bio-diesel production include low commodity prices for feed-stocks used to produce
bio-diesel, environmental concerns with continued diesel use, and national security concerns
about increased usage of foreign crude oil.‖ (1) In this research project, my goal was to figure
out which oil could be the best choice for bio-diesel production in Canada with comparing
different kind of vegetable oils and quality by different parameters not only its quality matters
but also its production fertility by per acre land. About half of all U.S. bio-diesel producers use
soybean oil exclusively; the rest also use other fats or oils as well, including recycled cooking
grease. EIA estimates that U.S. bio-diesel production capacity will reach 1.1 billion gallons by
2008. (2) ―The biodiesel industry can utilize Canola as well as off-grade mustards, flax and
soybeans as feedstock for the production of biodiesel‖(3) in Canada.
Biodiesel is a clean burning; alternative fuel produced from domestic and renewable
vegetable oil resources. Biodiesel contains no petroleum, but it can be blended to any level of
petroleum diesel to create a biodiesel blend (Ex: B5, B20, B100). Blended biodiesel can run in
any diesel engine with little or no modifications. Biodiesel is simple to produce and operate, it is
biodegradable (it biodegrades as fast as sugar), it‘s less toxic (than table salt), and it has lower
emissions than petroleum diesel. The first diesel motor was invented on 1892 by Rudolf Diesel.
This model motor was first used to run on peanut oil and as we know that was untransesterified
biodiesel. Biodiesel is formed through a chemical process known as Transesterification.
Transesterification happens when methanol is added to the plant oils (canola, corn, soybean,
sunflower, etc.) together with a catalyst (Sodium Hydroxide). Rising petroleum costs and
concerns about climate change will increase demand of biodiesel use each year.
BENEFITS OF USING BIODIESEL:
Biodiesel reduces the risks of Global Warming by reducing emissions of Green House gases
such as carbon monoxide (CO) by approximately 50%, carbon dioxide (CO2) by 78%, sulfur and
air toxics by 90% except Nitrogen Oxides (NOx). Using biodiesel will improve urban Air and
Water Quality. Its high biodegradability and less toxic properties make Biodiesel an
environmentally sound choice. Biodiesel is a safe and sustainable alternative fuel made by local
resources. Investing in a domestic biodiesel industry has economic benefits that begin at the farm
gate. Increased employment and job opportunities give options to have benefits by local and
national governments. Since biodiesel can be used in conventional diesel engines, the renewable
fuel can directly replace petroleum products and reduce the country's dependence on imported oil
by converting natural resources. Biodiesel‘s by-product (glycerin) can be used for cosmetic and
pharmacy industries.

CANOLA FOR BIODIESEL:


The word "canola" was derived from "Canadian oil, low acid" in 1978. Canola oil produces
approximately 90% biodiesel and 10% glycerin by Transesterification. The glycerin by-product
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can be available for use as a raw material in the cosmetic and pharmacy industry. A square
hectare of Canola oil can produce up to 15% more oil than other oil seed sources. As world‘s
only ―Made in Canada‖ crop, Canola could be playing a significant role in Canadian Economy
near future.
Motivation Purpose: Reduce the risks of Global Warming by preventing Green House Gas
emissions with alternative fuel sources. Compare the Bio-diesel production by different
vegetable oil sources such as canola, corn, peanut, sunflower, etc. Introduce Environment
friendly Canola based Bio-diesel as a more renewable, sustainable, reliable, and domestic
produced alternative fuel in Canada. It is related to our course text and topic as alternative energy
source.
Statement of topic and issues as Hypothesis: Canola will be better than corn, sunflower,
soybean, peanut and vegetable oils for our bio-diesel production purposes because of its higher
grade quality, low acid foundation and higher production fertility, beneficial to local and global
economy and environment tremendously such sustainable, renewable and totally local source.
Canola for bio-diesel production is the best and most efficient way possible because it‘s drastic
local environmental economic affects, mass production ability and high quality outcome for a
sustainable future. According to the National Academy of Science, ―Even dedicating all U.S.
corn and soybean production to biofuels would meet only 12% of gasoline demand and 6% of
diesel demand.‖ (4) That‘s why my project is also focusing on the advantage and the
disadvantage aspects of using Canadian Canola and other feedstock for making bio-diesel
purpose at all.
Bibliography
1- Coltrain, David. Biodiesel: Is it Worth Considering? Kansas University, Risk and Profit
Conference. August 15-16 2002.
2- U.S. Energy Information Agency, "http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/archive/aeo07/index.html"
_―Annual Energy Outlook 2007 with Projections to 2030‖_.
3- William W. Riley. The Canadian Biodiesel Industry: An Analysis of Potential Feedstocks.
October 2004.
4- Jason Hill, Erick Nelson, David Tilman, et al, ―Environmental, Economic, and Energetic
Costs and Benefits of Biodiesel and Ethanol Biofuels,‖ Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences of the United States of America (July 25, 2006), pp. 11, 206.

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Chapter 11

The Ottomans to Turkey: Debatable Artefacts‟ as Turkey‟s National Identity

Museums must have ethics policies, and since they tell the full story of antiquities on
display, whoever would wander through collections in constant dialogue across cultures, borders
and generations, have deserved to know how the pieces got there. The museum has collected
techniques now and in the past, and many objects came to museums as a result of looting. The
great museum collections of the U.S. and Europe were largely amassed to the accompaniment of
great thieves from cultural migrations in the last 200 years. Museums not only display new
languages of power in the Ottoman Empire, but also in America, Europe, and European colonies
around the globe since the 19th Century. While dying, the Ottoman Empire was in the process of
being museum reborn, and was caught between the European colonialism and the rise of Turkish
nationalism under the affiliation of the right wind and the nationalistic French wind.
Archaeology and museum making were already advancing in the Ottoman Empire within the
Tanzimat in 1839, in which was learned from Europe after the French revolution.
The collection of Islamic arts had emerged against a backdrop of the already established
European-style institutions of display in 1846 that had began to collect and exhibit the seeds of
what would become the Ottoman Imperial Museum. Before and after the Ottoman Empire had
closed down, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Italy, and many among others have improved their own
national identity, and have increased the clamor for getting their heritage and artifacts back. The
Louvre, which was the Metropolitan including the British Museum and even the Getty, have had
a lot of looted artifacts acquiring antiquities lacking a documented chain of ownership in which
were stolen from Turks and others. The idea of public and modern view of museums being
imported from the West a century late to the Turks, which hasn‘t justified the way supposed
since the beginning. Even after 125 years, which is now the present, the result shows of many
objects still allowing to be stolen. It all makes for convoluted arguments debatable on how the
Ottoman has gone through the process while cultural identity had finally been lost in the Turkish
museum‘s ideology in which was established, while then Turkey had protected and preserved
ancient treasures with technological advanced security today, and the Topkapi Museum has now
become one of the most important institutions in the world of museum history.
First of all, the development of the museum took place in conjunction with a series of
increasingly restrictive antiquities and laws beginning since 1874 in the Ottoman Empire,
designed to prevent the removal of artifacts by European collectors and museums. Loopholes,
inefficient enforcements, and corruptions have been combined with the ―Sultan's habit of
overriding the laws to make personal gifts, limiting the effectiveness of these regulations.‖ The
Imperial Museum was at the forefront of the struggle, as placing artifacts in its collections was
one of the more successful ways of keeping them within the empire (Boldwin, 2004). ―The
empire had promoted its political identity as the leader of the Islamic world under the rule of
Sultan II Abdulhamit (1876 to1909), and it has chosen not to include works of art and culture
pertaining their Ottoman or Islamic identity in its museum until 1889. It was only then at that
relatively late date that the Council of State set out a revised administrative program for the
Ottoman Imperial Museum that had included a Department of Islamic Arts as one of six
branches of the growing institution. As the empire weakened during the early twentieth century,
the identification of Islamic works of art had become increasingly important to the development
of a sense of an Ottoman national identity. Ironically, the objects were most readily accessible to
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Ottoman collectors—those in which were commonly used in mosques and elite households
around the empire—and were among the last to be collected. This sharply contrasts with the 19th
century development of museums in Europe, where galleries and museums have assembled both
religious and secular artworks in order to foster national spirit‖ (Shaw, 2000).
In 1869, after the sultan had visited several museums in France, provincial governors
were encouraged to send antiquities to the capital, and another building was adapted to serve as
the Imperial Museum. While it was nominally built in emulation of the western museums, Shaw
suggests that it was intended to serve deeper into political purposes. 'European archaeologists
came to the empire to make their claim to Ottoman territories appear natural' (Shaw, 2003- p.
105); and by displaying Greco-Roman and Byzantine objects as part of the Ottoman heritage, the
museum presented the empire as part of Europe, and 'through asserting its ownership of
antiquities, the empire could reaffirm symbolically its control over its territories' (Shaw, 2003-p.
87). Islamic antiquities only became prominent towards the end of the nineteenth century.
Official Ottoman excavations have demonstrated similar cultural interests to those of western
governments. Osman Hamdi was an especially active director, during 1881-1910, and Shaw had
discussed some of the remarkable paintings that illustrate how eastern and western elements
merged in his personality (Reade, 2004).
The prominent place of the Hellenistic antiquities in the museum and its construction in
1891 of a neo-classical building to house in which to them had indicated attempts the Ottoman
elite to situate their empire in the family of European nations. The traditional western museum
had arranged its collections chronologically, narrating a linear history of evolution in which the
Renaissance, as the link between the modern and classical worlds, held center stage. By contrast,
the Imperial Museum did not attempt to draw direct stylistic links or suggest continuity between
the Hellenistic period and the modern Ottoman Empire. For the Ottomans, as Shaw puts it, "the
act of collection itself signalled the present" (Shaw, 2003 p. 156). In addition to embodying the
Ottoman‘s participation in modern cultural practices, the museum asserted the Ottoman
ownership of the antiquities it had contained. The artefacts‘ were arranged geographically,
emphasizing the link between the object and its Ottoman-ruled place of origin. The museum, by
way of the variety of its collections, had gathered all from the Ottoman territory, and has offered
a rejoinder to the Euro-American appropriation of the classical past. The collections had
symbolized the Ottoman power over the territories that had come from what was similar to the
European museums' displays of indigenous artefacts from the colonies. At an age of nationalist
upheavals, the collections had also aimed to portray the empire as a unitary state, presenting a
heritage as diverse peoples could share.
Ironically, Shaw states, ―The Ottoman Imperial Museum designated an Islamic Arts
Division in 1889, but the collection grew very slowly. While Hellenic antiquities were housed in
the lavish new Imperial Museum, a neoclassical building built for them on the grounds of the
Topkapi Palace, the Islamic antiquities moved from site to site, first to an upstairs hall of the
Imperial Museum and later to increasingly independent venues. Growing in the shadow of the
antiquities collections, Islamic collections were never published in catalogues, nowhere they
extensively publicized in newspapers. The only early description of the collection comes from a
short section of an extensive 1895 article about the museum by its assistant director, Halil
Edhem‖ (Shaw, 2000). Thus, the museum didn‘t even try to include collections of Ottoman art to
parallel the painting and sculpture galleries of the Louvre or the British National Gallery. Indeed,
for many years, the Ottoman museums had avoided the suggestion of a present moment for the
empire, implying instead only multiple pasts from which it could garner various aspects of a
modern identity. This disavowal of positivism coincided with a distrust of positivism as a belief
heretical to Islamic norms. Despite Abdülhamid‘s emphasis on the Islamic identity of the
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Ottoman state, the Islamic collections of the Imperial Museum didn‘t flourish fully until the end
of his reign. It was only during and after the constitutionalist Young Turk Revolution of 1908-10
that this concern over Islamic antiquities had begun to enter public discourses with any
frequency in large amounts because of the Young Turks‘ interests in increased communication
between the state and the population. In 1910, newspapers began to tear port thefts of tiles,
carpets, and kilims (flat-woven carpets) from historical sites as far a field as Konya and its
environs. The ideology of the Young Turks began to transform the Islamic arts collection into an
overt means of nationalist expression and resistance against European cultural subjugation. In an
environment pushing toward a Turkish identity independent of religion, objects originally had
only religious value—or, beyond value, and priceless ness gained an aesthetic/historical value
with which they could represent the country in the museum, which isolated them from their
original religious roles. The danger of their loss lay not in their absence but in the degree of
profit possible from those items once they entered European collections.
Under the French Revolution‘s pressure, the Young Turk Revolution was slowly setting
the stage for the secularist revolution that was to come only a decade later: and, already, objects
vested with religious significance were being recontextualized in a historical and national
museum collection. With the plans for the construction of a new museum associated with the
Ministry of Pious Foundations, in 1908 the Islamic collection moved from the upper corner of
the archaeology museum building to the Tiled Pavilion (Shaw, 2000).
On the other hand, Wendy Shaw‘s article ―Possessors and Possessed‖ is of course a well-
written book, which shows its relevance to the Ottoman cultural and intellectual history more
broadly, and to the question of the empire's political, intellectual, and conceptual relationship to
Europe. But there are two major critics: firstly, ―she does not provide an introduction to museum
studies for Ottomans. Second, while it is understandable that the book concentrates on Istanbul
and provide a very brief section on Hellenistic-focused museum enterprises elsewhere in
Anatolia, but Egypt and Iraq, which were also coming to terms with European interests in their
particular regional heritages, would have provided an instructive comparative frame‖ (Boldwin,
2004).
Secondly, the term of "Loot" has showed up recently, in which explains and offers a
judicious critique of cultural imperialism and ruthless Western appropriation, dissimulation,
stonewalling, and failure to abide by regulations created by UNESCO and others in the 20th
century to regulate illicit trading and covert agreements among museums, smugglers, and go-
betweens, ranging from elegant dealers to rich donors seeking big tax breaks in exchange for
their priceless gifts. It is this latest application of the term that interests Sharon Waxman in
―Loot,‖ a broad survey of what she calls ―the battle over the stolen treasures of the ancient
world.‖ Over the past few years, numerous museums have been confronted with claims that
antiquities they have been acquiring were plundered by tomb robbers. Now the countries from
which these objects came want them back. How did museums become looters? To Waxman, a
former culture reporter for The Washington Post and The New York Times, the problem is part
of a larger battle about history, in which ―once-colonized nations‖ are seeking to reclaim the
―tangible symbols‖ of national identity from the ―great cultural shrines of the West.‖ To explore
this conflict, she sets out on a Grand Tour of two American and two European museums, and of
several Mediterranean countries from whose monuments and tombs their collections have been
formed (Eakin, 2008).
Waxman states, ―Turkey‘s landscape holds perhaps the widest collection of ancient
civilization in more than 20,000 mounds representing the remains of ―more Greek cities than
Greece, and more Roman cities than Italy‖ (Waxman, 2008). According to Waxman, a journalist
with expertise on the Middle East and Europe, the answer can be found in the history of cultural
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nationalism and the abuse of power, starting with the intense rivalry between the British and
French at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th. Her story continues to the
present as Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Egypt have begun to recover some of their greatest
treasures from museums in the United States and Europe by means of lawsuits and carefully
publicized disclosures designed to embarrass institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in
New York, the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the British Museum, the Louvre, and others
(Waxman, 2008).
There is a big debate still going on today that these museums have the resources to take
far better care of the treasures than, for instance, Turkish museums. Besides, they say, most
people living in the victimized countries are not direct descendants of the ancient kingdoms and
cultures, most notably the Egyptians and Turks of today, who are Muslims, whereas the older
cultures were pagan. That was essentially the rationale for the Metropolitan Museum to conceal
its possession of the so-called Lydian Hoard, an astonishing trove from the fabled kingdom of
fabulously rich Croesus, located in what is now Turkey but conquered by the Persians millennia
before modern Turkey had emerged in the 1920s. The issue of precisely whose patrimony is
involved gets very complicated. The museum has since returned the antiquities to Turkey
(Kammen, 2008).
A Turkish museum has formally demanded that the Louvre Museum in Paris and another
French museum hand over precious ceramics from the Ottoman era, which were stolen from
Istanbul. A file has been opened on the case to enable the Culture Ministry to recover stolen
ceramics, which were discovered in the Decorative Arts Museum in Sevres and the Louvre
Museum in Paris. The antique ceramic and French art collector, Albert Sorlin-Dorigny, had taken
tiles from the tombs of two sultans: Selim II (1566-1574) and Murat III (1574-1595). He then
sold them to the museums in 1895. Jale Dedeoglu of the Hagia and Sophia Museum in Istanbul
was a professor who had been doing research in the storage rooms of both museums discovered
and photographed since the originals in 2003 which was told to the Agence France-Presse. The
wall panel at the entrance of the Sultan Selim II Tomb is made up of about 60 tiles. The tiles are
said to be a rarity among the masterpieces of Turkish tile artwork (AFR, CBC, Today‘s Zaman,
2003, 2006).
The legendary Hagia Sophia mosque, a former Eastern Orthodox Church converted to a
mosque in 1453, was turned into a museum in 1935. The building, with its deep carvings,
mosaics and ancient tiles, is considered a marvel from the Sixth Century classical Byzantine
architecture and decor. In total, the Turkish Ministry of Culture had been trying to recover 35
objects stolen from the country's museums. It had been spoken through with the Boston Museum
in the United States and other institutions in Germany, Greece, and Russia over artifacts taken
from the city of Troy.
Now, the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the
Illicit Export, Import, and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, has currently been
binding 130 countries. Not only are signatories obliged to bar the importation of smuggled or
stolen cultural artifacts, but they are just as well encouraged to enact specific bans on imperiled
antiquities from specific areas—as the United States has commendably done at the request of El
Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru, Mali and Cambodia. These bans have
curtailed if not eliminated the traffic in monumental steal and sculptured fragments chopped,
even dynamited, from ancient edifices.
However, while the convention does provide new legal weapons to countries seeking the
return of looted or smuggled art, there is a less welcome downside. It also provides a cloak of
virtue for the nationalist politicians whose concern for the display and protection of ancient
cultural treasures ceases once they have been restituted. A shaming case in point concerns the
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Lydian Hoard, a collection of 219 Hellenic gold and silver pieces smuggled from Turkey and
acquired in the 1970s by the Metropolitan Museum. The Turks boldly sued the Met in 1987, and
the case was strong enough to win back the treasures five years later in a negotiated settlement—
an outcome that Turkey hailed as a national victory. But once returned, as Waxman relates, the
long-sought hoard was negligently exhibited and its prize object, a golden stolen from its case
_in a provincial museum in Usak and a crude counterfeit substituted in its place. Thieves had
bribed the Museum‘s directors and 6 staff members who had then gotten sentenced from 6 to 12
years to jail just recently in February 2009. Out of Turkey‘s 93 government-operated museums,
only 78 have electronic security systems, and many of them defective. In 2007, Turkey devoted
merely 66 million dollars to operate all of these museums and their staffs, plus 140 state-
managed archaeological sites—a paltry two-tenths of 1 percent of the national budget (Myer,
2008). But really, can‘t Turkey yet grasp the potential to protect their museums? Although there
hadn‘t been any incidents in the last 15 years, many still wonder this.
Interestingly, western historians and art museum researchers like Shaw and Waxman
have always forgotten and underestimated the highest of the multi cultural and societal
civilizations of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman dynasty was from one of the longest lasting
dynasties in the world - 623 years. In addition, the Ottoman Sultans had been the Caliphs of the
Islamic world for 407 years, and from 1516, when Selim Khan obtained the title, to 1924, this
dignity was abrogated. The Ottoman Empire burst onto the stage at the beginning of the 14th
century from a tiny emirate in northwest Anatolia to eventually becoming a tremendous empire
that had endured under the leadership of a single royal dynasty. At the height of its power, it
reigned over millions of subjects, commanding an area that stretched completely from Tunis in
the west to Iran in the east, and from Poland in the north to Yemen in the south. After the French
Revaluation, Mahmud II succeeded in reforming the Ottoman Administrative Organization of
400 years, which would be completed after the Tanzimat (Reforms). However, this reformation
was merely made of useless imitation of Europe that was no farther than formality. The majority
of the reforms pertained to the central organization of the Ottoman State. Mahmud II had then
felt himself stronger after he had abrogated the Janissary Corps in 1241 - 1826.
By the late nineteenth century, the Ottoman Empire had become "the Sick Man of
Europe," and the great powers of the day busied themselves with annexing territories on the
periphery of the crumbling state and securing privileges for their nationals within its interior. In
addition to military pressure and commercial exploitation, one of the means ―employed by the
Europeans to penetrate the Sultan's realm was archaeology. Beginning with Ionia with Greco-
Roman sites and continuing with the ancient Mesopotamian cities of Assur and Babylon, the
British, French, and especially German archaeologists had harvested antiquities for the museums
of their capitals, where the artifacts were displayed as products of cultural ancestries to the
"Western Civilization." Thus, there were staked a symbolic European claim to the greater portion
of Ottoman lands, a claim that was to be realized--albeit abortively--in the Treaty of Sevres
following the First World War‖ (Beck, 2004).
Orientalists have never understood correctly that Ottoman art reflects the political history
of the empire. Initially it continued the tradition of classic Islamic art that, at its finest in the
period of Suleiman the Magnificent, achieved remarkable feats of architecture and decoration
highlighting the power of the empire and the great extent of its wealth during the 15th and 16th
centuries. But in its decline, in later centuries, it fell back on its former achievements and lost its
individual character and in its period of decadence adopted French rococo and baroque styles.
The Ottomans have influenced more than 35 other countries‘ cultures, arts, artifacts and histories
today. For example, in the late 1996‘s, a memorable exhibition was mounted at the Israel
Museum, Jerusalem. This exhibition, entitled the "Empire of the Sultans," displayed over 200
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works of Ottoman art collected by Dr. Nasser David Khalili. Khalili, who resides in London and
holds the title "Worthy of Jerusalem," has amassed a unique collection of no less than 20,000
items of Ottoman art. As a recognized expert in the field, his doctorate was written on the "Art of
Islamic Lacquering." Khalili started his collection in the mid 1970s and in parallel to the process
of acquisition; he ensured that the items were properly catalogued. The catalogue itself will be a
major publishing venture that will probably comprise 30 volumes now (Shai, 1999).
Recent studies and critiques of collecting and museums have underlined the abuses that
arise from what Marchand neatly calls "proceeding from words to things" (Marchand, 1996-
p.192); which was the demand for acquisition that drew archaeology into the corruptions of
imperialism, and it‘s now ever clearer that our hands are not yet clean. Marchand has given us a
detailed and valuable study that will promote discussion among archaeologists and open
channels to historians outside the field. One of the most difficult questions facing us is how to
come to terms with the history of discipline. In Marchand's account of rise and decline, the
negative aspects of the fully developed professionalization and institutionalization of the
classicals are also extended to intellectual content; the happy days of the Hyperborean are
frequently contrasted to the deadly reign of the specialists. This criticism is in line with other
current condemnations of positivist scholarship. ―Yet any sustained attempt to work with the
body of older scholarship is likely to make it clear that there are advantages in having a usable
documentary basis for classical studies‖ (Marchand, 1996).
I agree with Marchand, and as an example, Khalili‘s collection shows that towards the
end of the 18th century, Italian and French influences were assimilated into Ottoman art,
producing Turkish rococo designs, which were mainly realistic spirals of leaves and baskets full
of roses intertwined with looped stems. The unquenchable love of the Ottomans for decoration
has found expression in illustration, bookbinding and calligraphy. In Islam, calligraphy was
considered the loftiest art form due to the religious injunction against figurative art. The best
practitioners in the field were awarded great honor because of their skills in copying the divine
words, while the very top calligraphers were selected to serve as private calligraphy tutors to the
sultans themselves. Calligraphers were considered as such important artists since their
biographies have become the source of legends. Ironically, Turkey had lost these cultures when
passed through to modern museum areas and the new western civilization‘s life style. By far, the
most interesting individual discussed by Shaw is Osman Hamdi (1842-1910), who was the
director of the Imperial Museum and the official in charge of dealing with European
archaeologists. Educated in France as an accomplished painter in the Orientalist manner, Osman
Hamdi was responsible for the reorganization and display of the Sultan's collections. Islamic
objects were only an afterthought in his projects, and contemporary paintings and sculptures
were not collected at all in his time, but the major antiquate museums of Istanbul, as we know
them today, were largely the creation of Osman Hamdi. He enjoyed less success, however, in his
efforts to restrict the export of antiquities, largely because his concerns were trumped by political
considerations when Abdulhamid II sought to secure the friendship of a European state,
particularly that of Germany (Shaw, 2000).
As an art historian, Shaw had devoted considerable attention to Osman Hamdi's
paintings, many of which are reproduced here, alas only in black and white. She convincingly
demonstrated parallels between the themes of Osman Hamdi's art and the issues with which he
had struggled as a bureaucrat. She also shows how he subverts the conventions of Orientalist
paintings (Shaw, 2003- p. 103-5), ―using them to express his pride and self-respect as an
Ottoman man‖ (Beck, 2004).
―In 1915, the Commission for Examination of Antiquities (Tedkik-i Asar-i Atika
Encümeni) became charged with the investigation of the works of the ―Turkish civilization,
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Islam, and knowledge of the nation‖ and with the publication of its findings. In the same year,
the commission for the protection of antiquities (Muhafaza-i Asar-e Atika Encümeni) was
organized in order to supervise the national adherence to the fifth section of the antiquities law,
which listed all the mobile and immobile objects to which the law had applied. Among their
most important activities, they issued a report concerning the state of the Topkapi Palace in
which, for the first time, Ottoman antiquities had become extensively and explicitly identified
with the preservation of a national heritage, and the preservation of objects had become
explicitly linked to the memory of national history‖ (Shaw, 2000).
Shaw had said, ―Every nation,‖ that the commission had declared, ―makes the necessary
provisions for the preservation of its fine arts and monuments and thus preserves the endless
virtues of its ancestors as a lesson in civilization for its descendants.‖ The Topkapi Palace was
identified as uniquely important since it was the only site where nonpublic and nonreligious
architectural examples had been preserved for several centuries. The commission casts the
preservation of buildings as equivalent to the preservation of four hundred years of Ottoman
history, which contained the tile work, decoration, and architectural details that constituted ―a
national art history‖(Shaw, 2000).
The Topkapi Museum is important because, for the first time, Ottoman antiquities were
designated solely in national, rather than religious, terms. The continued interest of the
government in Ottoman antiquities during the war and their increasing recasting of them as
Ottomans and nationality, rather than Islamic, suggests that the value associated within these
objects had acquired a thoroughly nationalist flavor. The official collection of Islamic artwork
signified the rise of patriotic self-awareness in the face of imperial dissolution, reflecting new
reactions to emergent nationalisms in the former empire, and also foreshadowing secular notions
of Islam, which would develop fully under the Turkish Republic. ―Over the course of thirty
years, the Ottoman government developed a collection of Islamic antiquities from two disparate
and opposed paths. On one hand, the museum divested objects originally used in Islamic practice
of their religious import through the secularizing processes of museum collection, display, and
aesthetic examination. On the other, objects that had originally been part of the political sphere
of the Ottoman dynasty came to be honored under the rubric of the religious sphere. Both
processes supported production of an Ottoman national identity through the conflation of the
Ottoman with the Islamic, of the political with the devotional‖ (Shaw, 2000).
Mehmed II gave the order for the construction of the Topkapi Palace, on Seraglio Point,
over looking both at Marmara and Bosphorus after the conquest of the Constantinapolis in 1453.
The place was then an ancient olive grove, and the final form of the first palace had covered an
area of 700m², and was enclosed with fortified walls 1400 meters in length. The main sections of
the museum were: Harem, the place attire, garments, the Imperial Treasury, and Books – which
were Maps and Calligraphic Documents, Miniatures from the Topkapi Museum, Portraits of the
Sultans, Clocks, the Chambers of the Sacred Relics, Porcelains in the Topkapi, Guns and
Armory, and various sections of the Topkapi (Aydin, 1997).
The palace was a setting for state occasions and royal entertainments, and is a major
tourist attraction today. The palace is complex and elaborate, and has hundreds of rooms and
chambers, but only the most important ones are accessible to the public. This complex
monument is guarded by officials of the ministry as well as armed guad of the Turkish military.
The palace is full of examples of Ottoman architecture and also contains large collections of
porcelain, robes, weapons, shields, armor, Ottoman miniatures, Islamic calligraphic manuscripts
and murals, as well as a display of Ottoman treasures and jewelry.
Sacred relics are a feature of many cultures and religions, but have perhaps been the most
prominent in all of Christianity. Among the early Christians, it was believed that the souls of
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their saints had remained close to their tombs, and so, their possessions were preserved there.
During Mohammed‘s lifetime, his followers had collected keepsakes. With following his death,
the desire for such objects, which were regarded as sacred, became even keener. There were
those who declared that they would rather possess a hair from the Prophet's head or beard than
the entire world. When the controversy over the caliphate broke out, the Omayyads wished to
possess some of the relics of Mohammed so as to gain public support, and Muaviye purchased
the Prophet's mantle for twenty thousand drachmas. This mantle was to become one of the most
venerated symbols of the caliphate, and following the death of Muaviye, was passed down from
caliph to caliph, who wore it on feast days. Following the collapse of the Omayyads, the first
Abbasid caliph, Ebu'l-Abbas Seffah, then purchased the mantle (Aydin, 2000).
While the Pavilion of the Holy Mantle was cleaned thoroughly with its walls washed with
rose water, its columns polished, and the air scented with incense made from musk, aloes and
other aromatics. Then, the fifteen royal attendants while reciting prayers carried the chest back to
its place (Aydin, 2002). The Ottoman sultans had held all holy relics with respect, not only those
associated with the history of Islam and fastidiously preserved them all for posterity. Following
the conquest of Istanbul, Mehmed II ( 1451-1481) proclaimed that all the religious communities
of the city were free to follow. In 1924 after the palace became a museum, these were recorded
as being amongst the other holy relics. John the Baptist was the cousin of the Virgin, Mary, and
the son of Zachariah. He believed that Christ was the Messiah whose coming was prophesied in
the Old Testament, and he had then spread his teachings. He baptized Christ and many others in
the River Jordan. He had earlier lived alone in the desert so as to be closer to God, eating only
locusts to keep him alive. Herod beheaded him for denouncing his marriage with the wife of his
half brother. Among the exhibits in the Pavilion of the Holy Mantle are many other relics
attributed to Biblical prophets, including the scepter of Moses, the saucepan of Abraham, the
sword of David, and a wooden panel carved in relief with the Temple of Solomon and an
inscription in Hebrew (Aydin, 2000). The Ottoman sultans traditionally sent precious gifts to
Mecca and Medina every year, as did other prominent figures from parts of the Islamic world.
The relics were therefore taken to Istanbul to be protected from destruction at the hands of the
Wahhabis, who had demolished the tomb of Hussein and in 1803 occupied and razed the city of
Mecca. The Ottoman Empire had been protecting these arts from horrible art-killing radicals.
During the First World War, a decision was made to evacuate the cities of Makka and
Madina. To prevent any damage or loss, the gifts, which has been sent from Istanbul to Makka
for centuries, as well as some of Sacred Relics, were brought to the Topkapi Palace. Fahraddin
Pasha, the commanding general in Hijaz, consulted with Ziver, alongside the Sheikh al- Haram,
to make sure that there were no religious objections relating with transferring them to Istanbul.
Today, these items are kept in the Treasury Section of the Topkapi Palace and Museum and
include diamonds, ornamented, candlesticks, hanging decorations, fans, prayer beds, rare
manuscripts, and manuscript copies (Aydin, 2002).
In conclusion, ―much of the work that has been done to this day on archaeology in the
Ottoman Empire has relied almost exclusively on western documentation, emanating from
European archaeologists, scholars, travelers, diplomats, and statesmen‖ (Edhem, 2004). During
the latter half of the nineteenth century, the growing interest in antiquities, their archaeological
recovery, and their collection and preservation in museums expanded from Europe to regions in
its sphere of influence. The evolution of the museums also seems to reflect developments within
society, as Shaw had discussed. Shaw's presentation and interpretations are grouped around the
evolution of the Ottoman state museums and the successively stricter Antiquities Laws of 1874,
1884, and 1906. In the ―Possessors and Possessed‖, Wendy Shaw tells the story of a minor
aspect of these reforms--the creation of the museums of Istanbul. This also entails the discussion
126
of Anatolian and Mesopotamian archaeology in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
from the Ottoman perspective (Shaw, 2003- p. 70, 94). Beginning with a small, chaotic
collection of antiquated weapons housed in Basilica of Hagia Irene, by 1908, the imperial
collections had grown substantially and had been fully accommodated in the so-called
Sarcophagus Museum and Tiled Pavilion, which are today the quarters of the Archaeological
Museum at Seraglio Point. Organized along the same didactic principles as the museums of
Europe, and representing civilizations from the Sumerians to the Greeks, the holdings of the
Imperial Museum spanned the pre-Islamic history of the Empire.
As Shaw puts it by adopting the former peoples of the Ottoman Empire, the Ottomans
usurped the European claim on the Hellenistic heritage" (Shaw, 2003- p. 112). Many cultural
identities had been lost because "Loot" was bound to be both embarrassing and controversial.
The nature and meaning of "cultural patrimony" is currently in flux but clearly will never be the
same, because museums, and those who deal in antiquities are fundamentally redefining their
regulations and practices. During the past few years, almost all of the major players have become
far more circumspect about acquisitions, catalogs, and labels. That‘s why centuries ago, the
Ottoman Imperial have given orders and information about the nature of this awareness and had
shown the responses of the court to such approaches. Official laws and regulations concerning
archaeological excavations, conservations, and preservations of cultural heritage were
implemented after the 1870‘s and the artefacts‘ and findings had then been sent to Istanbul.
These objects had come from legal foreign excavations such as Samarra, and confiscations after
illegal digging in various parts of the empire or systematic compilations were from old
monuments. Thousands of people from the far corners of the Empire of many different ethnic
backgrounds and religions had lived and worked there, creating a culturally dynamic atmosphere.
The Palace employed the most talented artists and craftsmen, who had contributed diverse
aesthetic styles and materials and had created Ottoman imperial objects of the highest quality.
The immense wealth of the Ottoman Sultans, and their dedicated patronage of art, had allowed
for the development and flourishing of an innovative Ottoman aesthetic style that had reflected
the cultural vitality of the Empire as well as to their first public museum. Turkey had tried to
keep and protect it‘s own heritage with advanced technology including ancient objects just
recently. History and museum making had then become part of a modern notion of heritage at a
moment of transition from imperial to Turkish national identity as a secular, social and
democratic country. If it would seem that such a view had been justified before, many objects
couldn‘t have been stolen in the last 125 years and today as the present. Looting isn‘t acceptable
in any case, and debaters should find another reason to argue for smuggled or stolen cultural
artifacts from Turkey and other countries. Every National Museum must recover stolen objects
from the other country's museum in order to awake their own heritage and culture, and keep their
copyrights. Modern Universal Museums could have a copy of those objects from there with
reproduction permitting rather than looting, and tell to visitors how that display got here as
matter of ethics.

Bibliography

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Practice), Ankara 1988, pg. 328.

127
Baldwin, James. E. 2004. Review of Wendy M. K. Shaw‘s, Possessors and Possesses: Museums,
Archaeology and the Visualization of History in the Late Ottoman Empire (Berkeley, 2003), in
The Middle East Journal, vol. 58, no. 1 (Winter 2004): 153-154.

Beckman, Gary. 2004. Possessors and Possessed: Museums, Archaeology, and the Visualization
of History in the Late Ottoman Empire. Journal of the American Oriental Society, Jan-March,
2004 .
CBC, Today‘s Zaman, AFP. 2003, 2006. Turkish museum seeks return of stolen rare tiles. June
25, 2006.
Eakin, Hugh. 2008. _ HYPERLINK "http://sharonwaxman.typepad.com/loot/2008/11/loot-in-
new-york-times-sunday-book-review.html" _"Loot" in New York Times' Sunday Book Review
_.Art of the Steal. The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker and The Times. 09.11.
2008
_ HYPERLINK "http://www.etc.ucla.edu/ottomanconf08/abstracts/" \l "_ftnref1" __Eldem,
Edhem. 2004. ―An Ottoman Archaeologist Caught Between Two Worlds: Osman Hamdi Bey
(1842-1910),‖ David Shankland (ed.), Archaeology, Anthropology and Heritage in the Balkans
and Anatolia: The Life and Times of F. W. Hasluck, 1878-1920, Istanbul, Isis Press, 2004, vol. I,
pp. 121-149
Kammen, Michael. 2008. Golden fleeces. For centuries the West has plundered the treasures of
the ancient world; now some nations are fighting back. The Boston Globe. November 9, 2008
Marchand, Suzanne L. 1996. Down from Olympus. Archaeology and Philhellenism in Germany,
1750-1970. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996.

Meyer, Karl E. 2008. Truthdig.com - Karl E. Meyer on Sharon Waxman‘s ‗Loot‘. Originally
published at _ HYPERLINK
"http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/20081024_karl_e_meyer_on_sharon_waxmans_loot/
" _Truthdig.com_. 24. 10 2008. FROM _ HYPERLINK "http://sharonwaxman.typepad.com"
__http://sharonwaxman.typepad.com_. on 03.01.2009.
Reade, Julian. 2004. "_ HYPERLINK
"http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb3284/is_299_78/ai_n29083301/pg_4" _Orientals and
orientalists_". Antiquity. FindArticles.com. 01 Jan. 2009.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb3284/is_299_78/ai_n29083301
Shaw, Wendy M.K. 2003. Possessors and Possessed: Museums, Archaeology, and the
Visualization of History in the Late Ottoman Empire. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of
California Press, 2003

Shaw, Wendy M.K. 2000. Islamic Arts in the Ottoman Imperial Museum, 1889-1923. Ars
Orientalis v30 p55-68. 2000. Retrived from _ HYPERLINK "http://www.ata.boun.edu.tr"
http://www.ata.boun.edu.tr_ on Jan 4,2009.

Shai, Eli. 1999. The Ottoman Artistic Legacy. Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs Library. 3
February 1999. Translated by Channa Stern. Retrieved from _ HYPERLINK
"http://www.mfa.gov.il" __http://www.mfa.gov.il_ on January 3,2009.

Waxman, Sharon. 2008. Loot: The Battle Over the Stolen Treasures of the Ancient World. Times
Books/ Henry Holt & Company. 2008.

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Chapter 12

New Visions to Solve for Mental Health Problems in the Future

The medical community has been trying to understand, examine, classify and treat mental
illnesses in the current mental health system based on human experiences under the review of the
history of madness. A number of disciplines and theories have been used for understanding how
and why societal structures lead to oppression and how we can escape from that oppression. This
paper will argue about what a reformed health system might look like in the future; instead of
scientific approach, crisis resolution and early intervention in psychosis are used in order to be
brought towards more recognition of the social, spiritual, and psychological aspects of these
problems in the treatments that provide a cross-cultural community support based approach. The
psychiatric instruments need to develop, and future cross-cultural psychiatric research should be
both comparable and culturally valid because there are some similarities with biomedical
concepts of mental illness and medications, as well as dispute spiritual causes and solving
methods that give the direction towards the mental health policy, in which could lead the
development of assertive out of reach.
First of all, there are a growing number of literatures that explore ―the impact of socio-
cultural factors, race and ethnicity on clinical care‖ (Berger, 1998; Hill 1990). Increasing racial
and ethnic minorities are not trusting service providers because of the fear and need for equality
of treatment. An existing system of racism and discrimination plays a major role here as well as
differences in language and communication. Lack of understanding socio-cultural differences,
patient‘s perspectives, values, beliefs and behaviors breaks trust relationships between patients
and clinicians where the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders greatly depend on verbal
communication and trust. Mental health clients are living lower economic conditions, and social,
and political status. These barriers affect on ―patient satisfaction, adherence and health
outcomes‖ (Smedley, Sitithand, Nelson, 2003). There are many barriers exist to minorities for
reaching treatment such as cost, fragmentation of services, lack of availability of services, and
societal stigma toward mental illness. Cross-cultural model of treatment and special attentions
needed in that focus on vulnerable, high-need populations in which minorities are
overrepresented.
Mental health care of racial and ethnic minorities compared with privileged white
population are unequal, for example, minorities have less access and availability of mental health
services, less likely to receive needed treatment, often receive a poorer quality of mental health
care. The mental health professionals must be trained according to improve current
consumer/survivor model to adapt new cross-cultural ecological model. Of course, they need a
large-scale expansion, funding, support and availability of several services, such as ethnic
support, education, outreach, role models, mentors, and advocates. Limitations are funding,
geographical availability, participation, and leadership development opportunities, as well as
lack of transportation, and controlling and mistrustful professionals hinder peer support efforts.
Furthermore, the cross-cultural medicine and methods need to be rediscovered, not only for
―cultural sensitivity‖, it is also for ―cultural competence‖ a more skill-focused paradigm
(Lavizzo-Mourey, 1996). Cross-cultural diversity education must be given both undergraduate
and higher levels to all the future and current health sector providers. The attitudes, knowledge
and skill are playing critical role when apply to cross- cultural model, understanding
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multicultural approach also known ―categorical approach‖, providing knowledge on attitude,
values, beliefs, and behaviors of certain cultural group ( Paniagua, 1994).
For example, the Middle Eastern, the Asian, the Hispanic or the African clients would
have different kinds of believe and health priority, cultural norms and communication skills. An
effective knowledge based approach increase decision making process and choosing treatment
method for health providers because mental health incident among these certain group
historically and culturally different. Institutional racism in health and treatment for ethnic and
linguistic minorities still has many problems attitudinal, structural, institutional, and ideological
that produces inequality, especially disparities between the mental health care and health status.
On the other hand, after knowing the cause of the major mental illnesses, in which are
schizophrenia, the bipolar affective disorder (manic depression), and clinical depression,
providers should have knowledge an alternative treatment methods available in the cross-cultural
community that approach had been looked over because the side effects of current medication
are sometimes too much to handle that patients or their family members, and mistrust is going
on. Their families must be trained to call their doctor immediately, and the ―patient shouldn‘t
stop the meds on with own decision‖ (Double, 2000). Probably the hardest part is to believe in
yourself, especially when your self esteem may be brought down while a family member, friend,
or community support is absent. Trust is the key factor for helping others in the mental health
sector both patients and clinicians.
Secondly, the psychotic illness is often recognized as ‗madness‘ though emphasis is on
behavioral symptoms rather than delusions; neurotic presentations are much more varied,
sometimes not be considered to be mental illnesses at all. Both psychological (mind) and
biological (body) explanations of the causation or conceptualization of the mental illness are
different from one another. Many wonder how eastern concepts and theories have been applied
throughout the history as ―a social psychological perspective in terms of its similarities and
differences‖ such as the aspects of Tibetan or Islamic psychiatry and the Buddhist or Muslim
views of mental illnesses (Roberts, 2001). A common thread of all practices is the importance of
body, mind, spirit, and harmony with nature in the healing process, all therapies recognize the
holistic nature of healing as being of prime importance.
Tibetan medicine is a unique and holistic system of healing. It has been continuously
practiced for over a thousand years, but has still to take its place in the history of medicine as we
know it in the West. The holistic Buddhist concept of mind-body based on, ―Tibetan medicine is
a system of psycho-cosmo-physical healing whose philosophy and healing techniques have much
to offer towards the world-wide campaign against disease‖ (Clifford, 2003). In Islamic view,
religious and mental health forces are intimately intertwined. These observations have led a
number of Muslim psychiatrists around the world to develop innovative methods for the
promotion of mental health and the prevention of mental illness. One of the most important of a
holistic world view is into the body of Islamic thought. The origins of this view of humans and
their world were in Indian philosophy and Muslim mystic thinkers developed it further. In this
system of thought, the human mind is regarded as a complex, multifaceted entity that is the
product of continuous interaction of many inter-related spheres
These spheres are body, soul, society, the past (history), and even the collective
memories in mythology (Foroozanfar, 1980). This is what in modern psychiatry has found a
simpler but ironically less comprehensive synonym in the term "bio-psycho-social" (Ammar,
1997). In seventh and eight centuries, many Muslim physicians had discovered treatments and
medicines on mental health such as Avicenna, Al-Kindi, Jorjani, Maimonides, Rhazes and
Tabari, the great philosopher Ghazali, who can be regarded as one of the founders of psychology,
the great scholar Farabi, an early sociologist, and psychological studies were started with the
130
names of Ibn Zahu, Ibn Rushd, Ibn Hazm and Ibn Khaldoun, and philosophical thinking and
views on the human mind were also influenced by scholars like Ibn Arabi, Rumi, Hallaj and
other so-called mystic thinkers in this part of the world (Ammar, 1997).
Around the ninth and the tenth century, the first humane psychiatric hospitals and even
psychiatric wards in general hospitals were built in the Middle East, the methods of mental
health treatment in this period were a mixture of psychotherapy, reassurance and support. The
common belief was based on the close relationship between psychological set-up, mood and the
body. Avicenna used a combined method of persuasion, psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy in
the form of different remedies. The Greek concept of attributing different diseases to different
temperaments was also important, both in understanding the diseases and in devising treatments.
Music was a very important part of treatment of mental illnesses and was used in many places
(Mohit, 2001). After the seeds of Islamic enlightenment had declined in seventeenth century,
mental illness people seen as insane people and locked in cruelly all over the world until recent
years.
Thirdly, locking away the ―insane people‖ to these mental institutions were common in
near past centuries that were really madness rather than mentally sick person named insane.
Psychological medicine of the Renaissance did not produce an influx of new ideas on mental
health area compare the other disciplines, such as surgery and anatomy. What is madness and
how does one become insane questions had unanswered. Attempting to answer questions of this
type in late nineteenth century Europe resulted in, in practical terms, the establishment of a more
humane and understanding way of dealing with mental illness and the mentally ill. Many
psychiatric hospitals were punishing attitude to mental illness in first two quarters of the twenty
century, finally began to appear in Europe and North America after 40‘s. The supremacy of
superstition was slowly over after 50‘s; mental illness was now a legitimate subject for science
and medicine.
Conditions in these institutions were really horrible, so health professional have
obviously dealt with perceived deviance differently now than they had in the past. Constant
changes depend on the development of assertive outreaches instead of getting the treatment,
where persons who are viewed as deviant or dangerous go to jail rather than mental hospitals.
Long ago, no differentiation had seen the differences between the mentally ill and criminally
insane. These accused people were whipped and beaten for misbehavior, much like the
behaviour of acting as if they were wild animals in the Middle age. Today, the healths providers
used to have supposed a perfect social model as a control agent. On the other hand, providers
couldn‘t seek to end or to reduce poverty with all its associated stresses, as well as
discrimination, exploitation, and prejudices as other major sources of stress leading to emotional
problems because the head of the health profession here is elite of people who wish the
profession to function as an agent of social control. A mental illness person still can be sent to
jail for nothing instead of hospitalized mental health clinic for treatment. The profession of social
work has been facing similar problem that it had become characterized by control and
supervision as opposed to care. Clinical psychology as well as social work field has joined the
forces that perpetuate social injustice. The profession of psychology is currently failing in our
responsibility to society.
In Conclusion, the cross-cultural education, medicine, and related approach could
―improve providers-patient communication and help eliminate the pervasive racial/ethnic
disparities in medical care today ― (Brach and Fraser, 2000). If health professionals understand
the patience socio-cultural belief system, they could assist medical care successfully and satisfy
customers/survivor. The mental illnesses have the need for special medical assistance,
sensitively trained and educated health providers could reduce poverty with all its associated
131
stresses, as well as discrimination, exploitation, and prejudices as other major sources of stress
leading to emotional problems. Providers must aware of internal psychological factors and
external social-environmental factors are involved in the development of mental health problems.
Alternative medical health and mental health treatments have become increasingly more popular
over the last few decades such as European herbals, Chinese medicine, Buddhist meditation,
Native American sweat lodges, Asian acupuncture etc.
The eastern civilization, including the Ottomans, Arabs and Central Asian civilizations,
knew many mental illnesses and their needed treatments with music and herbs centuries ago;
soon they‘d taught the western civilization. There are many ―ways of dealing with these diverse
mental illnesses and diverse ways of approaching‖ in terms of our argument of the mind-body
issue (Kinderman, Cooke, 2000). There is the future possibility of new discovery, which might
lead to the end of this sufficient cycle, such as ―the most outstanding recent examples that are
family therapy, psychology and Ericksonian hypnosis‖ (Farber, 1987). There is also the
infrastructure problem because there were still persons with ―mental illness that are being housed
in jails rather than treatment facilities‖ across the country, while mental institutions aren‘t
working close to their prisons (Cooper, Foster, 2002). Jails and mental health services may
develop new strategies to work together in the practice of outreach in mental health laws and in
the policies of the government. The future leads us the development of assertive outreach,
become culturally, religiously, socially sensitive in order to provide better health service and
satisfy customer/survivor.

References

Ammar S. 1997. Arab psychiatry between yesterday and today. Medical Journal of the
Federation of Arab Physicians, third year, Issue No.1.
Berger JT. 1998. Culture and ethnicity in clinical care. Archives of Internal Medicine, 158: 2085-
2090
Brach C, Fraser. 2000. Can cultural competency reduce racial and ethnic disparities? A review
and conceptual model. Medical Care Research and Review. 1:181-217.
Brian D. Smedley, Adrienne Y. Stithand. Unequal Treatment: Confronting racial and Ethnic
Disparities in Health Care, pp 199-204. national Academies Press.
Cooper, Duggan M, Foster, A J. 2002. Modernizing the social model in mental health: a
discussion paper. London: Social Perspectives Network for Modern Mental Health/TOPSS
England, 2002.
Clifford, Terry. 2003. Tibetian Buddhist Medicine and Psychiatry: The Diamond Healing.
Double, Duncan B. 2000. Redressing the biochemical imbalance. Norfolk Mental Health Care
NHS Trust /University of East Anglia.
Farber, Seth. 1987. Transcending Medicalism; An Evolutionary Alternative. The Journal of
Mind and Behaviour, Winter 1987, Volume 8, Number 1. p 128. York University Pub.
Foroozanfar B. 1980. Rumi (Maulana Jalaleddin) Mathnavi. Teheran, Amir Kabir Publishers,
1980
Hill RF, Fortenberry, JD Stein HF. 1990. Culture in clinical medicine. Southern Medical Journal.
83: 1071-1080.
Lavizzo-Mourey. 1996. Cultural Competence-An essential hybrid for delivering high quality
care in the 1990‘s and beyond. Transactions of the American Clinical Climatological
Association, VII, 226-238
132
Mohit, A. 2001. Mental health and psychiatry in the Middle East: Historical development.
Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal, Volume 7, No. 3, May 2001, 336-347
Kinderman P, Cooke A. 2000. Recent advances in understanding mental illness and psychotic
experiences. London: British Psychological Society, 2000
Roberts, Maureen B. 2001. Divine Madness: Schizophrenia, Cultural Healing & Psychiatry's
Loss of Soul c. 2001 Darknight Publications.
Paniagua FA. 1994. Assessing and Treating Culturally Diverse Clients: A Practical Guide:
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

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Chapter 13

A Long Battle: Marx versus Weber

Marx vs. Weber‘s thesis: Capitalism, a bloody process or the pursuit of truth? The main
difference between Marx and Weber was their beliefs. Marx believed that class was based on the
existing economic and various groups relationship to the means of production, whereas Weber
believed in social condition and the ―rational systemic pursuit of scientific knowledge‖ of the
West who created modern capitalism because of the ―culture of nationality, and systematic
thinking‖, but classes were created by the inequalities of the market and the skills of individuals,
as well as recognizing the role of status and power (Singh, 2009). Weber‘s thesis of capitalism is
peaceful, and idyllically rational that ideas create capitalism based view of history in which
relations between ideas and process of production are producing human life. I agree and like
with some of Weber‘s thesis, but mostly agree with Marx‘s thesis that capitalism is of being a
violent bloody process because it‘s as a thesis of the upside-down capitalistic system with which
capitalists make profits and interests between capitals and labour (Singh, 2009).
First of all, there is a main conflict on social stratification in which Marx had said that
the wealthy are exploiting the working just so they could bring down the chances of the working
class to advance. Weber had said that it was not just this that shapes status and power
differentials. Marx takes a wider, macro view of capitalism, like when stating it is the upper
classes that trample on the working class, whereas Weber looks at capitalism in a more micro
fashion, by looking at how people interact with one another. Weber accepts that a middle class
exists; whereas for Marx it's just the bourgeoisie and proletariat. The social class theories of
Marx and Weber both recognize the importance of private property in the differences between
classes. But they differ over the causes for the creation of different classes. According to Marx's
view, the interests of the proletariat are the abolition of the private property and class, and that
those of the capitalists are the maintenance of private property for increasing profits (Marx,
Engles 1986). A sad story in the movie named ―Slavery and the Making of America‖ was about
slaves and un-free black workers who were treated in the same way: being kidnapped, bought,
sold, and had to work hard, sometimes to death, only because that was how the USA had
developed. Unlike Marx, Weber is using the thesis of how the USA developed with slavery. He
sees people who are in leadership positions, and industrial with Protestant ethic and spirit in
which have lead capitalism. He sees the roles of labour, force, struggle and violence in the USA
for developing capitalism (Singh, 2009). Weber recognized that inequality was also created by
status and power, and believed that people could use these to gain privilege and wealth whereas a
―class is ultimately defined by market situation; status is defined by rank or position and a
person‘s way of life‖ (Bendix, 1962).
Secondly, the political economy is now as important as material conditions, but is not
sufficient enough and can be blocked effectively through with ideas. There is a common interest
in the sense of both the capitalists and workers in which is ―calling‖ for recognition. The Marxist
thesis states that capitalism is a system where capitalists make the profit, and also the interest
between capitals and labour voluntarily, not by force, as seen in the slavery mode of production
(Singh, 2009). ―In the history of primitive accumulation, all revolution are epoch-making‖; this
is a secret in the Political Economy (Marx, 1978). According to Weber, there are three important
ideas: firstly, more and more means show made profits as the highest goal for individual life;
secondly, investment currently is making more investment; thirdly, your occupation and roles
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aren‘t important, they are given by God, by which you can therefore liberate your own life.
Capitalism is defined with the actions of capitalists in which are based on the expectations of
profits brought by the neutralizing exchange. Orientations of products and profits have been
changing by exchange that is as a peaceful capital activity, and as rational pursuit. One of the
controversial Weber approaches shows spirit of modernity of capitalism that impacts culture,
economic behaviour as the capitalism of products, and unique cultural totality which is the most
rhetorical objective of materialism that established a superiority of idealism, trying to change the
system. Weber states that the ―spirit of capitalism such as Calvinist movement has ethnos and
economic action that is peaceful profit pursuit. Acquisitiveness is maximum possible
accumulation‖ (Weber, 1930). This is what he says is the meaning of life. Maximum earnings
and profits are roles of ideas that are important in capitalism. Calvinist says that acquisitiveness
is not a sin. The idea of calling is to take your work. Asceticism is that of which you invest in to
get more. Protestants produce a positive atmosphere because there are no sinful activities. Being
more and more productive is neither against religion nor God. Weber says that capitalism comes
from peaceful, rational pursuit, whereas the opposite idea of Marx sees religion as opium, stating
it is acquisitive and the maximum possible accumulation. This is most important in the Marxist
thesis (Singh, 2009). Weber says that idea removes the barrier; for instance, an example would
be your work as a religious duty to God with the Calvinist interpretation. This is the spirit of
capitalism.
Thirdly, Weber claims that power can be gained in three ways: party power, status, and
economic power, whereas Marx says that economic power is the only form of power. Marx
devised Classical Marxism, with uniting workers to make change in order to allow equality via
the working class uprising. Weber says that in society you should aim to achieve seeing the
world through someone else's shoes. This would show that Weber‘s power idea is more
idealistic, such as more coercive and legitimate. Weber sees the source of the new form of labour
as the main idea for primitive accumulation, and that the source of class struggle comes from
feudalism. Land means of production is needed in order to survive, nothing but to escape. Unlike
Marx, the roles of ideas etc religious ideas are important for Weber. There is no rules basis of
colonism, imperialism, or slavery in Weber‘s view that is developed of capitalism, in which is
against humanity and slavery. Marx says that without colonism, there is no capitalism. In
evidence, Weber‘s thesis was based on mythology and perspective (Singh, 2009). Marxist
division of labour has led to alienation because capitalists have exploited the workers spiritually
and physically like a machine, as with which results the fullness of production that is essential to
human liberation, accepting the idea of a strict division of labour only as a temporary necessity
of evil. If a particular people must do the unpleasant jobs while others the pleasant jobs, this
cannot be explained by the technical necessity; it is a socially made decision, which could be
made using a variety of different criteria. The tasks could be rotated, or a person could be
assigned to a task permanently. Weber says that labor should be quite independent and the
industries have to pay people to do the job, although labour dictates the terms and divides as
against the social and economic system.
Overall the difference between Weber and Marx is the theoretical perspectives, as
Marxism uses macro methods, and Weberian more micro. Weber does not believe in
consensuses like Marx. Marx sees the economy as a determining social change and the rise of
capitalism. He looked at "structural" forces. Weber sees several factors and how they influenced
social change and the rise of capitalism. He was concerned with capitalism as a system of social
action and looked at the connections between religion, law and politics. Marx sees the economic
base as being determined of the superstructure, such as ideas, laws, politics, religions, etc,
although he also recognizes that these institutions will turn in and also influence the base that
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there exists some "reciprocity" between the economic base and superstructure. Weber recognizes
these institutions, seeing them not as structures influencing behaviour, but as social groups
composed of individuals engaged in social action. Marx sees the development of capitalism as
inevitable because of its structure, but Weber sees it as the result of a number of social forces and
social actions coming together by historical accident. Marx is critical of the capitalist society and
seeks to change it, while Weber by contrast is less critical and feels that an analysis of capitalism
should be value-free. For Weber, Marx's criticism of capitalism as an exploitative system clouds
the pursuit of truth. Marx is right on capitalism far more than Weber is, by which is my belief.
The key concept of the Political Economy is the Marxism. Social Change and Structure,
which are called the Marxism approach. This is discipline, a knowledge that devoted to process
of production. Explaining this approach helps us understand the foundation of human society,
and how human beings interact and change. Nature is a fundamental subject, which is studied by
human beings that have to move, interact and change with nature. Political economy is the study
of process of production. The anatomy is the social structure of society, in which the body is a
whole within different part. Mainstream sociology deals with political economies that are more
clearly with historical specify. The mode of production is divided into two parts: the Base and
the superstructure. The relation of the superstructure can be understood with political- social and
cultural structures, and also the power/state structure. Values and norms govern society and say
that we‘re not isolated. The relation means the base with the super structure. Marx has referred
the nature of each human and of humanity as a whole, and the conception of human nature is
formed by the totality of "social relations". (Wallerstein, 2000). Being a materialist means taking
consideration into material conditions and social relations. This paper defines fundamental main
key components and concepts of the mode of production with human relations and the political
economies‘ three features; the materialist, historical and dialectical aspects.
Marx‘s theory of human nature doesn‘t mean humans are animals. Marx meant that
humans are capable of making or shaping their own nature to some extent. Humans are different
than animals because humans modify nature resources as toolmakers and tool users for human
labour. A tool is an application of process and of production made by materials taken from
nature. Humans cooperate with other humans and they don‘t live as individuals. ―Bridging
concepts helps us connect up the micro and the macro levels of society.‖ (Landstreet, 2008).
Communicating with languages is another way in which humans are different from animals, and
it‘s necessary for production, that‘s why humans have created norms- rules and engagements for
society. Every form of society determined their own condition, and an important human
condition is the materials that the people need for the process of production. ―With a tiny
minority of people owning the means of production‖, the capitalist system has been getting
surplus value from working people who are cheap labour. ( Hill, 2008).
Historical specificity is about historical times and places that political and economical
conditions specify particular in society. Sociologies are not focused on society in general, for
instance, the ancient society was very different from today‘s societies. There are class and
classless societies, for example, band and tribal societies belong to the classless primitive
communism, while the rest are class societies, such as agrarian, fishing, industrial etc. Production
gets everything from nature, such as tools, technology and labour. Relationship means
production and relation of human beings as two broad possibilities for understanding the relation
of production. For example, primitive social roles of production are Egalitarian. There are three
types: Chiefdom, Tribal, and Band societies that are the earliest forms of self-sufficient and equal
human societies. It is hunting and gathering from farm and crop cultivations, so they consumed
what they produced, relating with each other through blood and with marriage. There were no
economic institutions and market stores etc. ( Singh, 2008).
136
Most importantly, Dialectical is very important for social change and for theories. Systems
as wholes, constant fluxes (changes aren‘t static, naturals are taking place) and primary sources
of change are internal. Mainstream societies have no external conflicts. The human being
principals of social changes are external centres that depend on the view of internal
contradictions. The Marxist theory talks about how cultures are structured in ways that enable
the group holding power to have maximum control with the minimum of conflict. Every member
of society has equal rights of use and control of production, which are called communal and
private ownerships. The source of relation is different in the type of societies, so where
inequalities exist, there are fewer areas of conflict. The meaning of private is of production;
communal is the use of human history in more inequality societies. Society is a living
mechanism, and it is constantly changing. ―Superstructure consists of the political relations‘ and
social institutions, eg. families, neighborhoods and ideologies.‖ ( Singh, 2000). Humans have
social relations from religious institutions to corporations within class societies.
In conclusion, the center idea of Marxism understands human beings, and how their social
structures are. A social relation of production is not realistic; so Marxism political economies
exist together and are related to each other with each mode of production that bring social,
cultural and economical relations together. Marxists‘ analysis suggests the capitalists own the
banks, factories, media, corporations, businesses, that is, the means of production - profit from
exploiting the workers‖ ( Hill, 2008). Marxism brings dialectical, materialist, and historical
understandings that are divided by the four categories defined according to specify the mode of
production such as the Primitive, Ancient, Feudal and Capitalist modes of production. Human
beings rely on energy from the human resources. The unit of production is a very smart escape.
There are formal economic systems: production, consumption, and distribution. The survival of
subsistence is the reason of human production. Most importantly, the distributions characterized
the reciprocities, equalities and inequalities. Every member of society relies on consumption for
survival. (Singh, 2008). Using and controlling power is important in superstructures, for
instance, only 3% of the population controls the rest of the other people in living in Canada and
the USA today in the capitalists unequal societies.

References:

Bendix, R. 1962. Max Weber: An Intellectual Portrait. Newyork: Anchor Books, pp 87.
Landstreet, Peter. (2008). Introduction, page 2. A World of Sociology, Part 1: The Basic
Concepts. York University. August 2008.
Hill, Dave. (2008). A Marxist Critique of Culturalist/Idealist Analyses of 'Race', Caste and Class.
University of Northampton. _ HYPERLINK "http://jceps.com" \t "_blank" _Journal for Critical
Education Policy Studies_. 14 September 2008.
Marx, K. and Engles, F. 1986. The Communist Manifesto. Canadian Scholars Press, pp 93-99
and 21.
Marx, Karl. 1978. The Secret of Primitive Accumulation‖ in Capital, Vol 1, pp 148.
Weber, Max. 1930. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism‖ in The Protestant Ethic
and the Spirit of Capitalism, pp 67-77.
Singh, Hira. (2000). ― Key Concepts in Political Economy‖. Social Structure and Social Change
2008. York University. Canadian Scholars Press Inc.
Singh, Hira. (2008), "The Political Economy is study of process of production ", Lecture/Class,
York University, unpublished. 21 October 2008.

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Chapter 14

Globalization
The development of transnational capitalism has been introduced as globalization, which
is strengthening the dominance of a world capitalist economic system, replacing the primacy of
the nation state by transnational corporations and organizations, and destroying local cultures
and traditions through a global culture. A new stage of techno-capitalism has involved a
fundamental restructuring and reorganization of the world economy, politic, and culture. Both
Marxists and Weberian advocates of world‘s systems theories beside other contemporary
theorists are converted and implemented that globalization as a distinguishing trend of the
present moment. In this paper, I am sorting out the role of the national state and the role of
globalization positions, and will propose the new global mode of production model means of
production that maximize profit cruelly, and overcomes the one-sidedness and violence involved
in the most national state. My argument is that the discourse of globalization, especially North-
South relations can be conflicted near future in terms of labour, work, race, gender and class
social relations because globalization is weakening the national state, promoting one-sided
economy, culture and politic and bringing more inequality, exploitation and general poverty
within modernity, and forcing to adapt only one model of modernization named Americanism.
First of all, one of the biggest fears for globalization is leading greatest inequality,
because as North-South relation shown many manufacturers are moving to their facilities where
cheap labour and cheap material exist such as China and India to exploit wage labour, maximize
the profit, especially get surplus value from unpaid labour work. High-wage manufacturing
labour is not wiping out as long as capitalist interest, but low wage labour becoming
unemployment, a shift changing to manufacturing to minimum wage service job in industrialized
countries. Far more advanced technologies increasingly use, for instance by Wall-Mart, labour
wage inequality and exploitation is getting bigger issue because globalization is that make rich
people richer and poor people poorer. Poverty is increasing rapidly when transnational
corporations and organizations such as IMF get into third world countries and controlling their
economy. For example, Jamaican and Somalian economies had worse when IMF and
multinational companies had changed their agriculture system and hold their natural resources. I
had seen Life and Debt documentary that Jamaican potato business exploited and farmers got
poorer when American company offered free seeds, and made free trade agreement, also
replaced actual milk to milk powder was what destroyed the existing dairy industry in Jamaica.
Secondly, One World Order has been implemented with Bush administration openly
since 2000, and then U.S. nationalism ahead of the interests of a wide swath of multinational
corporations and promoted free trade regimes, for instance, using the Iraq and Afghanistan wars
to support military production in which major engine of American economy in order to develop
global rules risks turning globalization in a harmful direction. After the global crisis has been the
issue and effects of poverty and injustice while G-7 remaining quite comfortable with their
causes. The G-8 stops even talking about debt once the pressure is off, now G-20 tries to rescue
the world in which it seems nobody was responsible. The victims of injustice and inequality,
particularly though is not exclusively in the South, but also their allies of the North. NAFTA,
WTO and IMF supposed to decrease inequality and exploitation, but they were even more
diminished.
Thirdly, globalization is not only a replacement term for imperialism and modernization
with destruction processes in the economy, polity, culture, and everyday life, but it also
138
transnational corporations and organizations taking over the national state and its natural
resources without military invasion for exploitation. Globalization itself is bound up with
capitalist modernity and the expansion of the capitalist system and relations of production as
Marx suggested. The development of a new global market economy and shifting system of
nation-states, the rise of global culture is emerging as a result of computer and communications
technology, a consumer society with its panorama of goods and services, transnational forms of
architecture and design, and a wide range of products and cultural forms that are traversing
national boundaries and becoming part of a new world culture, for example, major sports events,
entertainment programs, and advertisements that relentlessly promote capitalist modernization
(Wark 1994). New technologies are changing the nature of work and creating new forms of
leisure, including the hyper reality of cyberspace, new virtual realities, and new modes of
information and entertainment. Capital is producing a new techno-culture, a new form of the
entertainment and information society, and everything from education to work to politics and
everyday life is dramatically changing. Capitalist relations of production still structure most
social orders and the hegemony of capital is still the structuring force of most dimensions of
social life. Dramatic change and innovation have been part of modernity for centuries, as has
technological development and expansion. Globalization is just promoting homogeneity and
sameness as the Westernization associated or even Americanization, of the world that‘s why
many forms of resistance have been raised to protect national state or rejected globalization
under the influence of the resurrection of tradition, ethno-nationalism, and religious
fundamentalists.

Friedman‟s claim: “No one is in charge”

Friedman claimed that ―Globalization is creating new opportunities for individuals,


companies, and countries, exposing them to new risks, and all the while forcing everyone,
everywhere, to adapt to competitive markets‖ (Friedman, 1999). This thesis about the promise of
globalization is questionable and debatable, and is now raising many questions of the proper role
of the government‘s and multinational corporations‘ relationship in the light of the current crisis
of capitalism. In Mr. Friedman‘s eyes, ―no one is in charge‖, by which he means that when
something goes wrong, he exults that ―there‘s nobody to call‖, which has been proven
(Friedman, 1999). The dominant of the world capitalist system has been collapsed since 2008, as
a new stage of neo-capitalism has involved a fundamental restructuring and reorganization of the
world economy, politics, and cultures as ―an escape route named the neo-liberalism, while others
routes described Globalization and Financialization‖ (Singh, 2009). Globalization is widening
income inequalities, increasing poverty, and bringing violence and injustice in many countries
because of ―the fundamental crisis: Overaccumulation‖ (Bello, 2009).
There has been a crash-based argument happening, including that of globalization since
the 1990‘s. Globalization is nothing more than a capitalist mode of production, and now the
American middle class‘s dream life has become unsafe because of international relations in the
1980‘s. Friedman views developments of globalization from the perspective of ―electronic
technology and international trade‖ in the Lexus, The Olive Tree, and The New York Times
(Friedman, 1999). With the power of the new electronic herd capitalist, investors can place their
money at work anywhere, or withdraw whenever they chose, but those multinational companies
have become affective on a country‘s economics and politics. Even cultures through the Lexus
automobile emblematic of the high standard of living have died today because of cultural
differential. After all, globalization is now not empowering or enabling individuals as Friedman
had estimated, but the Free enterprise market‘s capitalism has spread out on liberal democratic
139
politics in nation and encouraged resistance and social change. We had watched the movies
Nalini by the day, Nancy by The Night, and the Global Assembly Line, all showing the main
characteristics of the capitalist mode of production from the early days until now, in which are
chasing cheap labour and exploiting them to make more profits. Modern electronic
communication is increasing trading capacities, but not decreasing income inequalities, and in
contrast, capitalists are still trying to break the worker unions and labour rights movements.
Friedman was blaming only third world countries problems such as corruption, lack of
transparency, government failure of the rules of law, and the expectance to adapt, barely
mentioning the failure of capitalism or the weakness of the bubble or fraud financial economy.
The crisis of globalization is the crisis of capitalism (Singh, 2009). The Free trade delivers unfair
trades, such as NAFTA in which ―the richer countries maintain their collective advantage over
the poorer‖ (Harvey, 2005-p 133). It was a neo-con conservatives‘ type of capitalism on
Globalization, also named ―multilateralism‖ (Harvey, 2005-p 68). Globalization owners are
trying to weaken the national states and expect from nations to reduce education services and cut
down labour rights, just so they can easily chase cheap labour and never rescue third world
country economies, but exploit more with the new faces of liberal globalizations of power.
The problem of capitalism is over accumulation, meaning that it‘s far over its capacity to
produce or improve to produce and compete more, in which is a contradiction between
production forces and production relations with what has been produced and what has been
consumed. The capitalism problem is not just reducing the capacity, even though it is providing
more inequality. Actually, it is systemically encouraged by the state (Singh, 2009). Poverty is
increasing rapidly when transnational corporations and organizations such as the IMF get into
third world countries and control their economy. The case of Joseph Stiglitz that had included
Globalization, and, with his case being named Its Discontent, had become true, and the ―story of
the failed development does have villain and it is the IMF‖ (Friedman, 1999- pp 50). The IMF
has always been favoring the interest of creditors and rich elites rather than workers, peasants or
other poor people (Friedman, 1999).
Globalization is not only a replacement term for imperialism and modernization with
destruction processes in the economy, polity, culture, and everyday life, but is also a
transnational corporation and organization taking over the national state and its natural resources,
even invading its own culture without military invasion for exploitation ( Friedman, 1999).
Finance is the centre of the entire crisis. There is an increasing disconnection between the real
and financial economies, and the disconnection is not accidental because manufacturing and
agricultural businesses are not over accumulating the production then and so it‘s profitable; for
example, if farmers don‘t want to follow an overproduction rule of capitalism, they destroy what
is produced if they are doing more than consuming. This is the main conflict and contradiction
(Bello, Singh, 2009).
In conclusion, capitalism or globalism is exploiting wage labour, maximizing profits, and
getting surplus values from unpaid labour work (Singh, 2009). Neo-liberalism or the
restructuring of globalism is not offering more than the current capitalist economic mode of
production and political economic system, in which supports a few corporate elites to own and
create media monopoly. Globalization is just promoting homogeneity and sameness as the
Westernization had associated, or even Americanization, or the new face of colonism. As Marx
had mentioned that century ago, now the newly ―rich get more wealth‖, who by means of wealth
are semi-capitalists that are developing countries into the economy to develop the world, in
which is the global economy (Singh, 2009). Globalization is struggling to extend accumulation
because national states don‘t agree with removing all state control for allowing free laws and
capital sakes. It is promoting the one-sided economy, culture, and politic, bringing more
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inequality, exploitation and general poverty within modernity, and forcing to adapt to only one
model of modernization named Americanism. It is clear that ―Globalization is Americanization‖
as a hegemonic power (Friedman, 1999), who‘d caused inequality, poverty and injustice all over
the world. Since global capitalism had been deeply infected because of the whole financial
system, for instance the American system, it had become a bubble or fraud economy that played
a central role in creating the crisis with taking care of only elite group interests (Bello, 2009).
Friedman‘s thesis is very optimistic, and is under the light of the current crisis of globalization
proving that the expectations of the American economy recovery, in which is related to the
global economy and globalization, dangerously depends on the ―US based recovery of
consumerism‖; in other words, the world‘s economic crisis and recession will be solved only
within the Americanization context (Harvey, 2005-pp 227).

References:
Bello, Walden. 2009. The Global Collapse: a Non-orthodox View. The New York Times.
03.04.2009.
Friedman, Benjamin. 1999. The Power of The Electronic Herd, The New York Review of
Books, pp 42. 15 July 1999.
Friedman, Benjamin. 1999. Globalization: Stiglitz‘s Case, The New York Review of Books, pp
50. 15 July 1999.
Harvey, David. 2005. The new Imperialism. Oxford University Press. Paper edition 2005.
Singh, Hira. 2009. York University. Unpublished lecture note. April 28, 2009.
Singh, Hira. 2009. York University. Unpublished lecture note. May 5, 2009.
Singh, Hira. 2009. York University. Unpublished lecture note. May 12, 2009
Singh, Hira. 2009. York University. Unpublished lecture note. May 19, 2009

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Chapter 15

The „disconnection‟ and „fragmentation‟


Following Eric Wolf, analyze the ‗disconnection‘ and ‗fragmentation‘ as characteristic features
of the mainstream social sciences. Does Political Economy overcome the limitations of
fragmentation and disconnection? Justify your agreement/disagreement with arguments &
examples. Is One-sided history & judgment wrong?

Eric Wolf analyzed the ‗disconnection‘ and ‗fragmentation‘ as characteristic features of the
mainstream social sciences. The disconnection and fragmentation are problems of sociology
because of social reality. Sociology explores interaction, as the central mode of communication
with others, and there is a connection between economic, political, social and cultural
consequences about how we are communicated. Political economy and sociology always cross
each other in terms of problematic area, and the limitations of fragmentation and disconnection. I
agree with Marx‘s argument that ―wanted to universalize Society, the Market, or the Political
Process- the existence of different modes of production in human history‖ was definitely ―neither
a universal historian nor a historian of events, but historian of configurations or syndromes of
material relationship.‖ (Wolf, 1982). This paper will argue about the limitation of fragmentation
and disconnection which are still political economy problems with current capitalist economic
development, within ill ethnocentric judgment integrated to system historically, and
interconnection with political consequences.
First of all, there are two names that stand out for exploring the capitalist economy; one of
them is Andre Gunder Frank, an economist who started to question his approach that was called
the development of underdevelopment of the world as the Marxist modernization approach in the
1960‘s. Frank‘s basic distinction core theory of metropolis and satellites was a worldwide
division of labor generated outcome of relation. Immanuel Wallerstein had a similar approach
that was called ― the European world Economy‖ in which the market has to exchange the goods
to increase their profits as primary producers, no matter how cheap labor organized.
Wallersteins‘ thoughts can be summarized as, ― The two are linked with unequal exchanges,
whereby high wages, high profits that need low supervision, and low wages in contrast - low
profit would also need high supervision based on the population‖. ( Wallerstein, 1974). The 1929
and 2008 world economic recession crisis proves that we all inhabit one world that is
ecologically connected, influencing each other with existing capitalist politic economic systems
that are called ―the North-South relation.‖ ( Wallerstein, 2000).
The second breaking ice point is that humans are connected, even within ill ethnocentric
judgments integrated to systems. Egocentrism thought says that there‘re chosen, noblest superior
great people and pure blood nations; on the other hand, others are barbarian and uncivilized
societies. (Landstreet, 2008). Many societies are still ignoring interconnection with other nations.
Understanding their own and world history is getting known as interconnection with their own
identity. Development views of history see unique, independent, and different cultures west of
the world that was also an opposition to other cultures. The West claimed that the Greek and
Romans belong to their history, including the Enlightening century. Suppose that liberty ideas
would come from the Greek civilization- this would be irony since the foundation of the Greek
civilization had a basis on slavery. (Singh, 2008). The great west civilization was forced into
slavery in the past and it was voluntarily turned from large numbers of African and third world
countries citizens to ―modern slaves‖ for the sake to keep the economy growth today. The
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modern side of history helped human beings understand culture, rather than showing them how
the society was developed, and how labor and materials were connected. (Singh, 2008).
My third point is the west claims that they are a civilized society, and that they had the
right to kill weak and ―uncivilized‖ societies and others in order to keep their wealthy life. For
instance, more than 100 thousand Iraqis were killed, and 4 million were left as refugees from
their country because the petroleum needs involved the political consequences that were
supposed to a democratic civilized superiority. Everything is connected today; for example,
Chiquita bananas keep a very important growth and history gives the United Fruits Corporation
ways to help them get bananas, and this is by clearing the very Latin Americas, for instance, they
invented ways to refrigerate items. Rain forests are also at stake, so the company is exercising
with the political control on the Latin Americas because of the control of banana businesses.
There is also a political connection for keeping the labors cheap, which is an important issue
since they can sell them cheap here. Interconnection is like unity of human cultures and that‘s
why we are interested in other parts of the world. (Singh, 2008).
In conclusion, equilibrium, which is the study of integration, is important because some
degrees of integration need to exist, otherwise there would be no society. The idea of social
integration, life of exercise, and integration are the most problematic areas of sociology that are
brought up in ethno centralism, where the conception of society exists. Both Frank and
Wallerstein supported growing markets with industrial capitalisms, which are evolved and spread
out worldwide without thinking it‘s against traditional society. The society‘s interconnections‘
sacredness is integrated to the mainstream system. ( Singh, 2008). European and North American
cultures turn history east and west, and explain their histories, as moral success stories in which
were one- sided history. The world is struggling to overcome the control by the Western world
from the rest of the world, which is a concern with ―core-periphery relations.‖ ( Wallerstein,
2000). The equalizer, economic, political and cultural connections are established ― to avoid
misleading inferences and increase our share of understanding.‖ ( Wolf, Wallerstein, 1982,
1989).

References:
Landstreet, Peter. (2008). Introduction, page 13. A World of Sociology, Part 1: The Basic
Concepts. York University. August 2008.
Singh, Hira. (2008), " Sociological Ethnocentrism , Interconnection, Disconnection and
Fragmentation", Lecture/Class, York University, unpublished. 23 September 2008.
Wolf, Eric. (1982). ― Europe and People Without History (Introduction)‖ in Europe and the
People Without History, pp.3-23. 1982 University of California Press.
Wallerstein, Immanuel.(1974, 1989). _ HYPERLINK
"http://www.yale.edu/sociology/faculty/pages/wallerstein/book_mws3.html?height=565&width=
360" \o "The Modern World System III (1989) [1974]" _The Modern World System III: The
Second Era of Great Expansion of the Capitalist World-Economy, 1730-1840s_. New York:
Academic Press. Wallerstein, Immanuel (2000). _ HYPERLINK
"http://www.yale.edu/sociology/faculty/pages/wallerstein/book_essential.html?height=565&widt
h=360" \o "The Essential Wallerstein (2000)" _The Essential Wallerstein_. New York: The New
Press.

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Chapter 16

The Media‟s Lie about the September 11 Disaster


The mass media function is to serve the large propaganda requirements of the elite who
want to control and dump down the majority of the population by producing lies, and in
particualar, the misused and abused lie about the September 11th disaster since 2001. Nearly
3,000 people were killed when 19 Arab hijackers organized by the al-Qaeda flew airliners into
New York City's World Trade Center, and the Pentagon had caused a crash in the Pennsylvania
countryside. The American Congress established a commission in 2002 to investigate
government missteps that led to the attack. In fact, the former 9/11 Commission members are
nearly all in bed with Mr. Bush, and do his bidding as well as mass media. Many lies were told
and shoved through our faces to make us run for cover, and to make us tell ourselves that all the
killing and carnage in Iraq and in Afghanistan were perfectly okay. Due to this collaboration, the
American media did not inquire the historical background of the September 11th disaster, the
Bin Laden-CIA relation, the business relations between Bush and Bin Laden families, the US
collaboration with old-fashioned, feudal and military dictatorships, and the fact that globalization
produced poverty everywhere except in capitalist developed countries. The American media did
not object the censorship to break up with the administration. A few journalists attempted to
write the truth, but by way they were treated, they‘d had to write accordingly as their bosses had
said. The media had failed to accurately portray the real truth and what was behind of this tragic
event to the public, playing instead the subservient role of a propaganda machine for elite
interests. The media conventionally believed to be critical of the establishment and behaved in a
way that conformed to the false picture presented by the government and the corporate elite of
their own policies because of its establishment. To begin my research analysis, I will discuss five
major lies with a propaganda model of the mass media that was proposed by Edward Herman
(Professor Emeritus of Finance at Wharton School in the University of Pennsylvania) and Noam
Chomsky (the Institute Professor of Linguistics and Philosophy at MIT), both of whom are
leading critics of the US foreign policy. (1) Herman of Wharton and Chomsky of MIT lucidly
have documented their argument saying that America‘s government and its corporate giants
exercise control over what we read, see, and hear, including September 11th event‘s fictions and
lies with their the national media‘s propagandistic help.
First of all, after September 11, the broadcasts of the American televisions related with
war and terror were censored by the US administration. Bush‘s administration, the inheritor of
the tradition of burning the whole town for a fist, considered it a ―war case‖ and declared war on
all countries that were thought to support terror. A volunteer censorship period for the media was
therefore started, in order to help the administration make it easier. The chary approached on the
first days left its place to the expression ―America is in War‖. September 11‘s attack was
broadcasted as an ―Attack on the US‖ in the first hours, then towards the evening ―a common
pool‖ was constituted. All the channels started to give the news almost in the same way,
broadcasting the pictures taken from each other without permission. The remarkable point is that
there were no speculations or sensation races between media corporations. In the afternoon
though, Bin Laden‘s name was already pronounced, and the channels abstained from judging. In
the sensitive athmosphere caused by the attack, the Media made the whole society captured by a
sense of revenge, but without feeling the necessity of inquiring the background of the attack. It
was simple for the American media to get used to the censorship. The troubles occured between
the soldiers and the journalists during the operations that the US Army had in various countries,

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in which were removed by a treaty after the Gulf War. According to this treaty, signed on March
11, 1992 between the media and Pentagon, a pool was constituted and the news and informations
about the war were going to be gathered in this pool. The news was used by everyone only after
being checked over. The American media faithfully obeyed this treaty after September 11. The
journalists and writers who disobeyed were either warned by the White House of Pentagon
directly, or were forced to act accordingly by their colleagues. Those who attempted to criticize
the fact of giving up freedom in the name of ―security‖, for instance, a famous and well known
journalist named Peter Ernett, were considered as traitors.
How much ever the American media supports Bush administration‘s policies through
censorship, auto censorship and disinformation, and how much ever is the saying ―truth is the
first victim in war‖ is absolute to the media, which could not completely manage to keep the
realities in darkness forever. The saying ―The realities one day will come out‖ was also
confirmed by the American media. The media that supported the insanitary war policies of the
White House unconditionally failed in their mission with the news broadcasted by the CBS on
May 15, 2002. The news revealed that president Bush and his team were given a top secret
briefing on August 6, 2001, that‘s to say one month before the 9/11 attack with the title ―Al
Qaeda is decisive to hit America‖. In the report, it was also mentioned that Al Qaeda had plans
for hijacking planes. (2) After this news, the Bush administration, that had 90% of the public‘s
support with the contribution of the media, for the first time came face to face with the necessity
of giving account. Also, the American press supporting the war policies unconditionally
remembered its habit of inquiry. ―Flash‖ news came one after the other. The Media started to
examine the September 11 process. The American public‘s opinion, also supporting the revenge
operation of the Bush administration with the portion of 90%, along with much pain caused by
the attack and the instinct of protection, did not give the same support to the media. The
American public mostly accused the media of being irresponsible!
According to a poll held by the Los Angeles Times on November 10-13, 2001, 48% of the
American public‘s opinion was considered the way of giving news about the Afghanistan War by
newspapers called ―irresponsible‖. The rate of those who thought positively about the media
decreased to 48 %, the other side was high according to the media workers. (3) The majority of
those who blamed the media objected the news which then ―gives harm to the US‖ for the sake
of ―giving true news‖ and had said that they believe that such news would ―help the enemy‖. In
other words, during the process of Sept. 11, the American public criticized the media not for
giving biased and directing news, but for giving harm to the revenge of war with it. After they‘d
started to investigate the flabbiness of the Bush administration and the intelligent services before
Sept. 11, Americans started to lose their trust and belief in war policies and war news.
The first major lie was as ―evil of axe‖ and Saddam, the former president of Iraq,
supposed of threatening the US with the nuclear weapons he‘d owned. On Sept 7, 2002, Bush‘s
speech in the UN explained that Saddam certainly had nuclear weapons. But in his speech in
Cincinnati on October 7, upon changing his statement, he claimed that if Saddam was able to
steal as much uranium as a ball, he could produce a nuclear weapon in less than a year. After this
explanation, the support for Bush reached up to 70%. This ―big-white‖ lie was relied on a
document of the British intelligence. They declared that Saddam had bought uranium from the
Niger. On the March of 2002, the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) sent Joseph Wilson, who‘d
worked in Iraq and Africa for 20 years as a diplomat to the Niger, searched a British document,
though Wilson denounced the claim that his report was hidden. On the June of 2002, Wilson was
asked why his report was hidden. The British document was fake because the Niger‘s foreign
minister who‘d signed the document for the sale of uranium to Iraq was not on charge at that
time. The director of the International Atom Agency Mohammad Al-Baradei, who did
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inspections for the UN in Iraq for two months, gave a speech saying that, to the UN Security
Council, there were no nuclear weapons in Iraq. With the aluminum pipes bought from the
Niger, only a rocket could be made. After the Washington Post and Newsweek were published,
the explanations of Baradei, Bush came out to be a complete liar. These productions are bought
by everyone through the internet. Despite all the contradictions, Bush still went on his claim that
Saddam bought raw material from Niger to produce nuclear weapons in his speech on January
28, 2003. Vice president Cheney spoke to the press on March 16, 3 days before the Iraq War
started, and had repeated that Saddam for sure produced nuclear weapons. On the spring and
summer 2003, after the Iraq invasion, Bush depicted that there were some wrong informations.
Now the blame was on the CIA president, George Tenet. Tenet had to explain that he trusted the
information given by the Service, but the 16 sentence-report sent to the White House was not for
President Bush to read. Condoleezza Rice and Stephan Hadley certified the texts that the
president has used. Bush, stating that he was the responsible for the words he‘d uttered, defended
his team on June 30, 2003. (4)
Secondly, a remarkably large amount of the information the public receives is controlled
by a very small number of media sources as well as many profitable corporations. The Freedom
House records that within states, ―out of 187 governments, 92 have complete ownership of the
television broadcasting structure, while 67 have part ownership US.‖ (5) Ownership of the
world‘s media sources is similarly increasingly concentrated in a few giant corporations.
Thousands of other sources do exist, but in comparison their influence is negligible. The leading
American media analyst Ben Bagdikan, noting that despite more than 25,000 media entities in
the US only ―23 corporations control most of the business in daily newspapers, magazines,
television, books, and motion pictures‖, concludes that this endows corporations with the
extensive power to exercise influence over ―news, information, public ideas, popular culture, and
political attitudes‖. (6) The result today is that about twelve corporations dominate the world‘s
mass media. In his study of corporate leverage over the media, ―Megamedia, Dr. Dean Alger -
who was fellow in the Joan Shorenstein Center on the press, politics and public policy at Harvard
University‘s John F. Kennedy School of Government - lists this ‗dominant dozen‘ as follows in
order of power: Disney - Capital Cities - ABC; Time Warner - Turner; News Corporation;
Bertelsmann; Tele-Communications (TCI) - AT&T; General Electric - NBC; CBS Inc.;
Newshouse/Advance Publications; Viacom; Microsoft; Matra - Hachette - Filipacchi; Gannet‖
(Bagdikan, 2006). In the US, the channels that are mostly watched and are everywhere and are
directed by about 15 families and through 24 companies (Chomsky, 1998, 1991, 1992, 1994).
They‘re (Chomsky 1998, 1991): Advance Publications (Newhouse Family), Capital Cities
(State-Run, SR), CBS (SR), Cox Com (Cox Family), Dow-Jones (Bancroft-Cox Family), Gannet
(SR), GE (General Electric), Hearst (Hearst Family), Knight Ridder Family, News Corp
(Murdoch Family), New York Times (Sulzberger Family), Reader's Digest (Wallace Family),
Scrippes-Howard (Scrips Family), Storer Corp (Storer Family), Taft (Taft Family), Time Inc.
(Mixed and SR), Times Mirror(Chandler Family), Triangle (Annenberger Family), Tribune Co.
(McCormick Family), Turner Broadcasting (Turner Family), Fox Broadcasting (Fox Family).
Today in the US, no truth is revealed without permission of both the secret-deep state and these
families.
All of these knowledgeable people with advanced technologies had watched the second
major lie and fiction stating that Saddam had chemical and biological weapons that had come out
before and after Iraq was invaded. Bush in his speech on October 7, 2002, started to blow the lie
wind stating that Saddam had given directions to his commanders to use chemical and biological
weapons. Colin Powell, while going further, claimed that Iraqis can produce chemical weapons
even in a vehicle. Powell in his speech at the UN, without feeling shame, told and spread the lie
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that Iraq had 7 mobile biological weapon factories. They were in an area covered by palm trees
out of Bagdad, according to Powell. But they were moved to another place to get away from the
controls. Iraq also ―had 500 tons of chemical weapons loaded on 16 thousand rockets ready for a
command to attack‖. Bush was very happy when he explained on June 5, 2003, that they found 2
mobile chemical weapon units. But the truth was that the British had found two Lorries in the
Northern Iraq and they were definitely not chemical weapon laboratories. But despite all the
failures, Bush and his collaborator Tony Blair kept pressuring and stating that they were sure
they would find one. The American media revealed this information though they knew they were
lies, not even feeling the necessity to correct any mistakes. In fact, there was nothing else than
those given by the US in 1985-1990 in Iraq, and they were inactive. According to the 1994
Congress report, ―the list of the chemical and biological weapons sold to Iraq in 1985-1990 is as
follows: Bacillus Anthracis, Clostridium Botulinum, Histoplasma Capsulatum, Brucella
Melitensis, Clostridium Perfringens. Also Escherichia Coli, genetic material, and human being
and bacteria DNAs were sent directly to the Iraq Atom Comission. There was no weapon sale
before 1985. In the report it was stated that these weapons are impossible to reproduce. Saddam
had finished using these weapons on Kurdish and Iranian people‖ (7)
Thirdly, it would be nonsense to expect the US media, that are under the control of a
specific elite class, to reveal more information about the truth. American people were cheated as
it was in the Sept. 11 case, and not only Americans, but also the entire world. The administrators
of most of these companies always used the same saying; because they are the main part of the
New World Order. This case is almost the same in Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Autralia,
whom are members of the ECHELON founded by NSA (National Security Agency) to listen to
the world and direct it (Sayin 1998; Hafger 1997). Directors of the media are certainly from one
of these organizations, and in which the world is lead by them. It was Walter Lippman who
coined the phrase ―the manufacture of consent‖, enjoining it as a means of population control.
Lippman‘s concept may indeed be in effect today. In this regard, ―the status of the mass media
and its faithful propagation of the established opinion that Western policy is fundamentally
benevolent in intention is an issue of paramount importance.‖ (8) All this has followed as a result
of the fact that ―the arms industry has launched a concerted lobbying campaign aimed at
increasing military spending and arms exports‖, as Senior Fellow of the World Policy Institute
William Hartung points out. ―These initiatives are driven by profit and pork barrel politics, not
by the objective assessment of how to best defend the United States in a post-cold war period.‖
(9)
The third major lie was that the media didn‘t tell what the main purpose was for their
own invasions. ―The main aim behind the war on terrorism is described with one word: Petrol...
The places pointed out as the terrorist targets constitute the map of the main energy resources of
the planet for the 21st century. The war on terrorism is being made for the sake of the million
dollar-investments of Chevron, Exxon, Arco in the US, Total, Fina, Elf in France, British
Petrolium, Royal Dutch Schell and other giant petrol companies in these areas,‖ said Frank
Viviano from The San Francisco Chronicle about the global resource war, which the US called
―war on terror‖ in his article on September 26, 2002. (10) Under the name of war on
―International terrorism‖, a terrible colonization war was launched. A more offensive expression,
―International Islamic terrorism‖ was put into use by the media to gather the two richest energy
resources of the world, located in the Middle East in the Western hegemony hands. Michael
Meacher, a former minister of the environment of Britain, thinks that energy is the main aim of
the war on Muslims. The US and UK have consumed their safe petrol and natural gas reserves.
By 2010, the Islamic World will have 60 % of oil production and 95 % of the natural gas export
capacity of the world. The US may have supplied 57% of energy in 1990, but will soon fall to 39
147
% in 2010. Although Britain will be able to supply 70% of energy from gas powers, in 2020 it
will depend on abroad resources with the portion of 90 %. Iraq has not only oil reserves, as it is
thought, but also 110 trillion m3 of gas reserves. The US depends on Saudi Arabia for energy.
Meacher, saying that Britain is with the US in the war for its energy partnership, stressed that
nobody believes in ―war on terror tale‖ for any longer. Meacher claimed that ―Britain's foreign
policy is insufficient while the US is trying to hold the control of the energy reserves with the
global hegemony.‖ Meacher said that they must make radical changes for their independent aims
if necessary. Obviously, the former British minister accused Tony Blair of getting little share
from the US (11).
The fourth biggest lie was that Saddam worked with Al-Qaeda and Bin Laden, while
Muhammad Atta was the key name. The media announced the names of the perpetrators and
those who should be punished: Osama and Saddam. The Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld did
the same one hour after the attack. The White House had asked General Wesley Clark, NATO
commander in the Kossovo War, to say that there is really a link between Sept 11 and Saddam
on CNN. ―If you have proof I can,‖ said Clark. He did not join this lie for there is no proof. (12)
Since he knew Saddam was the biggest enemy of Osama, he‘d declared him blasphemous!
During the months of October and November in 2002, Bush told many lies about the Saddam
and Al-Qaeda collaboration to convince the public opinion. He always told these lies in his
speeches held in New Mexico and Colarado on January 28, South Dakota on January 31, Florida
on November 2, Minnesota on November 3, Missouri on November 4, and Arkansas and Texas:
―Saddam has a link with Al-Qaeda, but can‘t resist the US. He is threatening the US and its
allies. We learned that he prepared nuclear weapons. Saddam and Osama don't like freedom.
Saddam has relation with this terrorist organization. This is his character. This man likes nothing
else but training terrorists and attacking without leaving any traces. He hates the US and its
allies.‖ (13) Colin Powell‘s speech at the UN on February 5, 2003 was also focused on this lie.
Though the inspectors confirmed that they couldn‘t find the nuclear and chemical weapons,
Powell claimed that the link between Iraq and Al-Qaeda was proved. Bush in his speech at the
UN on January 28, 2003, stating that they gotten ―documents‖ about the link between Saddam
and Al-Qaeda, claiming that Saddam protected the terrorists. (14) According to an online poll
held by CBC, after this explanation the support for the Iraq War reached its peak. The US
president could not have told such a big lie since he is the president—but yet, he still
unregrettably did. But BBC, in the same week, claimed that there was no link between Osama
Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. Those crazy men hated each other ideologically. A supportive
lie was immediately revealed through The New York Times writer William Safire, labelled as
―the blower of CIA and Pentagon‖: Al-Qaeda was working with the fundamentalist Islamic
group Al Ansar Islam, which is out of Saddam's control, in the North Iraq. The poll held after
these explanations showed that half of American people believed there is a link between Saddam
and Al-Qaeda.(15) Among the perpetrators of the Sept 11 attack, there were no Iraqi citizens but
15 Suadi Arabia citizens. But now the Americans believed that Sept 11 was planned by
Saddam—in which was a complete lie. On December 25 2003, after Saddam was captured, the
American Newsweek revealed that the document claimed to prove that Atta‘s visit to Bagdad in
the summer of 2001 was fake.
The aforementioned news was given in the headline by the British Sunday Telegraph a
few hours before Saddam's capture. The FBI and American Intelligence Services proved that
Atta had stayed in cheap hotels and apartments in the US during the days when Atta was claimed
to visit Bagdad. The fake document revealed in the Sunday Telegraph is thought to have been
prepared by the chief of the Iraqi Intelligence Service of the term, Tahir Celil Habbush Al Tikriti.
The newpaper gave the news with the headline ―The terrorist behind the Sept 11 case was trained
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by Saddam‖. Also, the news was by Con Coughlin, author of the book ―Saddam‘s Secret life‖.
(16) Coughlin‘s allegations were quoted by various newspapers of the world. The famous
columnist of the New York Times, William Safire, also wrote about his allegations. The
newsweek reported that the American officials and document experts stated that the document
was most probably fake. It was claimed that the handwritten fake document was sent to Saddam
by Al Tikriti. In the document it was stated that Muhammad Atta went to Bagdad for a 3 day
visit for a working program, in which the trip was organized by Abu Nidal (a Palestenese
terrorist). In the document it was written as follows: ―Atta gives great effort to direct the team
that is going to attack the targets we approved to be exterminated‖. Abu Nidal died in Bagdad
under suspicious conditions on August 2002. American officials proved that Atta was in the US
in those days relying on ATM receipts, hotal receipts, and plane tickets of the trips inside the US.
It was also found out that Atta had a 11-day trip in Spain 6 days after July 1, 2001, which was
also on the fake document. Finally, Colin Powell accepted his lie and separetely told the NBC
and Fox Tv reporter in his interviews on September 13, 2004, that there was no direct connection
between Saddam and the 9/11 event. (17)
An important big lie was when politicians had said through the Mass Media that no
civillians would die. Over hundreds of thousands of civillians had died in Afghanistan as well as
in Iraq, and the more amount were wounded. Pentagon had ―clever‖ bombs that hit only military
targets. According to the international human rights organizations, more than 400 thousand Iraqis
were arrested and investigated. There are still 60 thousand Iraqis in camps and prisons. Besides
invasions and plunderings, thousands of Iraqi women were raped by American soldiers. Most of
the Iraqi women arrested under the name of ―operations‖ and ―security search‖ were subjected to
the molestation and violence of the American soldiers. An American Muslim revealed this reality
openly to the public by sending pictures to the Arabia television. Dr. Susan Block published in
her article the beginning of the invasion of Iraq, writing that after Iraq was invaded
economically, historically, culturally and socially, the innocence now of Iraqi women was under
invasion. Block, stating that even at the beginning of the invasion 4000 women were raped,
wrote openly how women between 40-50 in villages were used as sexual material by the
American soldiers. In the article published on Islamonline, Blocks wrote that pervasive parties
were organized and women were taken out of the houses being dragged and left in front of the
postals of the soldiers like a chunk. She made these explanations as follows:
―As Sabah newspaper in Iraq wrote, 14-15 year old young girls were raped many times
by American soldiers in Suwaria. A nine year old girl, who was raped many times two months
before and was taking psychological cure, was captured once more by the American soldiers in
front of her family and taken to an unknown place on June 18, 2003‖. (19) In Iraq there were
many assaults and violent cases towards women who were subjected to sexual exploitation and
are still under medical care. The women who are depressed could not be helped even by their
parents because they feel great shame for this. Therefore, their relatives must leave them alone
with their depression and mood. In Iraq, raping girls has been increasingly spread as though it
were an illness. 17 year old Beyda Cafer Sadik, after going out to school from home, did not turn
back. The parents said that there are tens of such events every day and are waiting despairingly.
It is known that all women relatives of the men who are known as Saddam‘s men or mujahideen
are being kept by the invaders. The official records of sexual violences that have been kept up to
now show that there is no age limit for the American soldiers. The youngest victim subjected to
the sexual exploitation was 9 and the oldest was 64 years old. (20)
In Conclusion, these images, lies, and fictions manufactured by the media and academia
in tandem are actually quite contrary to documented facts, in which is clear. Since the corporate
ideology dominates the media by a way of being almost institutionally assumed, all ideologies
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that are in fundamental opposition to the corporate ideology must similarly be institutionally
assumed incorrect. It was also an obvious lie that the American media was impartial and free.
Fox Tv and CNN are still burglers of the White House beside and along with many others. Al-
Jazeera, BBC, CBC, and French Le Journal tried to keep their impartiality. A poll held by FAIR
revealed that audiences were manipulated by the 25 moreover viewed, supporting the war in the
1600 pieces of news related with Iraq. However, former soldiers and govermental officers were
asked their opinions rather than universities—their think-tank and civil organizations. Among
them, only 4% were against war. Nobody in the US revealed the news about the anti-war
demonstrations. (21) The baseless, inflammatory, and indeed racist reaction of the media‘s
mimics had appeared that it‘s why the US media had failed the journalism exam of September
11. It did nothing else than fly the millions of baloons of lies that were terribly blown up. ―The
mass media is institutionally organized in such a way as to be subservient to the corporate elite,
since it is at once directly owned and thereby structurally controlled by those elite, and indirectly
influenced by financial pressures related to advertising. Institutionally the mass media is thus
undoubtedly subservient to corporate ideology.‖ (22) Effectively then, as Professor Edward
Herman states, ―capitalists control the media and they do so to maximize profits‖, while also
generally adhering quite tightly to the assumptions of the corporate ideology. Another filter
noted by Herman and Chomsky that is related to the first filter is advertising, which Professor
McChesney notes ―has colonized the US mass media and is responsible for most of the media‘s
income.‖ (23) The media‘s tendencies in reporting can be influenced and manipulated by the
significant withdrawing or forwarding of economic support. Since mass media is largely
financed through advertising, it becomes financially dependent for its existence on advertising
revenue from corporations. These ideological positions become implicit assumptions pervading
permissible political discourse within the media, and it is thus extremely rare to find these
principles being subjected to fundamental critical examination by the corporate-owned media.
(24) The mass media may have the ideological orientation of its staffing broadly restricted to the
agenda held by its corporate ownership that‘d ―obviously have significant control over the
media‘s staffing. The cumulative result of this is that the media may become subservient in its
general ideological orientation to the assumptions and interests of the elite.‖ (25) Naturally, since
the media needs a steady and reliable source of news, resources are focused where such news can
be most easily acquired. It so happens, unfortunately, that central news terminals of this type are
the White House, the Pentagon and the State Department, as well as business corporations and
trade groups. The same is the case for other Western countries. The importance of such
organizations as news sources is due to the elementary fact that they possess the greatest
resources for public relations and promotional material, the result being that ―the mass media are
drawn into a symbiotic relationship with powerful sources of information by economic necessity
and reciprocity of interest‖. (26) Alternative media entities established by human rights
organizations and other groups are resultantly marginalized, and of being unable to scrutinize
facts in a way free from the assumptions of that elite ideology. This means that news will be
filtered in accordance with what is suitable to the requirements of elite power and its interests.
(27) The September 11 propagandist had changed and manipulated a majority of the population‘s
minds easily because ―knowing the mind of an audience comes in modern times largely through
opinion poll‖. (28) As a result, the ―traditional gate keeping processes continue to filter media
content every day‖ but in truth can not be hidden any more because anybody can put up a web
site, even in which may be not reliable sources, such as the thousands of September 11 secret
revelers that kept stating lies as known as ―the internet is a democratized mass medium‖. (29)
The mass media is dumping us down and is not willing to tell the truth to the public—though not
forever.
150
References:

(1) Herman, Edward S. and Chomsky, Noam, Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of
the Mass Media, Vintage, London, 1994.
(2) CBS Tv, FBI report revealed on May 15, 2002
(3) A Reasearch done by Los Angeles Times on November 10-13, 2001
(4) Bush‘s speech at UN on September 7, 2002, and his speech in Cincinnati on October 7, 2002,
and for his speeches on January 28, 2003 and June 30, 2003 retreived from web site _
HYPERLINK "http://www.whitehouse.org" __www.whitehouse.org_
_ HYPERLINK "http://www.mediamonitors.net/mosaddeq32.html" \l "_ednref15" \o "" __(5)
US News & World Report, 11 November 1996, p. 48.
_ HYPERLINK "http://www.mediamonitors.net/mosaddeq32.html" \l "_ednref16" \o "" __(6)
Bagdikan, Ben H., The Media Monopoly, Beacon Press, Boston, 1992, p. 4.
(7) The Congress report dated 1994; Michael Moore, ―Dude, Where is my Country?‖
(8) Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, Why The Media Lies The Corporate Structure of The Mass
Media. 2002. introduction, p.1.
(9) Hartung, William, Milwaukee Sentinel & Journal, 11 January 1999.)
(10) The San Francisco Chronicle, September 26, 2002, Frank Viviano
(11) The Guardian, September 6, 2003, former environment minister of Britain Michael
Meacher
(12) Miliyet ( Turkish newspaper), December 29, 2003, ―Bremer disavowed Blair‖
(13) Bush‘s speeches in New Mexico on January 28, and in Colorado on January 31, in South
Dakota on November 1, in New Hampshire on November 2, in Florida on November 3, in
Minnesota on November 4, 2003, in Missouri, Arkansas and Texas, White House news
(14) ―NATO Commander General Wesley Clark had refused the request‖, NCB news, June 15,
2003
(15) The New York Times, William Safire‘s article ―Al Qaeda is in North Iraq‖
(16) Powell‘s speech at UN on February 5, 2003.
(17) Colin Powell‘s interview with NBC and Fox Tv, on September 13, 2004.
(18) Michael Moore, ''Dude where Is my Country?'', August 2003
(19) Yeni Safak Turkish Newspaper, October 22, 2003, ―Rape Terror in Iraq‖
(20) Akit- Turkish newspaper, November 7, 2003, Resource: Islam Online
(21) A reasearch done by FAIR while going to the Iraq War _ HYPERLINK
"http://www.fair.com" __www.fair.com_
(_ HYPERLINK "http://www.mediamonitors.net/mosaddeq32.html" \l "_ednref31" \o "" __22)
Bennet, W. Lance, News: The Politics of Illusion, Longman, New York, 1988, p. 178-79.
(23) McChesney, Monthly Review, January 1989.
(24) Interview with Edward S. Herman and Robert W. McChesney by David Peterson, ‗The
Global Media‘, Z Magazine, June 1997.
(25) Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, Why The Media Lies The Corporate Structure of The Mass
Media. 2002. p.2
(26) Herman and Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent, op. cit., p. 14.
(27) Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, Why The Media Lies The Corporate Structure of The Mass
Media. 2002. introduction, p.4.
(28) Marlin, Randal. Propaganda &the ethics of persuasion. Broadview Press.2002. p. 96.
(29) Vivian, John; Maurin, Peter J. The Media of Mass Communication. Pearson Publishing.
2008. pp. 141.

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Chapter 17

Surviving from Repression, Impoverishment, and Exploitation


The feudal medieval society had consisted of three orders within: those who pray those
who fight, and those who work. The basic feature of feudalism is a political division and social
inequality, which had included soil and land ownership as based on slave labor for the economic
order. A serf is an unfree peasant, similar but superior to slavery, connected with the slave‘s
owner/Landlord in which had soil on the absolute rights of the people and possession of the land.
This paper covers the characteristic relation of production in the Feudal Mode of Production as
main classes and obligations of serfs/peasants and landlords, and includes the consuming and the
producing lives they had led in the medieval societies, whom were freer than slaves but still had
many reasons within the lack of freedom existing based on control, duties, and restrictions along
with their struggles in society to escape from exploitation.
First of all, in feudal society, humans had not yet developed the means to control the
natural world, or to produce enough to be free from famine, or to cure diseases. All social
relationships were ―conditioned by a low stage of development of the productive powers of
labour and correspondingly limited relations between men within the process of creating and
reproducing their material life, hence also limited relations between man and nature‖ (Marx,
1976, p. 173). Land was the source of production, and so it dominated the feudal-manorial
system showing that men saw themselves not as individuals but in relation with the land. Marx
described this in Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts: ―In feudal landownership we already
find the domination of the earth as of an alien power over men. The serf is an appurtenance of
the land. Similarly the heir through primogeniture, the first-born son, belongs to the land. It
inherits him. The rule of private property begins with property in land which is its basis‖ (Marx,
1975). Ownership of land was dependent on inheritance and bloodlines: your 'birth' determined
your destiny. According to the movie ―The Tree of Wooden Clogs,‖ Peasant‘s son went to
school unexpectedly as a miracle, his father made pencil illegally even though those were
criminal offence ironically. On the one hand, the low level of the productive forces meant
constant labour for the peasants, while on the other, the feudal lords had authorized to ―Extra
Economic Coercion‖, and anything can be taken what they wanted from peasants by force- even
newborn babies, their livestock, furniture etc. with evicting order.
Peasant could be punished and tortured and defaulted serve by Lord or sanctioned by
Church. Thus, alienation arose from the low level of the productive forces, from human
subordination to the land, and then to the domination of the feudal ruling class. However, there
were limits to these forms of alienation. The peasants would work in their own lands and
produced most of the supplies they needed in their own independent family units. If a person was
tied to the land, then the land was also tied to the people. The Lord has rights to possession of the
land with their power, and peasant has to fulfill their obligations as powerless as remained in
possession of majority percent (%60 or more) power of the output of their labour. Social
relationships in feudal society were in relation with domination and subordination, but they were
obviously social relationships between individuals. In ‗Capital,‘ Marx described how ―the social
relations between individuals in the performance of their labour appear at all events as their own
mutual personal relations, and are not disguised under the shape of social relations between the
products of labour‖ (Marx, 1976, p.170). Lords and priests did not work physically; even they
were not available all the time, and they had superiority power- knowledge, access and
connection-, only peasants‘ work for production which was very limited.

152
Importantly, the ―structured dependence of the direct producers in feudal mode of
production was based on a specific form of control of the means of production and chief means
of subsistence of the direct producer, that is, the lord‘s monopoly of land‖(Singh, 2000). The
Greek and Roman society drove to collapse when slaves had finally gotten their freedom. They
had allowed being plot owners, meaning their properties, families, and houses were partially
free, more like human beings better than slave (Singh, 2009). Landlords had used a ―various
form of extra economic coercion to extract rents, cesses, and free service from the peasants‖ as
various forms of forced labour (Singh, 2000). The primitive communism has no class, but equal
society as an egalitarian mode of production, on the other hand, plantation slavery mode of
productions started along with process of privatization in the ancient society that Marx states as,
―…the slave works with conditions of labour belonging to another. He does not work as an
independent producer. This requires conditions of personal dependence, a lack of personal
freedom, no matter to what extent, a bondage to the soil as its accessory, Serfdom in the strict
meaning of the word. If the direct producers are not under the sovereignty of a private landlord,
but rather under that of a state which stands over them as their direct landlord and sovereign,
then rent and taxes coincide, or rather, there is no tax which differs from this form of ground-
rent‖ (Marx, 1894).
Secondly, a serf's duties can be divided into labor and taxes. Taxes in the region were
provided to their Landlord. Peasants had the right to use land for producing freely, while giving
their taxes to the landlord had depended on conditions. The movie indicated Serfs have made
their task in every day life. Feudality was more into agricultural production and trade-related
manufacturing to meet the need of the respective region in which has an extent. Trade between
the cities was too weak. Feudalism has now emerged to undermine central authority, but always
connects to the center. For a portion of the week, a serf was obligated to perform various tasks
for his lord. According to a movie, everything except some livestock in the land belonged to the
lord, and it was the duty of a serf to take care of almost all, while they could be butchers as well
as dirty-clothes cleaners. Their major duty was to plow his lord's fields, but they also had to
harvest crops, dig ditches, repair fences, and often work in the manor house. During the rest of
week, a serf would spend, as an individual, their time to produce in order to provide for their
family, as for instance, a peasant did try to raise tomatoes in his own secretly. The greatest
hardship that serfs faced was that they always had to place their duties over their personal
interests. This was especially evident in the harvest season, when the lord's as well as the serfs'
crops were ready to be harvested. In harvest seasons, all the family members of a serf were
mandated to work on the lord's field. Furthermore, after the physical service had been done, a
serf had to pay taxes and fees. A Peasant was cheating, for instance, putting rocks under the
corns when pay tax. Taxes were based on an assessment of the value and plot of land that he was
assigned, as well as his personal property. For example, serfs usually had made their payments in
the form of food, such as corn as shown in the movie we had seen. These duties, along with
other restraints of serfdom, were enforced through various forms of the manorial common law
and the manorial administration and court.
Thirdly, there were many restrictions, but serfs also enjoyed certain freedoms, such as
their property. Unlike the common belief that a serf had nothing to call his own, serfs were in
fact allowed to accumulate personal properties and wealth through the individual produce. A lord
was actually required to protect his serfs from crime and other lords. In famine, charity was to
support the serfs, in which was normally expected and natural. The essential additional mark of
serfdom was the lack of many of the personal liberties that were held by freedmen. The chief
among these was the serf's lack of freedom of movement; he could not permanently leave his
holding or village without his lord's permission. Neither could the serf marry, change his
153
occupation, nor dispose of his property without his lord's permission. Love and romantic
relationship between two peasants wasn‘t normal as two grown adult at the movie. A serf could
become a freedman only through manumission, enfranchisement, or escape. ―The lack of
employment opportunities outside agriculture and the pressure of surplus population in the
agricultural sector produced a class of semi-free laborers who sold their personal freedom and
became bonded slaves. Many of them belonged to the depressed classes and tribal peoples‖
(Singh, 2000). That‘s why they were freer than slaves in antiquity, although not fully free yet. In
addition, Serfdom was a hereditary system that tied tenants and their heirs to landlord masters for
a lifetime. In return for the work that serfs did for their lords, the lords provided military
protection and justice. According to the movie, their respect for their lord, the Catholic Church,
and the social order was a fundamental component of prevailing ideology. The economic
structure of feudal society, with serfs laboring for their lord first and then, after the lord's
requirements were met, work for themselves. Serfs sustained their lives by cultivating a plot of
land that was owned by a lord. As a serf was more of a part of the land than the lord‘s property,
the lords had no obligation to sustain his life; a serf provided his own food and clothing from his
own productive efforts. Peasants don‘t know childhood, children had seen as labour. ―Peasant
hasn‘t even thought right to be drunk; they were not free so they can be tortured. Freedom of
Labour was Marx‘s ideology‖ (Singh, 2009). Child was important because of source of labour
and unlabour as had seen in the movie.
Finally, life and privilege control through land in feudalism. Peasants/serfs had to pay
taxes to the feudal lord/vassal with whatever goods/food/resources they were able to accumulate
or save. Two main classes existed which were Lord and Peasant, and their main relation was
land. Religion was very powerful institution as superstructure as well as mobilizes to control
population. There were sanctions by the Church. For instance, to get married, have a son inherit
their family farm, gather firewood or graze animals in the lord's lands, the agricultural worker
had to pay a tax in the form of goods or food, usually 10% of their production, to the Church or
Landlord. Peasants were more powerful than the slave because those were depending on the
landlord. In this powerless and helpless situation that agricultural class found it impossible to
accumulate any wealth and living in extreme poverty, and almost complete lack of freedom.
Main concern was survival. Peasant families had always struggled with their lives, tried to feed
themselves and keep family alive. What the peasants and serfs did receive in return was the
protection of the lord's army. Castles are very visible symbols of the need for protection.
Peasants would enter into this kind of unequal relationship because defenceless peasants had
hoped to survive the violence of this age through war or attacks by bandits and barbarians inside
these walls. Peasants and serfs gave up their wealth, freedom; any possibility of better life as
there was no choice, only option to agree to this exploitative reciprocal agreement. Millions of
peasant had suffered from repression, impoverishment and exploitation. Their Landlord and
Church have abused this hopeless situation against peasants. It wasn‘t easy for those in the
agricultural labourer classes to break free of the social and economic stratification created in the
feudal society.

154
References:

Marx, Karl. 1909. Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. Volume III: The Process of
Capitalist Production as a Whole, by Karl Marx. Ed. Federick Engels. Trans. from the 1st
German edition by Ernest Untermann (Chicago: Charles H. Kerr and Co. Cooperative, 1909).
Marx, Karl. 1894. I. Labor Rent. - Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. Volume III: The
Process of Capitalist Production as a Whole [1894]
Marx, Karl. 1976. Capital, vol 1, Penguin, 1976, p170.
Marx, Karl. 1976. Capital, vol 1 ,Penguin, 1976, p173.
Marx, Karl. 1975. Early Writings (Penguin, 1975), p318.
Singh, Hira. 2009. " Feudalism ", Lecture/Class, February 3, 2009.

Singh, Hira. 2009. " Feudalism ", Lecture/Class, February 17, 2009.

Singh, Hira. 2000. ― Peasant in India and Serfs in Medieval Europe: A Comparative Account‖,
pp 15. 2000.

―The Tree of Wooden Clogs‖. 2009. Lecture/Class, February 10, 2009.

―The Tree of Wooden Clogs‖. 2009. Lecture/Class, February 17, 2009.

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Chapter 18

The Perception Management- Obvious Propaganda

―The media is a subordinated power‖ that wants to manage perception (1). Those who
manage perception know that mass media changes the behaviour and believes of people all
around us such us family, schoolmates, and peers, and also includes the changes of feeling; an
example of this would be fear and love, in which are affecting every individual in life. The
paradox is that no one in media interestingly makes the audience smarter, and rather just dumps
down the new generation even more when providing more images with less given information.
The media‘s purpose is to sell more, and definitely not to inform or educate the audience. There
is a difference between what that audience sees and what is really there because an image and a
substance are far different from each other. The audience‘s capacity neither sees the difference
between the real or matrix world because the perception manager can load and affect people‘s
minds with anything within the artificial value in terms of intelligence in current technology that
is the power of communication. The new generation of children‘s masters is advanced in
technology and media that can sell, mainly to the audience, anything, to anybody, and anywhere
(2). The media‘s content creates perceptions of people and our societies of perception managers
that use media to exercise the minds of those in society. Perception management is filtered of
persuasion in various ways that combines the truth of projection, operations in security, cover
and deception, and psychological operations (3). My argument is that perception management is
obviously a propaganda strategy for public diplomacy getting the other side to believe what one
wishes to believe, only for controlling the view of a targeted population in political events with
having media to exercise mind control and manipulate the public‘s opinion on citizens globally.
First of all, the mass weapon of public diplomacy has been used for propaganda, and has
created public imagination to affect the opinion of the public politically in many ways. Mass
media is used as a powerful tool for perception management by elite politics and economic
group‘s interpretations or decision because ―political, economic and military leaders must
manage to influence‖ the masses. Learning target population behaviors, strengths and
vulnerabilities is a useful strategy towards a specific course of action (4). For example, the Bush
administration used media for making facts that were, in part, the government's justification for
invading Iraq and beginning the war through ―public diplomacy, psychological operations,
public information, deception and covert action‖ (5). This politic is related to destruction and
ultimately undermines the entire segments of the US and Global economy. The media‘s efforts
say that the reporting of their truth is fair, and truly many others are deemed propaganda, with
disinformation or outrights in psychological warfare, because this is often used in preparation to
promote and engage a war effort or covert an operation for hiding the real truth.
Secondly, the media is a perception management with agents that identify cultural
symbols in order to create false identities for mind control, which has deep emotional
associations within a target population's everyday domestic, cultural, and spiritual life. These
symbols are changing culture as media in-roads through the audience‘s unconsciousness with
becoming manipulated. This is because the manufactured truth, with being controlled by the
mass media owner, uses government intelligence to exercise their power, as for instance, after
the September 11 event, the media‘s lies on the Iraq war were a perfect example of
manufacturing truth as used for mind control of the psychological war. The government‘s tactics
of media control deliver confusing disinformation with ―directives in the guise of news such as

156
shock, terror, fear, confusion, sexual arousal, or uncertainty enemies, religious miracles, good
luck with leaders like latest US President Barack Obama have elected with 600 million dollar
advertising, perception management campaign implanted by the media ‖(5). Another example is
of McCarthyism in the cold war period, when nobody was against this dumpiest with the
government politic because the media produced ―fear in which is worked to dampen expression
of revulsion as some potential(communist) targets became more interested in avoiding damaging
associations or drawing attention to their own possible vulnerability‖ (6). In the 21st century, a
small oligarch of the media elite now controls all of the consciousness, information, and thought
because the media screen is like a mirror, imitating that of what is inside the audience‘s minds.
The audiences are being programmed, even though they are passively watching and editing
screens, and even if they're still in control of their minds. Television is highly effective to the
ones with more stupidity, promoting the seven year-old mentality, treating people as if they were
teens and morons because there is no critical thinking yet available (7).
Thirdly, ―the media is constructing a belief system, feeding their own agenda to manage
information deferentially with reducing to simple ideas‖ in order to manipulate a larger
population easily because truth is not perception of reality, but the belief system is their reality,
though still most of the time, their audiences are buying their manipulated images(8). The media
is a nervous system of democracy, and that‘s why mass media doesn‘t show reality and instead
has the production of fiction. If the audience consumes less from the media, they may know the
truth, and this shows that the media‘s manufacturing facts from their own view, in which
propaganda is created by perception management consultants (9). A good life model is produced
by the media and the Hollywood film industry as an American dream machine; it is not only
entertainment that is manipulative, it‘s also an identity of creation (10). In the 2003 war on Iraq,
the public saw a huge amount of public relations and media manipulation at work; for example,
media related some corporations with having actively played the role as propaganda for bogus
purposes of war. Furthermore, some professional public relations firmly have involved selling a
war in cases where a war is questionable; media management also is used to promote these war
political policies and ideologies. In 1992, at the end of the first war in the Persian Gulf, a
politician named Rendon stated: ―I am not a national security strategist or a military tactician. I
am a politician, and a person who uses communication to meet public policy or corporate policy
objectives. In fact, I am an information warrior and a perception manager‖ (11). Somebody
usually is creating new stories and behaviours, there is no objective reported in media news that
isn‘t informing the public but most likely confusing, frightening and more and more
manipulating with the fictional truth (12).
The mass media dulls people with a sense of numbness, nausea and propaganda and its
perception management method is a strong tool in the case of misleading. Perception
management uses public relations to make changes in audience perceptions that are intentionally
engaging and artificially marked up to make us believe the value that had been assigned to
things, including stocks, property, money, investments, mutual funds, banks, companies,
products, vehicles, whatever (13). Public diplomacy is a soft power on citizens as a strategic tool
into the broader role of media and communications in international affairs including the
relationship between media, democracy and development of globalization. Perception managers
are depending on themselves as spectacle media serves as a moat protecting the National
Security State from public participation and democratic scrutiny. As a result, the government
controls information, debts, and violence and targets collective identities. Corporations control
commoditization, work, and media and targets individual identities. Both deploy the same
psychological strategies for embedding the public with their messages and directives with
perception management methods of public diplomacy, mind control and manipulation.
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The media serves the interests of the government and other corporations, but never the interests
of the public. The media's screen of aggression and seduction is designed to captivate the largest
possible sector of population whose attention is then sold as their products to maximize profits,
and also maintain the power of the government (14).

Whose interests are being advanced by modern media? Whose interests are being abused? Is it
true that, for most people, living in a culture increasingly defined by consumption fear these
issues are unimportant?

Media Oligarch as the Winner, With the Audience as its Loser

A media oligarch greatly controls media and yet also the masses. Less than a dozen
multinational media giants such as NewsCorp, AOL, Viacom, General Electric, Walt Disney and
fairly many others ―dictate how society thinks, acts and evolves‖ in our global village(1). They
are the winners who certainly are making revenue and great profits, with also increasing their
power on the masses and creating false identities to grandly exploit. The Media‘s audience
though is respectively the loser that consumes their vast amounts of products in such a way that
habits and ethics are manipulated, and also with the vast majority of ideas and beliefs distorted.
This relation is yet one-sided, definitely not balanced, because their media super structure has
such a powerful propaganda machine that ―our ears become theirs, our mouths spout their
distortions and our minds contemplate what they want us to believe‖ (2). Manipulation of the
masses has been made easy with the advent of television, the internet, print media with
promotion, with dirty news, gossip, tabloids, rumours, and with new advertising and marketing
technologies that are being sold to the corporate media organizations. The corporate media ―sells
aggressive fear‖ into our daily lives for several reasons in order to make us a perfect media
consumer, and also maintains the government and corporate interests (3). My argument is that
democracy, freedom, and the objective information are disappearing because our beliefs and
behavioural systems are controlled and manipulated by the elite media owners who transform
our fear, beliefs, and goals in order to sell their products vastly more.
First of all, the current capitalist economic mode of production and political economic
system support a few corporate elites to own and create media monopoly. As a matter of fact, the
media oligarch has been easily assimilated to the masses and conforms to society without a
hassle for both government and corporate interests, but this poison of politics is causing the
derailment of democracy and the dreams of the free society. After the September 11 event,
diversity of opinion and thought hasn‘t been important any more to publicly because both
corporates and the government are working together for propaganda to shape the direct opinion
to what they want interest in directly. Helping manipulate the masses in times of war, for
instance in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, allows both the corporate media and the government
to advance their respective interests; an example would be ―General Electric, one of the world's
largest military contractors and owner of NBC and its sister stations‖ (4). The media sells
continuingly fear and sex because these are our ―primal instincts as human beings to survive;
therefore, fear is stronger than sex‖(5). The majority of people in America feel less safe now than
they did before the 9/11 attacks in spite of the introduction of terror related legislation and laws
such as the Patriot act, the domestic spying program, and the Military Commissions act,
according to Hart/Newhouse scientific poll in 2007(6). The American Media corporations
supported fear poll results, and completely are unable to analyze and debate the facts rather than
simply spewing out segment after segment of fear mongering terror repetition. Under the name
of war on ―international terrorism‖, a terrible colonization war was launched, in which a more
158
offensive expression, ―International Islamic terrorism‖, was put into use to gather the two richest
energy resources of the world, located in the Middle East, and in the Western hegemony hands
(7).
Secondly, manipulation and speculation are always taking place in media when the
objective information disappears. The American and Canadian media is not impartial and free
because of their owners and their problematic relationships with the government, yet they both
use fear to get attention, changing both the way of the world of belief and the behavioural system
of what the audience bought and tried to imitate. Perceptive management is so important for the
government‘s need in order to get the support of the audience to go the unilateral war or any
other stupidity. For example, before the Iraq war in 2003, a poll was held by FAIR, revealing
that audiences were manipulated by the 25 more views supporting war in the 1600 pieces of
news related with Iraq; however, former soldiers and govermental officers were asked their
opinions rather than universities, or think-tank and civil organizations. Furthermore, among them
only 4% were against war, only since nobody in US revealed the news about the anti-war
demonstrations(8). Pentagon signed a 470 million-dollar contract with Microsoft, the owner of
the MSNBC, and the NBC who claimed that the killing of Iraqi civilians was very normal when
at war. Later on, NBC was bought by General Electric, a contractual company of industrial
defense. This company made a billion-dollar war plane motor agreement with Pentagon. ABC
and other media corporations never felt the necessity to make a correction when producing lies
or making up fake news about a chemical weapon factory in Iraq that came out to not even be
true(9). The reality was behind the images and these images manufactured by the media were
that ―the arms industry has launched a concerted lobbying campaign aimed at increasing military
spending and arms exports‖, as Senior Fellow of the World Policy Institute William Hartung
points out. ―These initiatives are driven by profit and pork barrel politics, not by the objective
assessment of how to best defend the United States in a post-cold war period‖ (10).
Thirdly, the media affects the concept of power especially in terms of persuasion by
means of use ―purposeful of communication to influence belief, attitudes, opinions and actions of
the person belief system and after behavioural system‖ with which a person thinks this is his/her
true identity without knowing her/his true mother is actually the biggest liar truly called media
(11). Living in the consumption culture in the west industrialized countries with standards
increasingly defined by the purchasing of status given, and positional goods with which were by
the media. Their owners have defined consumer‘s needs in brand names, and the desire for more,
and then had created a spiralling of consumption as people strive to maintain their social
standing. Truly, media audiences are always losing and spend far more than what they really
need only because advertising is a very powerful tool that confuses their minds, in which nobody
can escape or runaway from. The media is producing certain kinds of programs, stories, or news
in which follow the corporate lead and advertising products, and even prevent reporters from
investigating in particular business issues because reports being told of such stories would be
published for owners interests (12).
In conclusion, the truth is a first victim and the media audience eventually never reaches
the truth, and their beliefs and behavioural systems are managed by perception managers of elite
groups who are the grand owners of media. Fear is the oldest surviving emotion that media has
used to politically use fear-based advertising in which is effective because it taps into our primal
concerns of survival. The world has become a market for fear mongering and the public is
buying it because of propaganda and manipulation. Remarkably, audiences are being told that
the only way to prevent this perpetual state of fear is to give up all rights, democracy, and
freedom, and not to question anything. The capitalists control media for maximizing profits, as
for instance, the US mass media is responsible for most of the media‘s income, and corporations
159
have become far over dependant since mass media is largely financed through billion-dollar
industries of advertising. Many advertisements are designed to generate increased consumption
of brand name products and services throughout mass media. Mass media has been created full
of ideas of mass consumption, in which has shaped a ‗world cultural convergence‘ to
homogenize consumer tastes and engineer a ‗convergence of lifestyle, culture and behaviours
among consumer segments across the world in the terms of the globalization without saying that
it is nothing more than capitalism, imperialism or just new colonialism (13). The corporate
owners and their ideological orientations have shaped mass media and have significant control
over the media‘s staffing and their reporting style, which is why audiences believe, behave, and
shop in systems that are manipulated by a small group. Their goal may become subservient in the
mass media‘s general ideological orientation to the assumptions and interests of the elite. The
mass media may then pretend that not only mass consumption‘s culture and fear are unimportant,
but also never mention that the only importance is the media‘s oligarch interest.

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__Bamford, James (2005). "The Man Who Sold the War." Rolling Ston, p 50. .
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Propoganda& the Ethics of persuasion, Broadview Press, 2002.
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Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber, _ HYPERLINK
"http://www.inthesetimes.com/comments.php?id=299_0_1_0_C" _How To Sell a War_, In
These Times, 4 August, 2003.
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160
Noam Chomsky, 'The Struggle For Democracy In The New World Order', Low Intensity
Democracy (Pluto Press, 1993), p82.
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_ HYPERLINK "http://www.infowars.net/index.html" _Steve Watson_ .Terrorists Win:
Americans Living In Perpetual Fear. Infowars. 8 August, 2007.
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production networks: a productive meeting? 2008; 8: 421-440.

161
Chapter 19

Limitation Problems of ISAP

There are crucial limitation problems existing in ISAP (the Immigrant Settlement and
Adaptation Program) because it is only assisting immigrants in settling and integrating, and
expects them to integrate into Canadian society three years before becoming citizens. ISAP
ignores the vast majority of the newcomer population, such as refugee claimants, undocumented
workers, and naturalized new citizens, that is not eligible to serve ISAP clients and is thought to
be either landing the immigrant or conventional refugee status, or becoming legal temporarily
workers. The ISAP serving area is also problematic, with assuming that newcomers are only in
need for ―reception, orientation, interpretation, counseling and job search‖, and also dramatically
the health and mental health issues have not yet been mentioned in the program, even though
―80% of them are in struggle for depression, resettlement, and isolation‖, so settlement workers
must refer them to become professionals in a timely manner without funding and are ineligible to
prepare assessment (ISAP, 2008; Sekhar, 2009). The ISAP policy contains racism, sexism,
discrimination, and encourages inequality that serves to cheap labour exploitation.
ISAP‘s eligibility criteria clearly mention that ISAP‘s funded agencies should serve only
limited newcomers (ISAP, 2008). According to many surveys, 35 % of Toronto‘s new
population is a non-white ―outsider‖, yet refugee claimants and undocumented workers are the
most vulnerable of the population among newcomers. Many ethnic communities don‘t have
services for the refugee community, or undocumented or legal migrant workers. Refuge
claimants and undocumented workers, also categorized as Live in Caregivers, have been isolated
for many years and are unable to connect to society because of the lack of community help,
family support, and the language barrier. Before the law policy had changed, the 1985 Charters
of Refuge Convention had declared the welcome of any others, but after the 11th of September,
the Refugee Claimants weren‘t covered in law. Every newcomer had once come as refugees to
Canada in different periods of time, but once they begin to establish, the real-born Canadians
shut their doors in their faces with their backs turned (Das Gupta, 2009). Family reunification is
the key to successful integration and ―has become a pillar of Canada‘s immigration program‖
(Telegdi, 2008-p94). Parents and extended family members are very important and provide
financial help to struggling relatives. Many immigrants, refugees, and migrant workers bring
their elderly relatives with the visitor visa who became undocumented workers or refugee
claimants needing to take care of their children. Many elderly newcomers don‘t have the status to
get services from ISAP, especially women who‘d need more ESL classes, with having limited
job opportunities available. Many immigrants and refugees have been struggling for a long
period of time to pass the language barrier; employers make up excuses such as the Canadian
work experience and the occasional problem of another‘s accent even after becoming a Canadian
citizen. They struggle much whether still of being migrant workers or citizens, and most of them
are women. Employers simply reject newcomers without even reviewing their resumes.
Newcomers have therefore ended up working for temporary job agencies that provide labour
jobs, though these jobs were thought to give the Canadian experience by the newcomers while
they don‘t. Most employers assume that newcomers don‘t have the Canadian experience,
meaning that they aren‘t qualified enough. But of course they cannot have the experience unless
they‘re hired in a real and skilled job.

162
Immigrants and newly naturalized citizens past education and experiences are wasted in
Canada. The systemic discrimination still exists, which then places barriers for controlling all
immigrations and segregations by the government. Immigrants are forced to live in certain social
locations, and ―the space- ghetto is socially constructed‖ (Das Gupta, 2008). Credentials aren‘t
always the issue; the lack of the language barrier can be huge, and many other barriers exist just
as well such as age, race, colour, and gender. Even if immigrants have an English education and
are fluent in English, often the language barrier is used as an excuse. The gender issue is
especially important, with most of the sponsored population of women being unfairly threatened.
―Women in colour have the toughest time finding work‖ (Taylor, 2008) whether they‘re citizens
or migrant workers. A woman isn‘t seen as a breadwinner according to many immigrants‘ family
cultures. ―The lack of Canadian experience is a technical problem; it has, at the same time, racial,
ethnic, and class dimension‖ (Mojab, 2008). ―They say that accent is a problem but in reality that
is discrimination‖ (Das Gupta, 2009). Many employers have blamed the immigrants‘ languages,
accents, or the Canadian experience as lame excuses rather than saying just the word of
discrimination. ISAP‘s limitations refuse to serve new citizens but their struggle never ends
shortly just in three years.
ISAP doesn‘t cover undocumented workers, even though 35% of laborers are
undocumented workers in construction and agricultural industries. Canada does have third world
country citizens who are subsidizing the country‘s economy with working lower wages in jobs.
Their lives are vulnerable because if they are sick or have their work permits expired, they can be
deported fairly easy. There is an argument on employment situations and bargaining rights
because ―Canadian citizen employers have common structural conditions that promote systemic
exploitation and racialization comes into play‖ (K. Stasiulis; B. Bakan, 2005). The Canadian
system including ISAP is not equally treating domestic workers and favors the gate keeping
structure. Since the human trafficking problem has been raised when some temporary worker
agencies have been tried to exploit more of these vulnerable despaired people in need for a
decent job, it uses the oppression of inequality, discrimination, and sexism within the Canadian
policies. Migrant workers are spending almost 25% of their earnings to employment insurances,
pension plans, and taxes which never are brought back to them. Furthermore, many
undocumented workers cannot meet requirements to apply for the immigrant status to become
eligible for ISAP. There are two-hundred-thousand undocumented workers in Canada (Das
Gupta, 2009). Most domestic worker women don‘t break the silence of what they‘ve been
through in order to bring their family to Canada. Even though many women have been sexually
assaulted by employers who do domestic work in Canada, they ―already had children whom they
were supporting‖ and sent money or barrels of food to feed them (Jakubowski, 2002-p 62). They
could apply to the landed immigrant status with conditions such as the ability to manage
finances, pass medical and security exams, as well as support their families.
Construction workers are mostly undocumented migrant workers from Latin Americas.
Without legal status, even these workers don‘t have the warranty of being paid. For example, a
living arrangement requirement allows cutting off for accommodation costs from some earnings,
and forces Live in Caregivers to live in bad conditions to do extra work such as to ―not only look
up children but as well as the elderly and disabled‖ (Das Gupta, 2009). Domestic workers can
not be unionized and go to advocacy to seek their rights, such as strikes, etc. When they finish
their jobs they can be deported; for example, ten-thousand workers were unfortunately deported
in 2004. They have no access to social services and no political rights to vote in elections;
basically, they don‘t have any rights at all (Das Gupta, 2009).
Moreover, there are eligible criteria to receive funding through contribution agreements for
the purpose of delivering ISAP; the recipient must be a business, a non-profit corporation, a non-
163
governmental organization, a community group, an educational institution (including school
boards, districts and divisions), an individual, a provincial/territorial government, or a municipal
government. Mainstream agencies get a lot, while multi communities earn far less from ISAP.
This funding is more likely segregated and is limited in access. Mainstream agencies are swiftly
then taking over all. Ethno communities are also very discouraging. Mainstream is a stately
funded, large established agency and institution. Some discrepancies also happen, for instance,
settlement service workers may give services to refugee claimants without getting funded.
Provincial funding is serving refugee claimants, but according to ISAP, the federal level isn‘t
supported. What the ration of this kind of decision is unknown. ISAP is much larger than
provincial funding. Ethno communities and mainstream agencies are making partnership
problematic, including education institutions. For example, only mainstream agencies have
gotten ISAP funds and are working on multicultural communities in Alberta. SOWC is a small
grass-root organization, so it is not a mainstream. Many agencies are moving towards the
mainstream agency type and establish hierarchy.
ISAP requires the fill forms every month. Settlement workers are spending more time to
fill up forms instead of doing their jobs. Funds are limited, sometimes funding only the simple
project. These agencies become part of the government (Das Gupta, 2009). ISAP applicants also
must qualify under the Pre-Qualification process prior with their funding approved by the
Federal Department, and they have the option to cancel multi-year funding agreements where
there is evidence of failure to meet objectives, targets, and/or non-compliance agreed upon terms
and conditions that the agreement in subject is to an annual appropriation from the Parliament.
But the Treasury Board too may not renew of these agreements (ISAP, 2008).
In conclusion, ISAP contains direct and indirect systemic discrimination and racism that
are highly critical regarding the lack of services to newcomers just because ―its history of racism
is often ignored‖ in Canada (McLaren, 2004). There are still incompetence, bias behaviour, and
abuse in the Canadian immigration and the refugee settlement system services that are not based
on needs, but on status. Canadians should remember that ―they themselves or their ancestors
came to Canada as refugees‖ (Dench, 2006-p 12). Refugee Claimants are then excluded from
many federal funded integration services, and also they are ―eligible only to some services in
certain provinces, for example, Ontario‘s Newcomer Settlement Program assists also refugee
claimants‖, yet it doesn‘t enough because provincial funds are far smaller than ISAP (Yu, 2007).
Even some citizens couldn‘t access and obtain ISAP services because ―Canadian born children
whose refuge claimants and undocumented workers parents have uncertain status‖ (Bernhard,
2007). ISAP doesn‘t fund ethno specific communities because they are not mainstream agencies
and serve broad wide of the population. ISAP also doesn‘t take care of undocumented workers,
refugee claimants, and citizens with its limitations and leave this population to vulnerable
conditions. ISAP‘s regulations even contain sexism because the vast majority of the migrant or
undocumented migrant workers selected are men and ISAP doesn‘t yet want to serve them. The
temporary work authorization does not allow family members or dependents to accompany the
workers to Canada. Most of them have been suffering as thought as a single bachelor society
while living in troubled conditions, yet sometimes working undocumented (Das Gupta, 2009).
Some Mexican workers have been coming to Canada through ten seasons, although never hope
to settle down permanently. Sometimes international students become undocumented but ISAP
doesn‘t provide them services. Undocumented people cannot access the shelters nor subsidize
access housing, are ineligible to welfare, and do not have child tax benefits and OHIP. Even if
one person is undocumented, all family members are no longer eligible as well because
government institutes are then sharing information (Das Gupta, 2009). After the Bill of 130
passed recently, the temporarily workers have working conditions and employee agencies have
164
regulated, but there are still the unfair placement fees as bogus offers for Live in Caregivers
accepting new protected regulations that may only stop the use of this poor practice that forced
work illegally or under minimum wage. After paying up to ten-thousand placement fees, or
abusing with financial charges, most of them suffer in debt, bankruptcy, or end up in suicidal
condition and even are mentally sick, but ISAP funding doesn‘t offer mental health services to
funded agencies. Fairly large organizations become defunded, with their funding pulled out for
several reasons such as financial reporting, sometimes of which are political such as the Arab
federation fund cut off. One person must look after the money and documents because it all is
fairly complicated. Organizations grow much more then and work in hierarchy settings. There
are also competitions between different groups to get ISAP. A lot of funders, such as ISAP, look
at an agency hierarchy set up and legal liability. This is ironic because grass root agencies can
not stay tiny, also while working hard with many limitations. ISAP should accept that ―no one is
illegal‖. Regardless of the status, ISAP‘s fund should be covering refugee claimants,
undocumented workers and citizens, providing opportunities to agencies, and serving the broader
population more flexible in order to serve better and have real funding for those services (Das
Gupta, 2009).

References:

Bernhard, Judith K. 2007. ―Living with precarious legal status in Canada: Implication for the
Well-Being of Children and Families‖ from Refugee: Canada Periodical on Refugees, Vol.24,
No.2, York University, pp 101.
Das Gupta, Tania. 2009. Class Lecture, February 10, 2009. York University.
Das Gupta, Tania. 2008. Class Lecture, October 7, 2008. York University.
Das Gupta, Tania. 2009. Class Lecture, March 24, 2009. York University.
Das Gupta, Tania. 2009. Class Lecture, March 31, 2009. York University.
Das Gupta, Tania. 2009. Class Lecture, April 28, 2009. York University.
Das Gupta, Tania. 2009. Class Lecture, May 5, 2009. York University.
Dench, Janet. 2006. ―Ending the Nightmare: Speeding Up Refugee Family Reunification‖ from
Canadian Issues/Themes Canadiens, Association for Canadian Studies, Spring 2006, York
University, pp.95

ISAP. 2008. CIC CFP: ISAP, JSW and Host in Cornwall.. Eligibility to be funded for the
Delivery of ISAP, JSW and Host. 27 July 2008.
Jakubowski, Lisa Marie. 2002. Immigration and the Legalization of Racism, Amending the
Canadian Immigration Act: The Live-in caregiver Program, Halifax: Fernwood Publishing. pp
62.
Mojab, Shahrzad. 2008 . ― De-skilling Immigrant Women‖ Canadian Women Studies Journal.
Volume 19, Number 3, Inanna Publication and Education Inc, York University Bookstore
Publication, pp 125.

McLaren, Kristin. 2004. We had no desire to be set apart: Forced Segregation of Black Students
in Canada West Public School and Myths of British Egalitarianism. Social History 37,73 (2004),
The History of Immigration and Racism in Canada, pp 78.

165
K. Stasiulis, Daiva; B. Bakan, Abigail. 2005. ―Marginalized and Dissident Non-Citizens: Foreign
Domestic Workers. Negotiating Citizenship: Migrant Workers in Canada and the Global System.
University of Toronto Press 2005, The History of Immigration and Racism in Canada, pp 265.

Sekhar, Kripa. 2009. SAWC Executive Director lecture notes, York University. March 31, 2009.
Taylor, Lesley Clarula. 2008. ―Czechs warned Over Refugees‖ Toronto Star, July 19, 2008.
Degrees don‘t ensure jobs for female immigrants. York University Publication, pp 103.

Telegdi P.C., Andrew. 2008. Family Reunification: The key to successful integration. Canadian
Issues/ Themes Canadien, Association for Canadian Studies, Spring 2006, York University, pp
95.

Yu, et all, Soojin. 2007. ―Refugee integration in Canada: A Survey of Empirical Evidence and
Existing Services‖ from Refugee: Canada‘s Periodical on Refugees, Vol 24, No.2, York
University, Fall 2007, pp 23.

166
Chapter 20

Is the Internet Killing Print Media?


More and more people are getting their news online with new advanced technology.
Media experts predict print media will soon be extinct in favour of online editions. Some media
experts say there always will be a place for journalism, editors, and profitable news
organizations, yet only in different forms. Debates have been going on that eliminate most of the
editors, and the cost of printing and delivery don't pay writers a salary, which may reduce the
cost of newspaper production. But the real truth is that print newspapers are dying because of the
unfavourable economic balance between online communications and print distribution,
especially because of the decline of costly print media advertising that long the bread and butter
of print journalism. Print 'publishing' enterprises still are attractive towards advertisers, though
online advertising is more successful, as both Google and Yahoo prove works economically.
There are myriad problems leading to the demise of American and Canadian newspapers, and
most are economic in nature, with the internet making newspaper advertising obsolete. Daily
newspapers are indeed on the way to either changing immensely, or even shutting down. Endless
decline in advertising revenues is raising the question of whether ―private ownership or the
shelter of sitting within diversified empires is now the industry‘s only valid business model‖ (1).
In this research paper, I will argue that declining advertising revenue is weakening the print
media up to the point to kill, as a matter of fact, dirty propaganda in news stories that have
helped kill the print media long ago, and after the economic turmoil, print costs were brought
into the fold as a disadvantage, and now the clunky newspaper is being vanquished by the
medium mass media that is the internet media.
First of all, the advertising revenue is declining every day for the print media because of
free online listings in the free internet media, and also the decline of print readership. Internet
media will destroy the old business models permanently, perhaps nearing the future. According
to an analysis published on the second week of January 2009 by eMarketer, a digital marketing
and media research group, US newspaper advertising revenues had dropped by 16.4 per cent to
$37.9 billion in 2008. Another $10 billion of advertising revenues will disappear by 2012,
eMarketer estimates, leaving the industry half the size it was in 2005 (2). This disappearance has
already been started, for instance, the oldest print media of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has shut
down print media‘s circulation, which now exists only with the online version because the owner
couldn‘t find individual buyers, and also because the government didn‘t want to bail it out.
Another example would be with the New York Times Company, when it had struck its debt deal
with Carlos Slim, Mexico‘s richest man (3). Surprisingly, a giant media imperator, Robert
Murdoch, wasn‘t interested in owning the New York Times whose News Corp was paid in 2007
for Dow Jones, owner of the Wall Street Journal and several local papers, who would now be
sufficient to buy Gannett, the New York Times even at twice their current share prices. The Dow
Jones titles are now supported by more stable cable channels and film studio revenues, just as the
Washington Post _is protected by the far larger income its parent company makes from its
Kaplan education arm (4). Not long ago, anyone wanting to advertise a job, a house, or a service
used to have few options, but the local paper, with turning these titles into very profitable
enterprises with vast newsrooms by international standards, provided less cheap solutions than
the internet media. In fact, newspapers may have to go back to be what they once were to stay in
business, as tools for power, but just as long as this is an option to be ―…Rich men‘ toys‖ (5).
Newspapers once served as tools for a select few to exercise political power and social influence.
167
With sales of newspapers to individuals seeking this power taking place, the credibility
and public perception of the traditional media is tarnished by this. People are still not happy to let
go of the newspaper at its form, but the fact is that by the time the Financial Times, the Wall
Street Journal, or the Herald Tribune come to our doorstep, all the news would turn to be old
news. Not only that, but if anything major happened after the edition was closed, the story can‘t
make it to print, but online it‘d be up and ready in real time. Newspapers used to be close enough
to real time. It is no longer the case though. Advertising on the Internet is in fact common
between blogs and the media. If we set aside the advertising that goes on media websites as a
result of political pressures exerted by media owners on big advertisers, the advertising pie is
shared on an objective analysis of traffic and audience. Slowly and gradually, as bloggers and
blogging platforms begin to realise and seize the available power, the market will be much more
evenly spread, and this realisation, along with what is a sharp decrease in traditional media
advertising, is what is causing the traditional media to experiment at such a quick pace to find
potential solutions. Google has been blogged by many hailers at the saviour of the local
newspaper, and in the long run, television and radio too. Google is indeed providing much to
most people, usually more than 50-60 percent of all incoming traffic to media websites in that
traffic to blogs, and other websites, which are included in the competition for the same
advertising revenues (6).
Secondly, one of the reasons newspapers are failing is that they don't report hard news
any longer or even interesting detailed stories. Editorial decision making has crept into the news
pool and is affecting what and how a story is reported. When asked why in the world the
audience would ever tune into the Fox or the CNN on cable for their biased reporting of the
news, experts say that audiences are forced to get a balancing version of the news so that they
can understand what really is going on. The mass media isn‘t informing, instead, it‘s confusing,
frightening and manipulating, and doing a large deal of perception management rather than just
providing news (7). There is no truth in the news, no news in the news at all as well because the
truth is always firstly casual; newspapers are then more likely into becoming a ―fat bullet‖ to any
reader‘s minds (8). As a former print media journalist for over ten years with working in the
biggest newspaper in Turkey named Zaman, I‘ve seen that the field has been greatly "cheapened"
by many of society‘s appetites for tabloid gossip and the acceptance of citizen journalists.
Editors are sitting behind a keyboard to lay the groundwork for making up a story with only
limited facts, supporting facts, quotes printed even without double-checks, and all with the will
to cover both sides.
Reporters have been removed at ground level with everything now being measured by
ratings, just so the advertising revenue could mean the customers satisfaction. News operations
haven't maintained a strong stance, either in the dignity or honor of the profession, with instead
choosing to chase ratings/readers in order to provide exciting entertainment because viewers only
accepted ―the shaky, hand-held, shoot-while-running video from a cell phone‖, and not a long
real printed and well-detailed story (9). The well-crafted, artfully composed and visually
inspiring stories from award-winning professionals haven't made any difference in the ratings.
All levels of media have been feeding the masses what they want for their greatest gain, never
mind the intellectual numbing and ―dumping down of the content and whoever is supposed to be
smart in the edge of the technological century that sex sells, so advertising becomes more likely
a big pornography‖ (10). Lack of support for the true journalism profession has to largely be on
the shoulder to blame, yet on the other hand, misguided giant media corporations are having
hidden agendas, even with admitting their bias statements, and still dressing themselves as
legitimate, honest, fair, truth-seeking news operations. The print media is involved with
propaganda, and that‘s why it‘s adapted easily to manipulation with using ―some form of
168
misleading communication, emotional pressure, appealing to the subconscious, and suchlike‖
(11). The internet, which emerged as a leading source for campaign news, has now surpassed all
other forms of media except television as an outlet for national and international news. The
survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted on December 3-7,
2007, among 1,489 adults, 40% say they get most of their news about national and international
issues from the internet, which had increased from the 24% surveyed in September 2007. For the
first time in a Pew survey, more people had said they rely mostly on the internet for news than
city newspapers (35%). Television continues to be cited most frequently as a main source for
national and international news at 70%. For young people, however, the internet now rivals
television as a main source of national and international news. Nearly six-in-ten Americans
younger than 30 (59%) say they get most of their national and international news online; an
identical percentage cites television. In September 2007, twice as many young people said they‘d
relied mostly on television for news than that mentioned on the internet (68% vs. 34%) (12). (See
figure on cover page)
Thirdly, the problem with any publication is that if print costs are brought into the fold,
this is then brought as a disadvantage. With online newspapers, once the software is paid for, the
only cost of operation is the pipe to the internet and employee wages. Most reporters can use
their home computers to upload their stories to the publication's servers whereas the print
publication is at a significant disadvantage with all the costs associated with printing and
distributing, buildings and taxes. The real danger to reporters, newspapers and readers is that
newspapers are now hiring contractors and freelancers at a record pace who will write articles
and columns without the benefit of editors and simple fact-checking. As a result, the prospect is
prompting several newspaper owners to make deep cuts to staffing, attempting to find buyers for
loss-making titles and consider closures. Many publishers borrowed too much money to finance
ill-conceived and ill-timed acquisitions. Newspapers are struggling because many readers,
especially the younger ones, prefer to get their information through from a variety of online and
mobile media. Newspapers are also struggling because many advertisers have forsaken them for
the new, interactive media (13). On the other hand, many small online newpapers in the
advertising revenue are insufficient to cover the payroll costs of the entire editorial operation,
print and online, or other expenses such as building maintenance. In the future, there will be the
ones who develop growing arrays of print and interactive products to appeal to such targeted
audiences as sports fans, businesspeople, homemakers and far more. They will have learned to
produce the content more efficiently, build audiences by leveraging the viral nature of the
Internet, and sell advertising to broader and deeper ranges of advertisers than they do today.
Some publishers may even be able to continue to print newspapers every day of the week, while
some may print on only certain days to save money, and some may elect to move to online-only
platforms (14).
In conclusion, the mass media, including the print media, has no agenda to make us better
or to inform, but rather than to simply manipulate us and give direction to our beliefs in which
affect our behavioural system as the result of then dumping us down. The mass media has given
images, icons, fictions, brands, frauds, lies, symbols, and illusions in which dominate our lives
and create our faulty identities with having mass cultural values (15). Journalists, writers, and
editors then ―keep their biases and advocate particular policies and ideologies‖ (16). A digitally
enabled free fall in ads and the audience now has burly guys circling major daily newspapers that
large metro papers are suffering from the effects of competition from television, cable, and the
Internet. Owners of print media are panicking at problems in big city media and ignoring the fact
that most newspapers are relatively stable and reasonably healthy, yet especially ignored with
executives who‘ve made serious managerial mistakes. Most of the print media is dying because
169
it fails to serve its readership in a holistic way and because their communities are unravelling.
Print media has been shifting to the Internet media‘s new platforms and new technologies, as
well as the new forms of advertising. For example, Google is a new form of an agency-as-
platform that served an entirely new population of advertisers who don't have agencies and
enabled to set new rules. ―Google sells performance instead of scarcity it rewards relevance; it
encourages better, more effective advertising‖ (16). Mainstream media is doomed in general
because all it does is lie and push its hidden agenda handed down to it by its corporate handlers.
Print media is dying because it can't figure out how to give readers something worth paying for.
Newspapers may die, or rather suffer a slow death, with their protectionist attitudes, but still they
have a powerful voice that others in power wish to harness for their own purposes to influence
the masses. ―The Internet provides and gives an opportunity for altering those print media and
the mass media‘s informational structures to some extent‖, and now journalists can provide the
new, more critical, presentations of news for audiences that read, listen, understand, and respond
without control and influence of the giant media corporations and manufactured misinformation
makers of the privileged classes‘ named propaganda (17).

References:

1. Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson. Financial Time. Newspapers turn into rich mens‘ toys. January
20 2009.
2. eMarketer Analyis on Media report. January 12, 2009.
3. Jack Shafer. Slate Newspaper. Carlos Slim Watch. Feb. 13, 2009.
4. Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson. Financial Time. Newspapers turn into rich mens‘ toys. January
20 2009.
5. Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson. Financial Time. Newspapers turn into rich mens‘ toys. January
20 2009.
6. Alexandros Koronakis. Media: Dead or Dying? March 1, 2009.
7. Walter Perchal. York University. Unpublished lecture note. April 27, 2009.
8. Walter Perchal. York University. Unpublished lecture note. March 16, 2009.
9. _ HYPERLINK "http://www.rockymountainnews.com/staff/dave-kopel/" _Dave Kopel_,
Rocky Mountain News. On The Media: Dying newspapers, vanishing coverage. February 7,
2009.
10. Walter Perchal. York University. Unpublished lecture note. March 9, 2009

170
Chapter 21

Creating the Public Museum was Revolution


The museum housed specific sort of cultural legacy that connected the present to the past
by creating a genealogy of knowledge. Collecting and displaying those priceless or simple items
tell us a true history and the memory of an entire society. They are ―remembrances of infinite
things‖ representing different periods and genres. Anything can be museum that defines culture,
remembrance infinite things, cultural identity, heritage, cultural legacy, itinerary, produce
knowledge that‘s why education role is important today. The museum is making object visible,
fixing object basis of analogy, between two objects finding similarities, kind of knowledge
scientific accumulation to our system. The museum is not only produces knowledge, also great
place to socialize and awake of the nation. (Mclsaac, 2008). This paper will examine
revolutionary process how the public museum transmits cultural value that positive affirmative
function in culture things in which is connected the past to the present, social relationship when
ownership transferred, and the role of education how it is created historical heritage as a nation.
First of all, the idea of the Renaissance picks up antiquate from past to present. The18th-
century Enlightenment was one of the great revolutionary moments in human history that was
claimed as parent for the museum. It was a time when European culture subjected its deepest
beliefs to irony and critique. The results of such radical thinking were mind-bogglingly
disruptive. By the end of the 18th century, a European state would not just execute its monarch
but abolish Christianity that‘s why religious arts become art. In 1793, in the most extreme phase
of the French revolution, the Bishop of Paris was forced to confess himself "a charlatan" and to
declare that from now on "there should be no other public cult than liberty and holy equality". (
Jonathan, 2003).
This movement now has a permanent display dedicated to it at the heart of a museum that
can honestly claim the Enlightenment as parent. Since late seventeen century, there are many
donators donated their collections to museums, it makes them more interesting, more valuable,
and more visitors. When you look up how organize museum today, images and arts a passage
come through that a lot of collections collected private collectors who has individual desire or
extent family instinct, and donated to public museums. (Mclsaac , 2008) People started talking
mortality, and how we can be remembered in the Renaissance period and found out the creation
of heritage has a value. In the past, the large private collection has limited visitors, and then
donation happened first by prince to public museum in which was a prestige for wealth families.
The relationship between legacy and heritage, the humanism drives to capture world that fits
intellectual projects. Many religious arts become art, process of secularization started, and
ownership transferred to government before the public museum becomes more ―democratic
institution.‖ ( Nochlin, 1972).
Secondly, the social relationship and socialization in museum have been always
important for interact with people because it is function of the museum, in with particular
artwork, doing museum space, meet someone you knew is not place for it. The diversion is,
entertainment as a leisure time. They can change how to see the world. For example, the British
museum collected items from different cultures, shows civilizations. Particular collections divine
to prince before, used to work prestige, also use diplomatic purpose, showing the collection or
connected who sees that collection that hierarchy and power. The collectors interacted their
collections as diplomatic tools, as terms of exchange knowledge, giving each other objects.
Collections are shared like networking relatively each other. The museum has propaganda value.

171
(Mclsaac, 2008). One of the legacies of the Renaissance, the other culture makes museum that is
ideological perspective. Preserving is very simple in the museum. Far from being static,
restoration needs for items also for decoration, shipping around distribution ordering. The
Renaissance established emerge science to use for preserve collections. During French
revolution, they secularized churches that were full of arts in it, and then private collector
stepped up and played significant role keeping them. The place of memory during that critical
shift happened in that time. Memory was object that motivate as an object.
This collection brings up potential of making up ―the immortality of culture.‖ ( Findlen,
2000, pp 173). Art memory used more remembrance things. Memory is sort of weakness, it also
takes on divine power, provide the sense of true knowledge. Memory is not history, but the
museum makes history visible. Susan Crane says, ―top down, individual system, open up public
theory, to elite than the street.‖ ( Findlen, 2000). It is gesture, more radical than French.
Hierarchy involved in what kind of knowledge have it, some museum makes more sense. French
writer Darbel Bourdeieu book name called ‘The love of Art‖ that provided information is fresh
hole described the museum. (Mclsaac, 2008).
Thirdly, the public museum is an educational institution in which was belong to the
French culture and first redefined with French people. The French Revolution crises happened
when French took especially German, Italian art collections as a symbol of victory from
European countries. This conflict caused strong German and Italian nationalism in the 20.
century, and reshaped to the German art of museum culture in early 19.century. The task of
collecting historical objects awaked history of Germany such as ―ruins or archival materials were
suddenly more valuable.‖ ( Crane, pp 7). German were reaching out public with public education
project of museum that the idea of German people what look like, national community, and most
likely moral basis, beauty and ethical context, self improvement as an individual level. French
was creating citizen, the public education is moral issue, same time German was doing both.
Kant thinks the capacity of imagination, initial express of art, so sense of odd overwhelming
supply makes productive in constructive order some sense. (Mclsaac, 2008).
Under French occupation, Germany lost historical heritage, wasn‘t find the unity of
Germany and German identity. The deep emotional impact on is that reason separate category of
art. German means hard to explain in 18. century. It was cultural nation not politically. The
historically artifact and objects were going along with desired to German identity as a cultural
greatness. The converted items from Greek and Roman to adapt in German heritage that proved
the idea of harmony and freedom because Greek was supposed to ideal society. Refining is very
first museum in Germany were The Altes Museum in Berlin and the Glyptothek in Munich.
Those were created after a lot reading classical things for making up German recovery, built very
clear national achievement, as a pride. (Mclsaac, 2008). First German museum doesn‘t politicize,
more democratic, not looks like some French museum. Representation function is quit obvious
that using museum is a large, patronizing and educating public is rational and expose to them.
The museum can create sense of values called social sphere quotation. People come together
cultural value and institution what they can share that is identifiable that may desirable. The
museum chooses display that benefits from which decisions old master who dead. The science
museums and a number of art museums are doing educational model that educate the public. The
museum is trying to reach democratic version. This museum is selling out, not huge concern but
it should manage to attract public with historical way. The museum sometimes stepped back
what state wants whether educate to public or not in consciousness. The creator of museum also
knows how to use ideology and aesthetic, for example, Schinkel preserved ―the world of
classical perfection in his rotunda.‖ ( Crimp,1995- pp 301). The museum was trained to educate,
but bias what makers of museum taking it away. It is also political some sense they though they
172
are superior. The French set up museum with bias that French is inherited of the European
history. They are competing history by arts, French people is inherited of western people. They
even turn religious paintings to art and what makes it arts. Collecting arts is also French is
imperial. Revolution forwards as a project. Western culture is universal what they assumed that
great enough to tell for instant. Working towards to explain items new way, for example change
Louvre ―the role in the education of Republican artist‖ what museum was before. (McClellan, pp
107). Museum is very powerful, also makes something invisible. If you don‘t expert in particular
field, you don‘t understand what it is. (Mclsaac, 2008).
In Conclusion, many museum scholars say, the museum is also exclusory institution,
existing names for everybody, but small elite. The question of perception, something is going on
how we should think of some of transformation. The museum fixes arts objective rather than
kills arts or active engagement created art and ―the vast liberation of art.‖ (Nochlin,1972, pp 17).
The one of dynamic for collection was that object is one connects to another. Placement of art is
new context, this is really critical, not help to find category, work to do old function as much as
possible, but fix it transform it to ―unified corpus of knowledge.‖ (Greenhill, 1992, pp 17)
Mostly is coming from religious places, churches, exhibited them in different way. Historical,
artistic consumption exists that implication was solid material can be done, much more fragile.
The object was once religious purposes and then it has been no longer that way. More museums
are using technology-finding way of connection. Physical arrangement of museum is not due
able. It is not resolute conclusion. It is hard to give definition and figure out what their role in the
community, and their functions and potentials. Educational role and value is more important the
way in which museum can alter perception, contribute to knowledge, history and culture in 21st
century. The museum is highly influenced of awaking and creating a nation, for instance it
created and reshaped German nation. The understanding of universal museum has been started
underlining of the unity of the world that was completely different perception than twenty
century. Art definition was changing from accepting definition of fine arts. The curiosity cabinet
has been shifting that history collection starts to form that is universal story. (Mclsaac, 2008).
There is disagreement between scholars. Museum seems to more magical memory to ordinary
citizen and more people interesting to make visit last 30 years. Almost anything may turn out to
be museum such as farm, castle, cottages, warehouse etc., change is very extremely and rapid,
many people love and visit museum. Creating museum supposed to be stabilizing of the French
revolution, later on it turned to the museum helps society how to historically objects means. The
world is better now with the public museum, the killing art assumption is meaningless.

References:

Crane, Susan A. Collecting and Historical Consciousness in Early Nineteenth- Century


Germany, Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London, pp 7.

Crimp, Douglas. ( 1995). ― The Postmodern Museum.‖ On the Museum‘s Ruins. Cambridge:
MIT, 1995, pp 301.

Findlen, Paula. ( 2000). ― The Modern Muses: Collecting and the Cult of Remembrance in
Renissance Italy‖ Museum and Memory ed. Susan A. Crane. Stanford UP. 2000. pp 173.

Greenhill, Elilean Hooper. ( 1992). ― What wis a Museum‖ and ― The ‗ Cabinet of the World‘‖.
Museum and the Shaping of Knowledge. London: Routledge, 1992, pp 17.
173
Jonathan, John. 2003. The Guardian. Enlightenment: Discovering the World in the 18th Century
is at the British Museum, London WC1. Details: 020-7323 8000.

Mclsaac, Peter. (2008), " Curiosity and Different Orders of Things: Collecting Before the
Museum", Lecture/Class, York University, unpublished. 10 September 2008.
Mclsaac, Peter. (2008), " The Public Museum Takes Form 1", Lecture/Class, York University,
unpublished. 17 September 2008.
Mclsaac, Peter. (2008), " The Public Museum Takes Form 2", Lecture/Class, York University,
unpublished. 24 September 2008.
Mclsaac, Peter. (2008), " Schinkel‘s Museum in Berlin: The Prototeype of the Modern Art
Museum", Lecture/Class, York University, unpublished. 8 October 2008.
McClellan, Andrew. Inventing the Louvre: Art, Politics, and the Origins of the the Modern
Museum. Tufts University. University of California Press, pp 107.
Nochlin, Linda. (1972). ―Museum and Radicals: A History of Emergencies.‖ In: Museum in
Crisis, ed. Brian O‘Doherty. New York: Goerge Braziller, 1972, pp 17.

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Chapter 22

Rewriting Histories of Indigenous and African-Canadians

The histories of Indigenous nations are part of the history of Canada, though injustices
and restrictions based on racial perceptions have shaped them. After the necessity of building a
national culture emerged, the process of decolonization began with still the Native voice denied
within national discourse. Colonizers maintain and construct a traditional society under
modernism while beginning to conquer, convert and defraud the process that is continued for the
sake of the making of the Northern Nation of Canada. The process of conquering land had
caused genocide, racism, and the devastating and ongoing implication of policies, in which have
been exercised with the alienation of race such as the ―Negro School Segregation‖ in Ontario and
Nova Scotia. Indian nations have been struggling since the beginning of the invasion of the
northern regions (from the 16th century to the present) mainly because of the epistemological
foundations that contain many diseases, the invasion of lands with the implication of legislations
and policies, and the dispossession of treaties. Although there is resistance toward the colonizers,
missionaries‘ and the race making policies, these problems still exist within systematic
discrimination. Mercantile colonialism obtains Indigenous lands through trade and warfare for
settlement by any means necessary. After the colonialism formed in patriarchal institutions,
many of the Native nations had not survived beyond the 18th century. Massive outbreaks of
illness, devastating social disintegration under the effect of alcohol, and the Indigenous nations‘
resulting dependency on the British and French colonizers were well calculated and had
destructed the Indian nations for the purpose of claiming their lands, changing their ways of life
and organizing their resistances towards the European expansion.
Moreover, the socio-economic needs of invaders and the making of a Northern Nation
had caused the abandonment of the Native nations‘ cultures and religions and had broken down
their values with using Christianity to assimilate them into society and violate their civil rights.
Many Indians have claimed, after the heavy missionary work, evangelistic, educational,
industrial and medical assimilation done against them, that they are Canadian Christians. Some
nations used Christianity as a source of resistance against colonizers in the early years, but the
acceptance of Christianity didn‘t rescue them from exploitation either. British and French rulers
introduced scalping policies to dislocate the Indians and enforce them to move from one location
to another, just until their claims would disappear.
Furthermore, Canadian systemic discrimination with policies left Indians further
dispersed and dissolute. The Indians were divided into three classes under the Canadian Indian
acts, and afterwards, they were divided with the use of race-making strategies the long term of
ignorance. These Indians today live in eastern Canada, the ‗North-West‘, British Colombia, and
the Eskimos of the Far North. The last census has given the result of 127, 932 Indians and half-
breeds living in Canada. Indians have transformed from living in an old-fashioned civilization to
the modern environment, such as the modern home, clothing, and education. As a result, the
Indigenous‘ unique traditions of mother-centered thinking, clan-mother thinking and living as
matriarch families were becoming lost along with the loss of Indigenous people‘s cultures. After
the loss of the base of maintaining the integrity of Indians within social communities, the man-
dominant society had destroyed Indian traditions, purifications and unifications.
Canada needs to rewrite the histories of its land, which had first belonged to the Indigenous
people, and it needs to rehabilitate the ideology of the settlers for future national heritages. In
175
fact, invaders need more lands according to increasing immigration and settler needs. The
colonizers have killed, destroyed and oppressed the Indigenous nations‘ races and their identities
with the use of their advanced technology and superior power. The implementation of
legislations, policies and treaties was designed to target the Indigenous nations until they resulted
in a total disappearance with their identities erased. The outsider perspectives barely mention
colonizer crimes such as genocide, racism, discrimination and the crime against humanity.
Mercantile colonialism, Christian missionary work and modernity have always been portrayed as
relatively innocuous, and the wars against the Natives were unique in Canada. The dispossession
of the Indians, however, was in the silenced process for the making of a Northern Nation,
whereas Indians were just a part of the mosaic within Canada and nothing more.
In her article, "Rewriting Histories of the Land," Bonita Lawrence argues that official
Canadian history silences the accounts emerging from Indigenous peoples' own oral histories.
Based on a close reading of her text, please discuss the different ways in which the Wendat,
Mi'kmaq and Ojibway nations experienced colonization in Canada. Identify and explain two
main points for each nation that are discussed in the article.
The histories of Indigenous nations are part of the history of Canada, though are silent
ones. Some of Native elders tell oral stories to Indigenous writers or non- Native historians who
record these stories and introduce new perspectives what the Canadian history should be
considered of. After the necessity of building a national culture emerged, the process of
decolonization began with still the Native voice denied within national discourse. Colonizers
maintain and construct a traditional society under modernism while began to conquer, convert
and defraud the process continued. Many non-Indian writers never mention to neutralize the
process of genocide, racism, or the devastating and ongoing implication of policies, since they
only exercise in alienation. The history of Natives is unwritten; there is a limited amount of
authorization sources in historical records. For instance, the Wendat, the Mi'kmaq and the
Ojibway nations that experienced colonization in Canada are the nations who had been
struggling mainly on the epistemological foundations with many diseases, the invasion of lands
with implication of legislations and policies, and dispossession with treaties, even though there is
resistance toward the mercantile colonization.
First of all, the mercantile colonialism obtains Indigenous lands for settlement by any
means necessary through trade and warfare. After the colonialism formed in patriarchal
institutions many of Native nations had not survived beyond the 18th century. French colonizers
focused on the fur trade with the mandatory presence of Christian missionaries on the Wendat
nation. Huron-Wendat people faced the epidemics proceeding, whereas missionaries pressured to
convert them from the Indigenous population by forbidding the practice of the Wendat spiritual
ritual. Even after the Jesuit gained power and dealt with French colonizers, the Wendat nation
wasn‘t protected against other Native tribes such as the Iroquois and the Mohawk, so it was
captured by these tribes and was forced to adapt into the Senaca, Onondaga and Laylya nations.
The Wendat relied both on agriculture and fishing until its extensive contact and dependency
with French traders who were experienced in maintaining their traditional livelihood for survival.
Through contact with the French, a continuous wave of small pox epidemic spread out and
caused many deaths, cutting the Wendat population in half, mostly of the elders and youth.
Diseases and warfare were physically devastated by death, including starvation, among the
Wendat nation. French colonialism had abandoned the Wendat, causing them to lose their tribal
status, the loss of a collective land base under the Indian Act in 1881, still considering
themselves as the Wendat and not Indians.
On the other hand, the Mi‘kmag nation used Christianity as a source of resistance against
colonizers in the early years. This nation is the first Native people in North America to encounter
176
the European peoples to negotiate, aware of their political implications. They allied with the
Holy See in Rome and sought recognition as a sovereign independent Catholic Republic. The
Mi‘kmag provided people the freedom to choose or reject Catholicism. Though the religion was
supposed to protect these peoples against other European monarchies, all protection ceased to
exist within the Treaty of Westphalia after all. The British colonizers sought land to colonize,
which is the reason why dirty methods of extermination started in the mid 1600s. The British
distributed them poisoned food, and trade blankets infected with diseases, waging ongoing
military assault on civilians to depopulate the Mi‘kmag nation. In fact, killing one-third
population in these ways was a genocide act. British rulers introduced a scalping policy to
dislocate the Mi‘kmag in one location to move it to another, just until their land claim would
disappear.
Moreover, the Ojitway was fooled by British rulers with their several treaties that were
ambiguous, incomplete and badly worded in English. Since the Ojibway nation could not read
and write in English, they didn‘t know in the first place what they were signing. The nation of
the Iroquois Confederacy was defeated by the Ojibway, appearing a threat for British settlers.
The chemical warfare of alcohol was waged against the Ojibway in highly intentional manners
by the British as a strategy for acquiring land and imposing control. Long wars between Native
tribes and colonizers, and massive outbreaks of illness, devastating social disintegration under
the effect of alcohol, and their resulting dependency on the British were well calculated and had
destructed this nation to claim land, change the ways of life and organize the resistance to
European expansion. This brought new epidemics of small pox that decimated this nation. After
weakening the Ojibway, the British began to use army violence to force them to surrender into
their surroundings. The British army invaded more lands according to increasing immigration
and settler‘s needs. Factionalism increased, after losing the well being of the Ojibway that was
no longer united within the nation, and losing their values to fight back for it.
In conclusion, the colonizers killed, destroyed and oppressed the Indigenous nation‘s race
and their identity with their advanced technology and superior power. The implementation
legislations, policies and treaties were designed to target the Indigenous nations until it resulted
in total disappearance with its identity erased. The outsider perspective barely mentioned
colonizer crimes such as genocide, racism, discrimination and crime against humanity.
Mercantile colonialism is portrayed as relatively innocuous, that wars against the Native were
unique in Canada but it dispossession of Indians was in the silenced process. As a result, the
Wendat, Mi'kmaq and Ojibway nation‘s land acquisitions were done by invaders. Within the
warfare, trade, disease, and enfranchisement policies was the changing of the ecology of the
lands. The socio-economic needs of invaders had abandoned the Native nation‘s cultures,
breaking down their values, with using Christianity to assimilate them into society and violate
their civil rights. Also, systemic discrimination with policies left them further dispersed and
dissolute. The Indigenous unique tradition of mother-centred thinking, clan-mother and
matriarch traditions was the base of maintaining the integrity of Indians in social communities,
but is also a loss of culture now. Canada needs to rewrite the histories of the land, which first
belonged to Indigenous people, and rehabilitate settlers‘ ideology for future national heritages
The story of Africville is another perfect example of spatial and racial discrimination
against the black race, in terms of systemic segregation. As seen in colonized societies, after
Hurricane Katrina, the black experience in New Orleans had a similar assumption to
desegregation with Africville, and both ghettos paid a high price for the racialization and
spatialization of space. Since the beginning of slavery and its continuance throughout history,
place and race have been socially produced and determined by regulations over time by
―Whiteness‖ politics, but the extension of dialectics in relationships is ongoing between power
177
dominance and the creation of the slum. The social production of racialized space in both
Africville and New Orleans could be understood with a "socio-spatial dialectic." This is because
as the space of Africville is the project of racial desegregation, racial slums are located in certain
places with the denial of essential services, and were once planned and constructed on the
purpose to be among the lower and underclass population ideologically, socially and politically
(Nelson, 2000).
First of all, white colonizer‘s ideologies have been structured to believe in the making of
Africville as a slum at first. The living condition in the slum is filthy, intolerable, a notion of
helplessness, and greatly lacking of self determination for its habitants. For example, after the
moving of the dump to the space of Africville, the city was fabricated to be the image of garbage
and waste, filled with the waste of the White community in Halifax, Nova Scotia (Nelson, 2000).
Ironically, the black community sees this racism as a natural event even though the black identity
bounds up with this space, and becomes a negative sense of image determined by the term it has
been named: ―scanvengers‖ (Nelson, 2000). The marginalized existence of the black population
lives behind and outside of society, apart from civilized norms in separate spaces, though the
community is still the majority of the Halifax population and it is thought that some people enjoy
living this way, in garbage and dumps. The ideology of colonialism has normalized this
abnormality over the centuries, teaching that the Africville community moved out from its home
land with little moral compensation. The ideology of space making causes the systemic racial
oppression of black communities, as well as their isolation, such as in Africville, whereas similar
forms of dislocation, displacement, and notions of division were rearticulated and reproduced in
the New Orleans because the rebuilding was worthy according to the president of the US, the
richest people, the richest corporations, and the most powerful politicians and media outlets
(Lipsitz, 2008).
Africville was socially constituted, constructed to be seen as a highly problematic urban
space, whereas the lack of legal policies and absence of social programs existed. This was
similar to New Orleans‘ socio-economic condition and dialect that ties the racial profiles to
slumliness, segregation of physical boundaries, lawlessness, addiction, sanitation, health hazards,
dirty politicians, cheap labour and sex workers. Both space populations have chosen to live
together to keep their traditions and identities, and share cultural and religious resources that are
decisive over residential choices. In both cases, ―a combination of cruelty, cronyism,
opportunism, dishonesty, and incompetence made bad situations even worse‖ (Lipsitz, 2008).
Also, in both patterns of residential, socioeconomic, and health reasons, personal and collective
choices are similar to one another because the two spaces are socially constructed and
historically, materially and ideologically structured.
The case of New Orleans was a worldwide embarrassment and failure, whereas the case
of Africville took attention after two brothers had demanded land claim with occupying the park
area and protesting the city until their eviction right before G-7 Summit politically. For instance,
monumental space is an important image of space in Seaview Memorial Park for understanding
the history of those who previously lived in Africville as a resident in form of genius loci for the
Cartesian subject. After the denial of wrongdoing that space had become invisible, right after a
series of legal actions planned and carried out, laws were seen as products of consensus of liberal
social values beyond fairness (Nelson, 2000). Legal decision makers follow social history that
include and racism, and produce racist policies and practices. White-dominated policy makers
and investors relocate the Africville residence into an improved spatial position that increases to
spatial assimilation in mixed neighbourhoods and causes the loss of cultures.
In conclusion, within the socio-economic dialectic, the creation of slum and clearance of
slum are also ideological, social and political, constructed in Africville and New Orleans. This is
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because the sense of the superior in power sees that suffering is obvious and incurable, for the
superior class gets a benefit from the struggle and increases its wealth, as the necessity is to
racially put the poor, lower-class in misery. When the destruction of the lower class is carried out
politically, the free market fundamentalists reshape these spaces not as initial invasions but as
ongoing clearances of slums. As a result, the lower classed community dislocates and melts in
residential segregation for the purpose of industrial or park development to exist in both spaces.
It is not unusual for these racial spaces or for a social production of ghettos to be reshaped and
remoulded from historical and natural elements through political processes, according to the
wishes of the wealthy elites (Nelson, 2000).

Bibliography:

Lipsitz, George. 2008. Learning from New Orleans: The Social


Warrant of Hostile Privatism and Competitive Consumer Citizenship. American Antropolotical
Assocition. Volume 21 Issue 3_, Pages 451 – 468

Nelson, Jennifer J. 2000. The Space of Africville, Creating, Regulating and Remembering the
Urban "Slum" Canadian Journal of Law and Society 15: 2, 163-186.

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Chapter 23

The Role of an "Insider Subject"


Orientalists, Western feminists and colonizers need an Orientalized priori insider figure
to mask their real intentions, and also to set up this imaginary question which implies a
‗‗benevolent‘‘ or ‗‗modernizing‘‘ intervention. Since the burga is an Orientalist signifier, native
informants as insider subjects have become a more important key contemporary figure for the
notion of subjectivity, which regards one who has authority to represent another (Ansari, 2003, p
50). The burga plays an important role in the documentary of ―Return to Kandahar,‖ which
represents a hegemonic whisper for dominant interventionists who wish to hear it for justifying
the wrong done in Afghanistan, according to Usamah Ansari (author of "Should I go and pull her
burqa off? Hidden whisperers claim that Islam is ―seen as a walking anachronism, as something
against liberty, freedom, and progress, and thus a timeless opposition since the Enlightenment
period‖ (Varisco, 2005, p. 108). My argument is that Pazira‘s conflicted nostalgia, the threat to
modernity, and Dyana‘s suicide are all encompassed within the Orientalist imagination, whereas
Orientalists have been using the physical presence of the burga to work their myths and stories,
(Hall, 1997c, p. 229) to mask foreign invasions, and to cover the creation of the liberated
feminist subject as an individual agency, targeting to remove the burga.
Producing an insider subject is needed for the survival of Orientalists, and it is a signifier
of the Orient that manages chaos, develops humanistic projects, and restructures lost civilizations
and cultures for imperialistic power (Said, 1973, p 176). Nelofer Pazira rebels against the Islamic
tradition after being educated in the West, and she had verified herself as an insider subject of
Afghani Muslim women with, having double identities in multiple positions (Arat Koc, 2002).
Living independently in the West has given a privilege to her; she visits her home country to
judge her own people who live in terrible socio-economic and political conditions, being under
foreign invasions. Her lack of vision was proven when she was unable to recognize inequality,
poverty and strong domesticity in her visit to a school in the Mazar-e-Sharif, and in speaking
with a woman. Due to the indivisibility of her white friend, Paul Jay is her White watcher as an
Orient and graspable object without any emotional attachment to compromise the positive ideal
of objectivity, and he is invisible in the film (Said, 1973, p. 66).
Pazira‘s prejudice over the burga is referred to the Western feminist desire to see all
burga-clad women as unidentifiable and lacking individual subjectivity. Western Feminist
intervention is problematic because these feminists are always referring to individual rights,
whereas they deny others who are not fit in the imperialistic Western creation of soul making,
and contrast to subject constitution of female individualists (in Morton, 2003, p. 87; Spivak
1999, p 117). Western feminists produce a good society of woman-types, whereas non-western
women cannot articulate as modern people or as having control over their own bodies and
sexualities. The Orientalist ideology has asked to use Dyana as a native informant, along with
Pazira who also represents feminism and a feminist subject of an agency.
Nostalgia is the central motif of the film, and so Pazira targets to de-veil the burga from
Afghani women and idealizes her childhood, as documented in clips of professional-looking
Afghani women from the 1980s (Ansari, 2003, p 54). After many long invasions and wars, the
progress and potential of middle- and upper-class women to become professionals have been lost
to fundamentalists of Islam (Mahmood & Hirschkind, 2002), as thought by Pazira. As an
authentic insider, Pazira blames everything related to wearing the burga, and she produces a
provocative lame excuse concerning the lack of finding Dyana, as she claims that she cannot be
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found for the reason of the burga. From the beginning, Dyana is seen an object who wants, needs
and waits for her liberator. The viewers of the film have eagerly wanted to learn her fate. Jay
appears only at the end of the film to mention her tragedy and suicidal end while not providing
any evidence. Dyana becomes the destruction of the female individualistic subject, and she
symbolizes the victim of Islamic patriarchy and gender inequality. The film message is clear to
the audience: that more potential victims like Dyana are waiting for survival and for their helpers
to come rescue them. Jay needs to use Pazira as a native informant to self-consolidate others just
as much as he needs to use the subject of Dyana to introduce subaltern women to the audience.
In fact, the Canadian society still stigmatizes Muslim women for covering their hair, thinking
that the hijab symbolizes the non-modern civilization of Islam.
In conclusion, Orientalists and Western feminists deconstruct the imagination of the
Other. It is not easy to use outsider characters as the Orient because of notions of benevolence,
and because of the development that is justifying colonizers. A native voice is able to represent
the diverse and fractured community, but it is not given a priori legitimacy to talk on behalf of
the whole community, though Pazira seems as an insider subject according to the viewers of the
Western audience. Being an insider is authentic while being an outsider is inauthentic, though
both are inter-exchangeable depending on being either objective or subjective. Within the dual
status (having a double identity), Pazira explores herself with her whisper to influence wider
audiences to support her voluntarily accepted wish that the possibility of de-veiling is as an
assumption of threat to modernity. Due to her lack of presentation, Pazira still desires help from
Orientalists and Western feminists who oppose not only the Afghani hijab style and tradition of
the burga, but also all Islamic veils in which are seen as a patriarchal imposition for liberate
women as it serves as a marker for 21st-century imperialism hinging on an updated style of
Orientalism (Ansari, 2003, p 67).

Bibliography
Arat-Koc, S. (2002). Imperial wars of benevolent interventions? Reflections on ‗global
feminism‘
post September 11th. Atlantis: AWomen‘s Studies Journal, 26, pp. 433_444.

Ansari, Usamah. (2003). ‗‗Should I Go and Pull Her Burqa Off?‘‘: Feminist Compulsions,
Insider Consent, and a Return to Kandahar. Critical Studies in Media Communication
Vol. 25, No. 1, March 2008, pp. 48_67

Hall, S. (1997c). Spectacle of the Other. In S. Hall (Ed.),Representation: Cultural representations


and signifying practices (pp. ). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Mahmood, S., & Hirschkind, C. (2002). Feminism, the Taliban, and the politics of
counterinsurgency. Anthropological Quarterly, 75, 339_354.
Morton, S. (2003). Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. New York: Routledge.
Said, E. (1978). Orientalism. New York: Vintage.
Said, E. (1997). Covering Islam: How the media and the experts determine how we see the rest
of the world. New York: Vintage Books. (Original work published 1981)
Spivak, G. C. (1999). A critique of postcolonial reason: Toward a history of the vanishing
present.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Varisco, D. M. (2005). Islam obscured: The rhetoric of anthropological representation. New


York: Palgrave.
181
Chapter 24

The Race-Making Morality


The race-making morality, nation-building project and denial of genocide are the central
ideas of the implications of state appropriations of reconciliation and repatriation in the aftermath
of collective violence that unmask violence, injustice and crime committed against certain races,
genders and classes. New national identity is a product literally filled with ideologies against
powerless others, where the reconciliation and fight against negationism won‘t solve the conflict
between state and non-state actors because of the new trend of ethnic hatred and nationalism
within the divisionism that shapes the new forms of identity, and its power targets individuals
and communities for suffering (Waldorf, p. 101). Globalization has a relation with the body of
ethnicity, violence and ethnic categorizations that affect the local governmental forces misused
against certain groups, yet the nation-state has used legislation to regulate and control its
population for recovering the restoration of honour while producing a ―large general mega-
ethnic‖ identity formation and less likely reconsideration of genocide ideology (Das, p. 111 and
Appadurai, p. 227).
As a matter of fact, the violence of partitions had caused forced separation and created
two new sovereign states in 1947, India and Pakistan, where many Hindu, Sikh and Muslim
women were victims of rape and abduction. After the collective violence had ended, these two
nations have seen a recovery and restoration process of the abducted woman for reconciliation,
as women and their ‗illegal‘ children are imaginary symbols of their nation‘s pride, the honour of
nation-making and the construction of masculine nation. The continuity of nation ideology is
symbolic, even if the figure of abducted women would return to their family of origin. Victims
are unwilling to return because reclaiming women also means getting rid of the shame that is a
racist ideology, whereas it also could be seen in one women‘s community as a ―legitimate affair
of state‖(Das, p 22).
Religion, customs and culture have enabled the making of sexual contract, which has
socially granted men the dominance over women in the private sphere as heads of the household
and as having control over their sexuality and reproductive functions. The state forced
individuals to give up their sovereignty through sexual and social contract, where individuals are
expected to act within specific moral and value systems against their own wills, and social order
believed to be creating a good society (Das, p. 25). The Recovery and Restoration act serves the
ethno-religious patriarchal structure, while ideology of purity and shame affects the majority of
women and their children who have been left the disadvantage of kinship rights for illegal
children born from wrong sexual union or forced marriage (Das, p.30). New ethnic identity
formation is another possible implication of the state after genocidal violence, exile, ethnic
cleansing and killings. For example, after thousands of the minority of the Tutsi population had
been slaughtered, the post-1994 Rwandan legislation had targeted to build a new nation-state
identity to deny genocide and create a nation of Rwandan without mentioning any tribe names,
such as Tutsi, Hutu and Twa (Waldorf, p. 102).
The Rwandan state has such a history of ethnic categorization and nationalism that the
state has a strong capacity to manipulate its population with the media for killing because of
genocide denial laws that still exist to protect rescuers. 85 % of the Hutu population was blocked
for working on reconciliation and produced a new hatred atmosphere for mobilizing intense civil
wars in the future (Nijiwahan, 2010). The negationist propaganda sought to recreate a non-ethnic
society in the 2001 law that was punishing divisionism, in which means that an ethnic hatred
182
speech should be prevented among Rwandan in public again, and the 2003 constitution promised
nation identity as well (Waldorf, p. 103). The 1994 genocide has become unidentifiable in terms
of who committed the genocide to whom because it is hard to explain this without using ethnic
identities and power relations in the state and explain this within the internalized scheme of
hierarchy as Tutsi and Hutu.
Genocidal denial comes from moral equivalent supporters who defend the talk of double-
genocide, being unwilling to provide genocidal education at school and unhappy to see clear
language usage in laws for possible reconciliation. Rwandan courts couldn‘t identify the
genocidal case because the 2003 constitution had criminalized revisionism, negatioism and
genocide, but it didn‘t define these terms broadly. Since 2008, the government has reemphasized
ethnicity by legislation and punishes with a new definition of the 1994 ‗Tutsi‘ genocide and
defines genocide ideology even broader with adding the term of ―dehumanizing‖ people
(Waldorf, p. 104-111). Therefore, this terminology and emptiness of reconciliation has shifted to
a new extremist way of punishing people who didn‘t commit a crime they are accused for.
Ironically, a new conviction way of genocide ideology has discouraged reconciliation because
dissolution, heavy fines, and false accusation have increased individual prosecutions without
relating to genocide ideology. The government effort to ban genocide ideology by laws has made
it difficult to bring suspects for fair trial (Waldorf, p. 111).
In conclusion, the state has an interest with the Recovery and Restoration act concerning
abducted woman and it focuses on the control of women bodies within the moral coherence-
nation purity ideology because women are sexual and reproductive beings within the family. The
state recognized their suffering in their role, which is ―relevant for inauguration of sovereignty‖
(Das, p 36), but racist recovery ideology place the affect on children and women morality and
integrity as individuals within the community. Death is still an uncertainty in Rwanda, though
laws should protect the country from both negationism and genocide ideology. Current
legislations and laws have failed to protect survivors and have punished abusers, yet laws
unclearly define crimes and are open for political misusage and false interpretation (Waldorf, p.
118). Tutsi doesn‘t trust the Rwandan identity and genocidal laws promoted, where the Hutu-
dominated population has collectively committed holocaust and the government has the power to
manipulate race and identity by legislation.

Footnote:

I used the article named ―the Politics of Moral Order: A Brief Anatomy of Racing‖ is
written by Diane Austin-Broos who is the Radcliffe-Brown professor of Anthropology at the
University of Sydney, Australia. She has done extensive fieldwork both in Kingston, Jamaica,
and in Central Australia. She is the author of three books, two on the Caribbean and one on
settler Australia, and is currently working on a collection of critical and ethnographic essays on
the Western Arrernte.
The Main aim of the Passage focuses on the discrimination of race and class that involves
moral denigration, and elevation in terms of redefining the politics of moral order. ―Moralized
spaces and inscriptions that objectify moralized bodies both confirm as real, and are made
coherent by forms of discourse as described as the politics of moral order.‖ In particular,
economic and social marginalization of people or of the community in the state is categorized as
a cognitive system of classification; also, this system lies in geographic spaces as the product of
moral deficit, deviance and degeneracy. Spatializing race and class in the towns and cities of a
state involves creating stigmatized zones that are naturalized. These zones are described as
slums, ghettos, and fringe camps. A state gives value to place across various types of terrain. The
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politics of moral order provides an account of the way in which forms of marginalization have
been produced. The state activates moral politics with its teaching and projecting onto those
against whom that power is used.

The signifier of blood objectified


Blood is a key signifier of moral values linked to its descendant. On the body‘s surface,
objectifying blood value is the central idea to how racing and enclassing continue as popular
practices. Being black in a world where blackness is objectified as a moral deficit is an example
of racial discrimination. Fighting against the process of racing is defined in terms of being a
moralized semiology on the body‘s surface. The state mobilizes fear for dispossession and
subordination, in which are explained by the politics of moral order as parts of the nation‘s
capacity.

Feminization of morality
This is seen to derive from deviant gender-relations. This domestic disorder means that
there is a link between child, and mother as nurturer. The bad blood of nature of this descent is
determined by a milieu of moral disorder. The threat can be identified and managed by the state,
and it must be transformed or contained by the nation.
Race-making morality
The assumption is that the existence of bad blood, in turn, renders up the experience of
another race. Two examples indicate how Australia and the US dealt with experiencing the race-
making policy. The reconciliation was addressed for apologies to the Austrian Indigenous
people, especially their half-caste children for wrongdoing in the past. This process turned to a
scandal, and some politicians saw it as the disruption of national morality and a threat to
hierarchy. The president of the US in the 1960s, Lyndon Johnson, argued that the black
community was marginalized because of social inequality and humiliation. There were two
reasons why ―Negro Americans‖ failed; the first reason is that they were trapped in gateless
poverty; the second reason is that the breakdown of the ―Negro family‖ structure underwent long
years of degradation and discrimination.
In conclusion, the race-making morality is the central idea of the state politics that
unmask violence, injustice and crimes committed against certain races. But this morality also
masks many violations of human rights, such as sexual and labour exploitations, disrespect
towards other cultures, etc. The poor are the victims of class politics, in which marginalize the
poor to be bound in powerless spaces that are played out on designated urban and rural areas.
These spatial slums symbolize the economic and political crises‘ of the state and of the dominant
class‘ fear of loss of social status. Space is a product literally filled with ideologies, where the
state owns the political moral order. According to universal human rights regulations and
chapters, race, culture, ethnicity, and religious affiliations must be optional for the autonomous
of individuals and a group identity; but in practice, the state still needs to protect the nation while
it disadvantages the troublesome population.

Discussion questions
1. When does the political moral order enter the society, and what kind of social inequality and
discrimination does it produce? Discuss the two examples of the experiences of Australia and the
US…
2. When did the sufferers themselves become scandals, and why did people support their state in
its maintenance of policies? How does the state benefit from the strategy of race-making?

184
3. Why and how have the ―Negro- Americans‖ been suffering according to the former president
of the US, Lyndon Johnson? Discuss his two possible reasons…

Bibliography:

Arjun, Appadurai, (1998). ― Dead Certainy: Ethnic Violence in the Era of Globalization‖.
Duke University Press. Public Culture 10 (2): 225-247

Nijihawan, Michael, (2010). Unpublished York University Lecture. 24.02.2010

Waldorf, Lars, ( 2009). Revisiting Hotel Rwanda: genocide ideology, reconciliation, and
rescuers. Journal of Genocide Research. 11 (1) March, 101-125

Veena Das (2007). The Figure of the Abducted Woman: The Citizen as Sexed. From Life and
Words: Violence and the Descent into the Ordinary, University of California Press, p 18-37.
Chapter 24

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Chapter 25

The Namesake
The Namesake symbolizes many immigrant experiences in America, immigrants who are
struggling with their transnational identities, a sense of belonging, cultural differences, and
family loyalties. This movie is based on the best-selling novel by Jhumpa Lahiri, about a Bengali
family that flees Calcutta for New York City. The cross-cultural, multigenerational story tries to
portray the life of a first-generation immigrant boy named Gogol, from his birth in the late 1960s
to his life as an architect in New York in the 1990s. Gogol is confused with his unique name and
his heritage while growing up in America, rejecting both until his dad‘s funeral. The movie
concentrates on the parents of Gogol, and Gogol himself, but very little about his sister named
Sonali, and focuses on more of the transformation of Gogol‘s character by his relationship to
family, lovers and heritage. The main themes of the movie are filled with identity, exile, the
clash of lifestyle, cultural conflict, and homelessness of Indians migrating to the United States.
My argument questions the traditional mother and father ideal family approach, which have
caused more conflicts for new generations such as their child Gogol because family patterns have
been shifted from an old-fashioned kinship to different types of romantic love, motherhood and
the equal gender relationship.
First of all, the arranged marriage of Ashoke and Ashima is presented in a loving and
harmonious relationship in this movie unexpectedly. There is no doubt that it is true of both sides
being lucky, and an arranged marriage can be a successful and happy one. This marriage wasn‘t
started in a romantic style, but ended up as a love story. In reality, the groom, Ashoke, is not
traditionally handsome for many women with his big eyes, thick glasses, and spooky hair, but his
physical appearance doesn‘t matter since he is a well-educated, intelligent engineer, seemingly a
good family-caring person and also seeming good enough to feed his nuclear family abroad.
Waiting with his spouse‘s parents, Ashoke looks uncomfortable but resigns for the arranged
marriage, in which has been done this way for centuries in India. Before the bride Ashima goes
into the room to see him for the first time, she tries on his American shoes that he's left outside
the room. When they fit, she likes them, and accepts them as a good sign for her future marriage.
Ashima takes them off and meekly enters the room, while he ultra respects his elders, which is as
usual in Indian and many eastern traditions. Her artistic intelligence such as singing, poetry
reading and her natural beauty are clearly influenced on him. They marry in full traditional dress
and custom. He is lucky because Ashima is simply brilliant, a perfectly hard-working
housekeeper and a caring mother as the perfect example of the ―traditional heterosexual nuclear
family in which women are home full-time‖ (Coontz 1992, Gairdner 1992). It is by the popular
family style that not only migrant communities, but also the average American family, exist
because of a strong family hold value. The ―family wage economy‖ was very popular during the
1960‘s until the time of the Hollywood movie culture, whereas their companies promoted a fake
―romantic love to sell their production‖ (Currie 1993).
After 30 years of American life, he had asked her why she said yes to him in that time.
She says she had agreed because she liked his shoes and added, ―What did you expect from me,
an ‗I love you‘ as the American people,‖ and then he smiled. Both parents agreed with keeping
up their own culture and tradition, and were not interested in assimilating into American society,
and strongly wanted to belong to their own heritage. Life in America is foreign and strange to
Ashima, but she adapts it because she is slowly, but surely, falling in love with her 'chosen'
husband. Their relationship is an evolving love, away from need and initial awkwardness into a
186
mutual respect for each other. Ashoke doesn‘t want to hurt her feelings after having a massive
heart attack; she understands how much she loved him after having lost him. He never stayed
away far enough to not be loudly, and emotionally, involved, but he was close enough for his
family members to know he really cared. The American Sociologist Talcott Parsons advance
argued in the structural-functionalist approach that ―the relationship of marriage and blood are
the only ones that truly involve a strong commitment to people‘s welfare and the nurturance of
children‖ rather than a romantic love without legitimate marriage, so this ideology supports to
the ―division of labour based on gender relationship where the man assumes the instrumental role
and the woman the expressive role‖ in the breadwinner and homemaker relationship (Parson and
Bale 1955; Zelditch 1960). This couple romantic relation style has long gone by today when new
romantic relations have spread out among the new generations in the last three decades.
Secondly, ―The Namesake‖ portrays a middle-class American immigrant‘s family wage
economy, the status of a mother and her motherhood while the central role of immigrant Indian
women deal with a transnational identity between India and the US, and the successful raising of
Ashima‘s American-born child. The image of their home as a ―haven in a heartless world‖
defines women in terms of domesticity and men in terms of the breadwinner as Nancy F. Cott
describes. In contrast, Ashima is a perfect mother and wife, solving conflicts daily under the
pressure of the traditional Bengali culture and avoiding becoming an assimilated American. She
is happy because her ―happiness, and the Welfare of a husband‖ are more important than her
wishes (Cobb, 1822). The woman role is assigned not only by her husband, but also with her
culture; there is no escape that her sex role is contained to her work role in the meaning of being
a housekeeper as the domesticity that ―all things are done at the proper time and proper way‖
(Hunginton, 1819).
Ashima gets advice from a white woman friend, and tries to negotiate mainly with
Gogol‘s problems when his teenager crisis arose. Interestingly her daughter has never had a
problem, only her son has. For example, Gogol has a girlfriend, dates with her and has sexual
intercourse outside of marriage. These are weird for her and her culture. Her over-protected
motherhood style doesn‘t work anymore because Gogol already adapts in the way of the
American life style. He rejects his cultural values and refuses to listen to his mother. Marriage is
the only legitimate way of having a sexual relationship with other genders according to her
tradition. Ashima‘s advisor, a white woman, states, ―When a kid turns sixteen they do whatever
they want, even if your son is not gay.‖ Gogol‘s girlfriend freely kisses and touches him, which
is acceptable in Western culture, but inappropriate in Indian culture. Ashima never accepted the
Western style gender relationship, or their family values, especially with the feminism approach
that is in failure to fit in her mind according to the role of the wife in the family and her
understanding of motherhood, and child rear responsibilities. She was upset and worried when
Gogol and his girlfriend went on vacation together, without informing her. Ashima‘s mothering
is old fashioned, existing since the 18th and 19th centuries in the West, by which the ―mother
influence is unseen, unfelt‖ towards children. A good mother and wife either provide ―Heaven or
eternal misery‖ for her husband and children (Beecher 1829, Sigourney 1838).
Thirdly, Gogol experiences the most difficulty, starting with the problem of his name,
which is changed in his teens to Nikki. His friends had been bullying, and teasing him with his
name since childhood, so his social and gender relationship seemed to be stuck under his
namesake. He dates with a very rich and attractive non-Indian girl because he becomes a Yale
graduate as an architect. Her family is rich, broad-minded, but discriminated Gogol by asking
how long he had been in America as their question at their first meeting with him. He feels the
grating difference in their backgrounds and finally breaks it off when his father dies. Gogol cuts
his hair, remembers his heritage and listens to his mother about marriage. Something changes in
187
him and he cannot continue the relationship. Later on, he meets a girl his mother recommends,
very American just like him, and she turns out to be very interesting. They marry but she is not
like him. Her own confused needs lead to further conflict. He broke up with his white girlfriend
without reason. She tried to understand him, but she couldn‘t, and even the good mothering
advice he had gotten from his mother doesn‘t work Gogol‘s arranged marriage ended because his
wife had had affair. Gogol broke up with saying that ―This is not my culture.‖
Ironically, Ashima‘s good mothering advice of Gogol‘s arranged marriage from their
culture ends up in misery, and was left in contradiction with the Western style dating marriage
after all. Gogol's wife, whose relationship to him is tied up in a confused relationship to her own
past, and for which reason she perhaps doesn't truly know him, is obviously significant. Gogol‘s
relationship with her began with his mother‘s arrangement; and he likes her intelligence and
beauty though these aren‘t real reasons to like her, and it isn‘t obvious if he was looking after his
heritage with this marriage that he had not found himself. ―The social position of the
mother/wife, father/husband‖ and the gender relationship of boyfriend /girlfriend as lovers are
―defined as individuals as contributors to their community‖ in the context of heterosexuals as the
only legitimate site of sexual expression, though the homosexuals are ―defined as particularly
dangerous‖ and absent in this movie (Adams, 2008).
In conclusion, the first generation of migrant families faces a lot of confusion with its
transnational identities, and has much conflict with the homesickness and the loneliness of
moving to an alien country. The main character in the movie, Gogol, belongs to the first
generation of the migrant family that has had a constant dilemma of him being rooted in one
culture and suddenly coming to a different culture. Gogol's mother, Ashima, adjusts her life to
American life and evolves from being a homesick housewife to a confident woman comfortable
in her surroundings in the middle-class wage of the economic family. Gogol falls in love with an
American girl and is happy for a while living with her and her family. Later, Gogol meets an
Indian girl and marries her but feels lonely in their relationship. His changing relationship with
his identity shows that his ideal family approach is not workable in current society because new
family patterns and definitions have been changed into a modern love relationship, and new
gender relationships and womanhood. Feminists push the ideology of mother responsibility roles
in general, as well as with education and equal gender relationships at the workforce and at
home. After industrialization, capitalism and globalization spread this idea through the
Hollywood culture, media began to change women to ‗live for others‘ as they are selfless in this
sense, in which challenges the cult of domesticity as well as childrearing, nurturing and their
femininity (Gazso, 2009). Changing families and gender roles transform the family wage
economy to the family wage economy (Gazso, 2009). The romantic love relationship,
motherhood and equal gender relationship ideas always surround their appropriate gender roles
and behave in the context of heterosexuality in this movie because homosexuality, transgender
relationships, and guy and lesbian families weren‘t acceptable in the 1960s until the mid 2000s.
Patriarchy and the man-dominant world may still exist in the immigrant population that is not
willing to integrate or assimilate into Western family values.

Bibliography:

Adams, Mary Loise. 2008. From 1950s Breadwinner-Homemaker Families to Twenty-first


Century Diversity, Family Pattern Gender Relation, section 4, Chapter 10.
Beecher, C. 1829. Suggestions Respecting Improvements in Education, New York: Hartford,
Packard, and Butler.
188
Currie, D.1993. ―Here Comes the Bride‖: The Making of a Modern Traditional in Western
Culture‘, Journal of Comparative Studies 24, 3 (Autumn): 433-12
Cobb, E.H.W. 1822. Diary, Vol 1 ( Sept 10.) 29, BPL.
Coontz, S.1992. The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap, New
York: Basic Book.
Gairdner, W. 1992. The War Against the Family: A Parent Speaks Out, Toronto: Stoddart.
Gazso, Amber. 2009. Unpublished lecture, York University. October 6.
Gazso, Amber. 2009. Unpublished lecture, York University. September 29
Hunginton, S.M. 1819. Diary, (14 June), SML.
Parson, T., R.F. Bales. 1955. Family, Socialization and Interaction Process, New York, Free
Press.
Sigourney. 1838. Letters to Mothers, Hartford: Hudson and Skinner.
Zelditch, M. 1960. Role Differentiation in the Nuclear Family, in A Modern Introduction to the
Family, edc N. Bell and E. Vogel. New York: The Free Press.

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Chapter 26

Online Dating versus Arranged Marriage


Arranged marriage promotes racism and the patriarchal class system, which is considered
to be a violation of the basic human rights of women and where the dating or courtship phase is
extremely limited or removed altogether that assumptions suggest the bride and groom being in
love is not a priority, and that arranged marriage offers less independence and freedom as
compared to love marriage. The modernization assimilation model as a sociological theory
explains how the immigrant marriage cultures changed while living in North America.
Immigrant youths mobilize their own abilities/skills and adapt to the standards of their new
surroundings, such as going into dating and marrying whom they love; however, arranged
marriage is still in practice among the new generation of immigrant origin families because it is
believed to have a high, successful rate and to bring more happiness than modern marriages. In
this paper, I argue on social changing intimacy relationships about the arranged marriage after
the 1960s in the current family patterns in the Diaspora culture, and I question why the arranged
marriage stays as one of the options, as long lasting relationships lead to more pure love
relationships than others when compared with the alternative of the modern type of trial
arrangements, such as the blind-fast-food or Internet dating.
Nancy Netting (2006) observes interesting findings about Indo-Canadians who are guided
by their heritage and realize that romantic passion was idealized in the West and was no
guarantee for happiness and long term marriages. Her study has shown that most of the
respondents desired to choice their own future partner but also wanted their parent approval as
mandatory (Netting, 2006). As matter of fact, the spouse being chosen by the parents may cause
more conflicts in the cross-cultural and multigenerational contexts that exist today (Mitchell
2008; Bonnie, 2009). In contrast, Castell (2004) sees that falling in love within the arranged
marriage is perpetuated as either accidental, as being the result of fate without choice, or as it is
slowly engaged, whereas new romantic but plastic sexuality relations have spread out among the
new generations in the last three decades (Castell, 2004). Coontz (1992) explains that ―arranged
marriages make women full-time, perfectly hard-working housekeepers and caring mothers in
the traditional heterosexual nuclear family‖ (Coontz, 1992). Lawson and Lick (2006) have found
out that there are now arranged meetings in the modern time in which challenge the preparation
of a new type of living arrangement or common law relationship. After the 1980s, the
generations have adapted to the dominant dating and ―love‖ scripts, whereas chaperones are no
longer workable, though they are still important for some racial/ethnic groups, and where there is
little distinction between dating and courtship, the rules of endogamy, homogamy, and hetero-
normative assumptions have weakened (Lawson and Lick, 2006).
Diaspora communities have transformed since the 1960s alongside the social change on
arranged marriage traditions and family behaviours. Similar to Netting‘s findings, Chitra
Divakaruni (1995) indicates in her book, Arranged Marriage, that family-arranged matchmaking
is a very old tradition in India and is still practiced in the Indo-American community where
parent supervision is crucial. This collection of 11 true stories focuses on both liberated and
trapped women from India who are caught between two worlds and who struggle to carve their
identities (Divakaruni, 1995). One of the winners of the Nobel Prize of Literature, Orhan Pamuk
(2009), is a writer who captures how the arranged marriage tradition has changed since the 1970s
in Turkey, and his book, named The Museum of Innocence, is a great love story that takes place
in Istanbul and concentrates on sexual freedom, liberation and the replacement of sexual
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expression about the arranged marriage from the religious/cultural perspective to the European
style and the individual perspective, even though habitual assumptions are not easily let go of
(Pamuk, 2009). Interestingly, the book Fast Food Dating Your 2 Cents, which was written by
Peter Andrew Sacco and Jennifer Schott (2007), claims, about the dating options, that the
arranged marriage could be one of the options and should stay as optional in modern society. The
―Fast Food Dating‖ authors wanted to scope the complete playing field of all dating venues
including internet dating, fast food dating and other arranged types. According to the authors‘
interviews, arranged marriage could either be good or bad as there are also benefits to having or
being in an arranged marriage (Andrew Sacco; Schott, 2007). Some of their interviewers
mentioned that most failed marriages have come from non-arranged marriages, whereas a
majority of the happy families are from arranged marriages in which is a very contradictory
assumption. On the other hand, some people who don‘t practice or believe in arranged marriages
have thought that arranged-marriage couples were weird, creepy and sick-minded in the West
(Andrew Socco; Schott, 2007).
I will focus on these contradictions and argument on why arranged-marriage couples
generally seem to be happier than romantic love couples, even while they have been facing
multi-generation and cross-cultural conflicts in transnationalism. Though under this racist
patriarchy and gender discrimination, why do they not engage much to other arranged meetings
for choosing their partners by their own, including blind dating, fast-food or Internet dating to
meet, marry and stay married in modernity?

Traditionalists, rebels, and negotiators

Indo-Canadian youths have witnessed how their Canadian friends, blinded by love, have
made unwise sexual decisions and jumped impulsively into marriage (Netting, 2006). Three
responses to arranged marriages are developed among the Indo-Canadians who are
traditionalists, rebels, and negotiators. Indo-Canadians negotiate between the ‗love marriages‘
taken for granted by their Western peers and the ‗arranged marriage‘ experienced or advocated
by the parents, whereas in this situation, the Indian youth live two lives, with one being in the
Canadian secular society and the other in the Indian ethnic community (Netting, 2006). The
young generation demands gender equality and personal choice. Three processes against the
assimilation theory are: families are becoming more traditional and not less, hostility and
strangeness is felt towards the new environment with keeping close ties with the motherland, and
the young want to retain the aspects of their culture but expect to make their own selections, and
reconstruct their individual traits in their own ways (Netting, 2006).
Many arranged marriages are often experienced and advocated by the parents of the
couple; however, the degree to which their parents influence their arranged marriage can vary. In
semi-arranged marriages, for example, the children have more say in decisions and may be free
to express their preferences or may be able to reject their prospective partners. These partners are
usually of the same racial or ethnic background and socio-economic background, and ironically a
majority of the arranged marriage couples end up in happily-ever-after marriages, while only
some of them are broken through divorce in short-terms.

The divisions of gender inequality, race and economic disparity

Arranged marriage has been conflicted among the first generations of immigrants since
the1960s; however, traditional mothers and fathers have tried to negotiate and enforce the
arranged marriage since the 1980s. Within the new family patterns in which have been shifted
191
from old-fashioned traditions and patriarchal relationships to different types of romantic love
intimacies, new motherhood and fathering patterns maintain and bring a variety of values into
the equalitarian gender relationship in the modern family. The stories in Chitra‘s Arranged
Marriage captures the experience of different classes of Indian immigrants, the professionals as
well as the lower class workers. In fact, not only Indian immigrants, but also many migrants have
been facing the changing arranged marriage pattern that is weakening in the Diaspora culture,
and they are seeking for its adjustment as they are dislocated in the face of the white dominant
culture or even multiethnic setting. Divakaruni‘s stories praise and defend the arranged marriage
and claim that it can bring true happiness and love, but there is no clean cut as a strong
conclusion as she also expresses many issues related with gender equality within the arranged
marriage, including racism, interracial relationships, economic disparity, abortion, and divorce
(Divakaruni,1995).
As matter of fact, the Pakistani Muslim or South Asian women living in the Western
culture have faced patriarchy, gender inequality and racism, where the man-dominant world may
still exist among the immigrant populations. That is why South Asian immigrants are not willing
to integrate or assimilate into the Western family values (Zaidi, Shurayd, 2002). Since so many
different cultures have immigrated and brought their customs into the new world, those who
practice their cultures on their homeland continue to practice them locally in North America,
whereas many first generations have amazingly great success on staying married and being
happily married (Andrew Socco; Schott, 2007- p 7), though not everyone is lucky in the arranged
marriage model. For example, Chitra‘s first story, The Bat, criticizes that arranged marriages are
not always perfect, and that there are many abuses and gender inequalities that exist because the
wife always feels to be in a helpless condition and is trapped. Many of Chitra‘s stories, such as
"Silver Pavements, Golden Roofs‖, portray dysfunctional marriages and those that are
disturbing, and for instance, even when a husband always promises to his wife and asks to go
‗back home‘, abuses will most likely occur again (Divakaruni, 1995, p 11).
Women expect the roles, oppression and gender inequality that are portrayed when
marriage is broken in a short amount of time, where barren wives are sent back to their parent‘s
homes in shame (Divakaruni, 1995, p 217). The interesting story of "Affair" explains how the
Indian culture assimilated into the Western culture. When two temperamentally ill-matched
Indo-Americans had been perfectly arranged for an arranged marriage on the basis of their
horoscopes being matched, divorce is fortunate after many years of affluent living in Silicon
Valley because of cheating. Chitra‘s stories prove that the family patterns that come with
arranged marriages among Indo-American families have been socially and culturally changed
over time toward the romantic love relationship.

Romantic love or arranged love

Family patterns have been shifted from an old-fashioned kinship to different types of
romantic love, motherhood and the equal gender relationship since the beginning of
industrialization and globalization. An American Sociologist, Talcott Parsons, advance- argued
in the structural-functionalist approach that ―the relationship of marriage and blood are the only
ones that truly involve a strong commitment to people‘s welfare and the nurturance of children‖
rather than a romantic love without legitimate marriage, and so this ideology supports to the
―division of labour based on gender relationship where the man assumes the instrumental role
and the woman the expressive role‖ in the breadwinner and homemaker relationship (Parson and
Bale, 1955; Zelditch, 1960).

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The Parson approach is found to partially not be true in the light of Pamuk‘s pure love
story, where a rich man named Kemal and his chosen partner/arranged love, Sibel, do not have a
relationship that works out, even when Sibel‘s profile was suited to her partner‘s class, power
and economic conditions. Kemal had made love with Füsun hours before his engagement party,
even when he had an already-arranged marriage with Sibel, where this situation was abnormal
for the Turkish society in the late 1970‘s. Kemal had wanted to accept both the tradition of the
Turks and the rules of the West, wanting to take pleasure wherever it suited him. His desires lead
him to his lover, Füsun, who was a non-arranged person for him, but was a true lover (Pamuk,
2009-p101). Kemal had broken his engagement with Sibel and left her to spend every evening
with Füsun and adapt to her parents‘ low classed lifestyle in a modest flat by watching TV and
having dinners with her family. He was seeking for pure love and tried to be an ordinary citizen
for the sake of his love. Kemal became less caring about tradition and gave the right meaning
and pace to love, favoring courtly romance over contemporary passion to find happiness (Pamuk,
2009-p 224). Kemal visited 5,723 museums around the world, and then came up of the idea of
making a ‗Museum of Innocence‘ where the two lovers gather together items associated with
their courtship, and as a result, Kemal collected 4,213 of Füsun‘s cigarette butts and visited her
family‘s home for supper for more than 2,864 days, in which he was building a pure and dreamer
relationship, also building a monument of love and hopefulness (Pamuk, 2009-p 449).

Pure love relationship or plastic sexuality

It is in fact that the romantic love relationship, motherhood and equal gender relationship
ideas have always surrounded arranged married couples and the appropriate gender roles and
behavior in the context of heterosexuality (Fox, 2009). Bonnie Fox (2009) suggests that
feminists push the ideology of mother responsibility roles in general, as well as with education
and equal gender relationships at the workforce and at home (Fox, 2009). As matter of fact,
arranged marriages contain gendered racism in the home, and a cult of domesticity describes the
woman role as being a perfectly hard-working housekeeper and a caring mother as the perfect
example of the ―traditional heterosexual nuclear family in which women are home full-time‖
(Coontz, 1992; Gairdner, 1992). It is by the popular family style that not only migrant
communities, but also the average American family exists because of a strong family hold value.
Currie (1993) mentions that the ―family wage economy‖ was very popular during the 1960‘s
until the time of the Hollywood movie culture, whereas Hollywood companies promoted a fake
―romantic love to sell their production‖ (Currie 1993). Love and intimacy have changed over
time and intimate partnerships have become best conceptualized as ―pure relationships‖ in
Pamuk‘s story, but today it is rather emphasized openly and is based on ― plastic
sexuality‖(Gidden, 1992). The family wage economy and the status of a mother and her
motherhood are now the central roles of women who either deal with a transnational identity or
not. The image of their home is not a ―haven in a heartless world‖ anymore, whereas Nancy F.
Cott defines women in terms of domesticity and men in terms of the breadwinner (Cott; Fox
2009). Ironically, to avoid becoming assimilated into the foreign culture, a woman in an arranged
marriage should still be happy because her ―happiness, and the Welfare of a husband‖ are more
important than her wishes (Cobb, 1822). In addition, ―Arranged love between spouses should
develop slowly and steadily after marriage, in family context of shared responsibility and
experience‖ (Netting, 2003).

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Modern trial marriages: Blind Fast-Food and Internet Dating

The modern system of arranged or trial marriages is categorized in the West in either
Blind Fast-Food or Internet dating, where they are somewhat similar to the arranged or trial
marriage in the Westernized Diaspora cultures in both of the locations of the home and abroad.
Castells has proposed that we are undergoing a sexual revolution, characterized by the ―de-
linking‖ marriage, family, heterosexuality and sexual repression, and that mean sexuality and
desire are being increasingly separated from marriage and family (Castells, 2004). In this
research, I argue about how the arranged marriages as purpose of production have shifted to
dating practice as purpose of pleasure in a cultural perspective, the multi-generation conflicts in
the Western culture, and the change of an intimacy tradition for new generations today. Since the
1950s, romance, love and sexuality have been shifted as new dating practices have become
established, which has symbolized the degree of ―seriousness‖ in the relationship, where one-on-
one dating is becoming less popular among young people and there is a more egalitarian
approach, whereas some will try to meet potential partners through innovative activities such as
―speed dating‖, Internet dating or Fast Food one (Nett, 1988). ―Living together‖ and ―trial
marriage‖ are more common now, and they refer to cohabitation or the common law unions, but
as they are still not ―formalized‖ agreements, they are identical to a legal marriage contract
(Castells; 2004, Mitchell, 2001).
―Fast Food Dating‖ writers claimed that one in every two marriages fail today; where
nearly 1/3 of women have been cheating or are cheated on by their spouses, whereas nearly 70%
of men in Canada have cheated or are being cheated on. One survey shows that the average
marriage lasts 2-4 years, whereas the longest of marriages last 7 years in Canada as our society
has become disposable and recyclable (Andrew Socca, Sochatt, 2007- p, 10-11). These authors‘
Fast Food dating-eating approach applies to the dating practice in current modernity, and so the
vast majority of interviewers have said that they use the same rule when eating fast food: if
marriage doesn‘t work out, for instance, if you dislike McDonalds, try Big Mac, as in the number
two option awaits you behind the door.
Fast Food dating gives you a limitless mate menu to select from Asian to Russian mates.
Internet dating and mate-matching networks have become an international food festival for
meeting mates and seeking the love or lust of your life. Socca and Sochatt‘s study has found that
online chatter skills, such as typing, reading and writing skills, have improved, and price ranges
are categorized as free, cheap, moderate, pricey and expensive with specialized chat forums that
deal with romance, dating or friendship according to the type of MSN or Yahoo forums that are
used (Andrew Socca, Sochatt, 2007- p, 32). There are ten good reasons and benefits for internet
dating, and there are also many reasons for fast food dating and four distinct routes that are
conceptualized based on the naughtiest, the easily swayed, the curious and the steadfast.
Boredom, frustration and just plain curiosity or fantasy are the real reasons for seeking sex
partners or cyber sex (Andrew Socca, Sochatt, 2007- p, 51-52) in which is that main differences
from arranged marriage.

Sex and love have seen both production and pleasure

Since sex has not only been seen for primary purposes of reproduction but also as a
source of pleasure and emotional fulfillment for both men and women, McDaniel and
Tepperman (2004) have observed two trends in contemporary marriage and these trends are that
marriage rates continue to decline and that the large popularity of marriage is still present.
Although some Canadians continue to practice arranged marriages, the arranged marriage is still
194
common to many parts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia and their Diaspora communities in
Canada (Netting, 2006). Diaspora communities have been an influence on the modern ways of
meeting, for example, with using online dating services such as personal Ads, Internet Ads and
matchmaking services. Meeting a potential partner and developing an ongoing partnership
involves a system of exchange where it matters that each potential partner ―brings something to
the table‖ as an equal relationship must be established, though in several cases it is not
(McDaniel and Tepperman, 2004). Sexuality is seen in the formation of intimate relationships,
and as the most important force behind a successful marriage, the arranged marriage love grows
slowly (Castells, 2004), whereas ―love is sexualized‖ and there is no spirit in it (Seidman, 1991).
Arranged marriage stays as an option but transformed.
The arranged marriage has been the only way for women and men to find a chosen
partner not only in India, but also in Turkey and many other countries, and while they don‘t
necessarily want arranged marriages, they haven‘t known how to find men or women on their
own until their exposure to Western and Hollywood movies during the 1980s when they‘d
watched how it was done in West (Pamuk, 2009- p 210). According to Fast Food dating writers,
parents are becoming personal dating/marriage managers in arranged marriages. ―Accusation of
bad choices isn‘t necessary in arranged married couples because all faults goes directly toward
those who are in charge‖ (Andrew Socca, Sochatt, 2007- p, 43). It is not surprising that the
illusion of love is popular in Canada for many people whose response and favor was more
toward Internet and telephone dating as collected in a survey of Socca and Sochatt‘s findings.
Arranged marriages are forced onto the new generation by traditional families that agreed
to continue their own cultures, that are not interested in assimilating into the Westernized
society, and that strongly want to belong to their own heritages. The Western style gender
relationship and its family value criteria, and especially its feminism approach, is hard to fit into
the traditional mother and father minds, though it fits into the minds of the new generation.
―Technological and other changes will continue to transform family structure, roles, and
relationships in significant ways‖ (Mitchell, 2008), as well as with the tradition of the arranged
marriage.

Is arranged marriage a happy and long-lasting marriage option?

The practice of arranged marriages has been weakened since the 1960s, but it still stays
as one of the options as a hetero-normative choice in Diaspora communities and some countries.
Neo-traditionalism is still strongly bonded with the cultural synthesis, which has also been
transformed into the Diaspora communities. There is no clear line or cut between arranged and
love marriage, since it exists in many combinations/degrees, though arranged marriages are seen
as more of a happy and long- lasting marriage option over other modern marriage options that
dispute with gender inequality, racism and sexism. The modernization-assimilation theory
confirms that the Indo-Canadian marriage system is converging with North American and
Canadian practices. Traditionalists have their individual choices, rebels choose their own
partners, and negotiators win over the parental consent on personal choice. Love is no guarantee
of happiness while protection exists as a sense of caution in arranged marriages. Traditionalists
have more of an individual choice within their arranged marriages, since introduced couples now
have more time to decide and more freedom to refuse and often try to recast their relationship in
terms of romantic love. It is hard for the first generation immigrant to belong to another country
and culture, and it is difficult for the migrant family to be facing the constant dilemma of being
rooted in one culture and suddenly coming forth to a different culture. The arranged marriage
tradition has shifted and transformed into a modern way of the changing relationship with new
195
identities that an ideal family approach or new family patterns and definitions play role into a
modern love relationship, and new gender relationships and womanhood.
Feminists push the ideology of mother responsibility roles in general, as well as with
education and equal gender relationships at the workforce and at home. After industrialization,
capitalism and globalization spread this idea through the Hollywood culture and media begins to
change women to ‗live for others‘ as they are selfless in this sense, in which challenges the cult
of domesticity as well as childrearing, nurturing and their femininity (Gazso, 2009). Changing
families and gender roles transform the family economy to the family wage economy (Gazso,
2009). The romantic love relationship, motherhood and equal gender relationship ideas always
surround the immigrant families and their children come to act appropriately in their gender roles
and behave in the context of heterosexuality because homosexuality, transgender relationships,
and gay and lesbian families are still problematic and absent in the arranged marriage option.
Patriarchy and the man-dominant world may still exist in the immigrant population that is not
willing to integrate or assimilate into Western family values.
Blind Fast-food or Internet speed dating may be a kind of arranged or trial marriage type,
but individuals chose their partners rather than them being chosen by somebody else. These
intimacy relationships can be dangerous, very quick, disposable, recyclable and dishonest.
Arranged married couples seem happier and develop pure love for long-term than plastic
sexuality or romantic love couples and fast-food, blind- and Internet-dating naughty short-term
relationships. Abusing women is still a problem in both the arranged marriages in Diaspora
communities and modern marriages in Western customs. Furthermore, some of the arrangements
are perpetuated as racist and clannishness because different nationalities and geographic regions
make different decisions for choosing their partners, and for instance, some Muslim immigrants
are open to intermarriage with white Western-born Muslims but not necessarily with African-
Western Muslims. I don‘t offer strong a conclusion on this topic because my suggested ideas and
facts have limited sources and some of my literatures seem inappropriate to reach an academic
result. I suggest a new direction of study surrounding this interest: Why are Diaspora
communities still interested in the arranged marriage and ignore modernism if it contains gender
inequality, racism, and sexism?

Bibliography:

Adams, Mary Loise. 2008. Bonnie, Ed. 2009. Family Patterns Gender Relations, From 1950s
Breadwinner-Homemaker Families to Twenty-first Century Diversity, Family Pattern Gender
Relation, Chapter 10. University Press: Canada
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Booklocker.com Inc.
Divakaruni, Chitra. 1995. Arranged Marriage. New York: Doubleday, 1995
Castells, M. 2004. The Power of Identity, 2nd ed. Malden: Blackwell Publisher.
Currie, D.1993. ―Here Comes the Bride‖: The Making of a Modern Traditional in Western
Culture‘, Journal of Comparative Studies 24, 3 (Autumn): 433-12
Cobb, E.H.W. 1822. Diary, Vol 1 ( Sept 10.) 29, BPL.
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York: Basic Book.
Cott, Nancy F; Fox, Bonnie, Ed. 2009. Family Patterns Gender Relations, Domesticity, Chapter
8, Oxford University Press: Canada

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Fox, Bonnie, Ed. 2009. As Times Change: A Review of Trends in Family Life. Oxford
University Press: Canada
Gazso, Amber. 2009. Unpublished lecture, York University. October 6.
Gazso, Amber. 2009. Unpublished lecture, York University. September 29
Gairdner, W. 1992. The War Against the Family: A Parent Speaks Out, Toronto: Stoddart.
Gidden, Anthony. 1992. Ed. Mitchell, Barbara A. 2008. Family Theory and Methods, Chapter 2.
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Commitment, and Family Formation. Chapter 6, Canadian Scholars‘ Press Inc: Toronto
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Relationships.‖ The Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology 38:391-413
Mc Daniel, S., and L.Tepperman. 2004. Close Relations: An Introduction to the Sociology of
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Netting, Nancy S. 2006. Two-lives, one partner: Indo-Canadian youth between love and arranged
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Adulthood: Intimacy, Sexuality, Commitment, and Family Formation. Chapter 6, Canadian
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Chapter 27

An Extraordinary Canadian Peoples Movement: No One Is Illegal

No One Is Illegal is a grassroots immigrants, domestic workers and refugee rights


organization. Most members are from the second generation of immigrants, migrants, refugees,
and diverse ethnic backgrounds, and it began 2001 and spread across Canada (1). My 28
collected data and events have focused only on the Toronto branch in between the periods of
January-December 2008 and January-December 2009. I have compared and questioned how the
NOII- Toronto is producing its social actions, changing its tactics, demands, claims and targets,
and collaborating with other agencies and institutions as a collective campaign for promoting
status for all. Since the 1990s, the number of immigrants in Toronto who are poor has grown by
125%, and almost 60% of poor families are from racialized groups that exist in immigrant
neighborhoods (2). During 2006, the PC government was elected and kept its power in state, and
newcomers have been more underserved and marginalized in their ghettos because the
government has brought attacks and deports on migrants and refugees since the economic
recession in 2008.
NOII-Toronto campaigns have been organized to develop for the communities their own
capacity by empowering a group of immigrants, refugees and allies who work to educate,
mobilize and network actions to defend immigrants, migrant workers, and refugees against
opposing discrimination and racism. NOII- Toronto defends the vision that no one should be
forced to migrate against their own will, and instead should be allowed to move freely, live and
flourish with justice and dignity, and although thousands of undocumented migrants are forced to
live underground without status in Canada, and while they face extreme poverty, inadequate
access to health care and education cause them to stay under the constant threat of detention and
deportation (3).
As a matter of fact, the immigration system comes from colonial exclusion, which is
based on the exploitation of migrant workers and the consistent attacks on the people who
Canada displaces. In the face of serious claw-backs in the refugee determination process and a
further degradation of migrant worker programs, the movement strongly insists and increases
events under the slogan of status for all (4). No One Is Illegal- Toronto works closely with
community organizations and agencies, labor, women and student unions, faith groups and many
others as allies in which to fight for to win access to essential services (5). 2008 and 2009 data
have shown that No One Is Illegal has actively involved and affected events and advocated all
levels of government by mobilizing collective direct actions with several tactics, such as
marching, protesting, lobbying and raiding, while asking for all levels of parties and the
government to respond to the injustice in the events in the immigration field, equal health rights,
and migrant labour justice for status and social justice for all.
NOII-Toronto is neither a horizontal nor a vertical organization, though it can still
organize the majority of events in Toronto by using the upward scale shift that ―involves
coordination of collective actors and actions at a higher level whether regional, national, or even
international than its initiation‖ (6) such as the implementing of the 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' policy,
and the Access Without Fear and Shelter Sanctuary Status campaigns. I will compare and
analyze NOII event shifts in the periods of 2008 and 2009, and find why their tactics, political
opportunities and alliances have been changed a new way whether they have had any success or
failure.

198
Increasingly, NOII-Toronto uses every single but different political, economic and
cultural opportunities, activities, and existing resources for mobilization in order to approach a
rhetorical frame for support for its collective actions. For example, the first period (2008) was a
little different than the second period (2009) in the following ways: migrants, refugees and
immigrant experiences of violence, deportations and protests, as well as media supports, political
opportunities‘ and alliances were all different. Globalization causes similar problems at the
border in Greece and Toronto. A policeman had murdered an unarmed 15-year-old, Alexandros
Grigoropoulos, on Dec 6, 2008, in Athens. After this police brutality and the uprising of
thousands of Greeks, NOII joined and supported a similar protest in Toronto on January 9, 2008,
because many migrants and refugees had been seeing the same police brutality and impunity in
Toronto. Racial profiling and refugee deportation was becoming a common practice in the first
period than in the second, where police and immigration enforcement had targeted visible
minorities, refugees and undocumented workers. Toronto policemen were trying to deport a
single mother who was a domestic abuse survivor and who was masked of brutality and
corruption when she had made complaints in 2008 (7).
In the first period, NOII had resisted the deportation of refugees and illegal migrant
workers and fought to get them shelter, emergency services and education, and brought a mass
number against discriminatory government policies, such as Bill C50. In this period, NOII had
more organized direct actions on the streets, and worked with migrant justice allies, grassroots
initiatives, workers rights organizations, labour unions and students, and film screenings, forums
and over 70 presentations at community centres, agencies and union locals (8). For example,
NOII had collaborated a direct action with Migrante Ontario organizers, activists and community
members who gathered outside Immigration Canada's offices to protest against the removal of
Juana Tejada, a migrant worker struggling against cancer (9). Juana fulfilled all the requirements
of the live-in caregiver program to be eligible for permanent residence, but has been denied
status because CIC deems her to be a burden on the health care system.
NOII had success because Juana was finally granted status a month later. This is why the
first period caused a more massive amount of protests, which had shifted to seek more justice on
women rights, deportations, anti-poverty, and migrants in the second period, and especially on
the LCP and undocumented workers health, education and full status rights. In the first and
second period, similarly, NOII tried to temporarily stop the immigration enforcement‘s dirty
work, and protest detention centres with massive numbers of people, and was also focused on
individual cases, such as when an abused woman contacted with the police concerning her
husband, the policemen had filed a second claim about her status check and order to deport (10).
If the victims make the decision to leave their abuser, it may affect their immigration status. If
victims do not have status, they will have difficulty accessing basic services. In this condition,
the system supports the leaving of their abusers, which establishes the abuse of powerless
women in Canada. This is why the 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' policy is very crucial. It is advocated
by the NOII campaign which assists immigrants, refugees and non-status women by allowing
them to seek assistance and help without the fear that they will be deported.
Not only in Toronto does this policy exist, but it is also imposed to other major cities
across Canada, advocating for the adoption of a true meaning. This means that women in abusive
situations will be able to turn to more services and agencies for help, including community
services, subsidized housing, the police, doctors and others (11). In both periods, many non-
status families were often unable to register their kids for school, apply for subsidized housing,
call the police in an emergency situation, or even visit a doctor because they fear that their
residency situation will be reported to the immigration authorities, and from there they would be
deported by the Immigration enforcement. Homelessness, unemployment, and poverty have been
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increasing among immigrant, domestic and refugee communities since the start of a global food
crisis and a global economic crisis in 2008 (12). Economically, government policies have been
structured based on the labour market‘s needs, and this is why policies, laws and regulations
have restricted the gain of full status to domestics and refugees and why lawmakers have an
unwillingness to remove unfavorable abusive working and living conditions.
In 2008, NOII had started to focus on exploitative temporary work programs because it
was for the first time more people had entered the work force as domestic workers than with
access to permanent residency. Globalizations have supported the neo-liberal economic policies
which have imposed Canada to accept more migrant workers than immigrants using Bill C-50
and Bill C-45. These laws had given the power to immigration ministers and officers to
arbitrarily decide who can enter into Canada and who cannot. The family reunification program
had been modified to actually deter reunification; new visas had been imposed on Czech Romans
and Mexicans in 2008 and Hungarians in 2009 because Gypsies were applying for the refugee
claimant status in Canada. Deportations have increased and failed to give the option to refugees
to apply for the humanitarian criteria. NOII had focused to stop deportation issues, many of
which were individual cases during the 2008 events where over 20,000 people were deported by
involuntary deportation (13).
Canada has become an unwelcoming country for refugees, for instance, the United
Nations had set a goal of accepting 560,000 resettled refugees for the years of 2008-9, while
Canada had only accepted about 11,000, though the Canadian acceptance rate of refugees had
been up to 21,400 in the 1980s (14). The number of humanitarian applications has declined
among the refugee claimants who see, as a last resort, to become non-status individuals and stay
in Canada, though the rate of acceptance had dropped from 7,776 cases involving 10,439
individuals in 2003 to 1,686 cases representing 2,456 people in 2008 (15). NOII had tried to stop
the Conservative government when it introduced a series of amendments to the Immigration and
Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) when a 136-page budget implementation bill in 2008 was buried
along with Bill C-50. NOII spoke out against Bill C-50 at the House Committee on Citizenship
and at Immigration public hearings, and discussed four topics: undocumented workers,
temporary foreign workers, immigration consultants and Iraqi refugees. The National Week of
Action was made against Bill C50 and the SDR Raids with daily actions in Toronto and
Mississauga that slowly culminated into a massive action at the Greater Toronto Enforcement
Centre in 2008 (16). NOII had worked with over 75 protesters from the Ontario Coalition
Against Poverty, Black Action Defense Committee, Workers Action Centre, and Justice for
Migrant Workers foundations that had rallied outside Toronto Police Headquarters to demand
that the police stop doing the Immigration Enforcement's dirty work. This event had happened
within the second period, and a similar one occurred in May 22, 2009, when the Immigration
Legal Committee had released a report outlining all the failures of the Toronto police to "serve
and protect" undocumented communities, laying out the legal basis of a ‗Don't Ask Don't Tell‘
policy for police services (17).
NOII had empowered, influenced and worked together with a number of grassroots
communities that had begun, in 2008, to reclaim their power and mobilize their way out of their
crushing poverty and marginalization, and it worked with such communities as the South Asian
Women's Rights Organization (SAWRO), The Sikh Activist Network, Mujeres Al Frente as a
support group of LBTIQ Women and Transgender Persons proceeding from Mexico, and Center
and South Americans working in Toronto (18). Political opportunities have shifted in 2009 and
NOII has increased its alliances, such as the Industrial Accident Victims Group of Ontario
(IAVGO) and Justice for Migrant Workers (J4MW). IAVGO and J4MW had celebrated their
success in the December of 2009 when they were excited to announce that they were jointly
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awarded intervener status at the Supreme Court of Canada. They challenged the exclusion of
farmworkers, many of whom were racialized migrant workers, and who later on would begin
joining unions and bargaining collectively for the first time in Canadian history (19). This event
displays the evidence to state that NOII needs to join in alliances for success.
Secondly, the NOII campaign advocates the Access Without Fear policy, and the
Sanctuary City strives to free Toronto of immigration enforcement. NOII had transferred the
Sanctuary City model after the success of similar campaigns in the United States in 2008, and it
tried to implement Toronto as a global migrant city. NOII had continued to advocate, in 2009,
that Toronto's municipal services must not ask for immigration status and must not share
immigration information with the federal authorities. New liberal policies and a Canadian global
economy had emerged in 2008 after the start of the economic recession, when sites of fear and
intimidation caused non-status residents to face the danger of being nabbed by the Immigration
Enforcement. More than 200,000 people in Toronto increasingly faced a lack of accessibility to
basic provisions like education, health, housing, rape/crisis/trauma centers, and settlement and
emergency services, though Toronto should show that it is a Sanctuary City that is a place of
safety and security for all people (20).
NOII had organized a demonstration in January 2008 with the Sikh Activist Network
during the first four months of the year, such as demanding status for Laibar Singh & Abdel-
Kader Belaouni (21). Before the big May action, NOII had cooperated its new alliances with new
tactics against the police, which had taken place with over 70 frontline community workers and
local residents packed in the Central Neighbourhood House for an Access Without Fear-DADT
Community Meeting with NOII members who had gotten together to come up with one strategy
(22). The participants discussed ideas for making services accessible to non-status residents, and
concrete strategies to implement the ‗Don't Ask Don't Tell‘ policy in community spaces and
workplaces across the city. Actually, NOII resistance has shifted from stop deportation protests
in 2008 to LCP and domestic workers rights protests in the mid of 2009.
During the long history of the legalization of racism and the segregation process (23), an
immigrant or domestic worker was assumed to be a person in color, and the process of
criminalization was and still is very dense. The ideology of racism grows out from colonization.
This process has been socially, internationally, and culturally constructed, even when its
exploited migrants have had the capability of committing a human strike. Slavery-based ideology
has encouraged the control and maintenance of society. The LCP is a racist and anti-woman
program by which mostly Filipino women are brought into Canada to do childcare or elder care
and domestic work in the homes of middle and upper-class Canadians. Ninety-five percent of all
those who enter through the LCP are from the Philippines, and many women face exploitation
and all forms of abuse under the LCP, such as the long-term negative impacts that are, on such
women, that when many children are reunited with their mothers after five or more years of
separation, they see their mothers as strangers (24). Moreover, living with the employer
requirement is unnecessary, though it is exploiting caregivers or seasonal agriculture and
undocumented construction workers in many ways, such as while it provides the opportunity for
abuse and assault for them, they are also not paid overtime for their work. The LCP comes into
play with no strict regulations and with cruel decisions, such as the living arrangement, where
there are employer-caused sexual assaults. Numerous rapes and harassment incidents have
occurred, but the victims of such incidents were silenced if they wanted to bring their family
members after two years of slavery employment. Undocumented nannies have ended up in the
service sector, where they‘ve worked in factories, exotic clubs and escort services.

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The bachelor society has made the people who leave behind their offspring and relatives
to work as slaves within the stranger home (25). Domestics have similar barriers, such as
cultural, linguistic and racial ones, and Sedef Arat had observed several global characteristics of
the LCP, including the invisibility, isolation and low status of domestics which exist because of
the nature of private works that have led to loneliness and may vary significantly based on class,
race and citizenship (26). The racist, anti-woman Live-in Caregiver Program destroys family
trusts, bonds and intimacy relationships, whereas feminists have failed to protect LCP women in
Canada. Comparing with the first period data to the second period, NOII-Toronto has mobilized
action against poverty with collaborating the strategy with academics that provide ongoing
support and maintain their solidarity and legitimacy. For instance, on October 23, 2009, on a
rainy Friday night, over 250 people had packed into a classroom at the University of Ryerson to
hear how the immigration system was being shattered. The headline and question was ―What's
Wrong with Canada's Immigration System?‖ An assembly was established by powerful
academic participants who had also spoken in the event, namely Salimah Valiani, Amina
Shirazee, Himani Bannerji, David McNally, Vero Bravo, Sujanath Thiru, Pura Velasco, Sonia
Singh, Pablo Godoy, Sultana Jahangir and Sabrina Gopaul. This first discussion was followed by
similar events in Jane and Finch, Davenport, Teesdale and Mississauga/Brampton. NOII-Toronto
had also encouraged its allies and supporters to attend the event ―Jane Street Rally Against
Poverty‖ in the same day (27). Two events were organized and combined with each other as a
tactic. Protesters marched from the corner of Jane and Wilson to the welfare and ODSP office.
They had used tactics that were very entertaining, such as live music, dancing, and signs in the
second period which was different from the first period‘s tactics. The protesters claimed that
people in the Jane and Finch community cannot afford healthy and nutritious food. This event
was also sponsored by the Jane Finch Action Against Poverty and Ontario Coalition Against
Poverty (28). On November 24, 2009, the Jane Finch Action Against Poverty and No One Is
Illegal- Toronto had together organized another event that was called the ―Jane Finch
Community Forum on Immigration‖ to increase public awareness at Palisades Cineplex, on 15
San Romanoway, in the stigmatized area of Jane and Finch. The forum has emphasized some
facts. For example, police were attacking youth of colour in schools and on the streets. Migrants
were the last ones hired, and in this recession they were the first fired (29).
The Shelter Sanctuary Status campaign is one of the most important programs in which
were organized by NOII-Toronto, and it is a growing movement of over 120 Anti-Violence
Against Women organizations across Turtle Island, Canada. On the night of September 13, 2009,
nearly 1000 women and trans-people took to the streets of Davenport (30). On May 5, 2008, and
May 2, 2009, over 2000 community activists, migrants and allies took to the streets, and created
a powerful resistance collectively. They had marched through the streets of Toronto, occupying
the Yonge and Dundas intersection in downtown Toronto to address the criminalization of
migrants, with or without status, working people, and the poor. They demanded an end to
detentions and deportations, security certificates and secret trials, and the access without fear to
essential services, and requested a full and inclusive regularization program for justice, dignity
and status for all (31). NOII doesn‘t want to see a racist, sexist or homophobic city. The
campaign wants to see a city that does not detain and deport people or has disposable labour, and
would rather prefer a green city with good jobs. Apparently, their upward scale shift operates a
direct diffusion that ―passes through individuals and groups, and mediated role through brokers
who connect people who would otherwise have no previous contacts‖ (32).
For many years, Ontario‘s lack of regulation over the nanny recruiters‘ contract and the
unregulated sector has failed to protect nannies from rogue unscrupulous, phony and unregulated
recruitment agencies, which gain benefits from abusive, systematic, racist and discriminatory
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policies. Under the depression of social exclusion, many Filipino and Caribbean women have
gained double consequences in transnationalism, and their skills de-professionalized in Canada.
Even after receiving the immigrant status, it is difficult for them to move on to other professions
and so they must continue to do nanny slavery. Under the stress of low-earning jobs, placement
fees and abused financial charges, most of these women have suffered in debt, bankruptcy, or
have ended up in a suicidal condition. Nannies seem to be modern-day slaves who work within
long working hours and care after everything in the home based on the call service, where their
employers can access them 24/7; however, they cannot access health insurance benefits or
choose to be unemployed and take the advantage of retirement deductions (33). They work as
indentured servants, often doing work that is not related with care giving, and are underpaid and
overworked "morning, noon and night" as cleaners, maids and handywomen (34).
Furthermore, domestic workers are unable to unionize to protect their rights and bargain
for their wage collectively. In fact, compared with the 1990s, when globalization had effectively
been involved Canada, the country had cut its refugee acceptance rate in half over the last 20
years. There are over half-a-million people in the country without legal status, and over half of
these people are in the GTA (35). NOII-Toronto has started the continuity of fighting and is
intentionally using an International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, which
has so far been celebrated in 2008, and shifted its celebration into 2009. For example, tactics
have shifted from such a holiday to the workshop with arranged popular speakers who have
acted in the theatre, recited poetry, and played music with strong demonstrations, and such
tactics were begun in 2009. Demands that were given were to stop immigration enforcement and
cease the harassing of women and trans-folks at shelters and anti-VAW spaces, and also that the
Toronto Police were to stop colluding with the Immigration Enforcement. The target of the
events was to create a safer, more accessible space without fear for expulsion from the country
for all women irrespective of immigration status (36). As a result, NOII-Toronto has started to
feel, more than ever, well-organized with other movements working for similar purposes, and it
was more effectively involved in the year of 2009 than in 2008.
NOII-Toronto focuses more on fundamental human rights issues. Immigration officials,
academics, researchers and paralegals had ended up, in 2008, with calculated estimates ranging
from 30,000 to 200,000, or even 500,000 people who were illegal workers in the Greater Toronto
Area (37). The Ministry of Immigration is finally looking to dismantle the refugee system before
the Christmas of 2010. Proposed temporary worker regulations were set up to ensure that
workers who have lived and worked in Canada for up to four years will be barred for the next
six. This shift that leads toward a temporary system of Immigration needs to be stopped. NOII-
Toronto‘s claims are supported again by women's movements, shelters, anti-VAW organizations,
feminist students, the labour movements, and academics (38). There is an argument over
employment situations and bargaining rights because Canadian citizen employers cause the
―common structural conditions that promote systemic exploitation and racialization that come
into play‖ (39). Most domestic worker women don‘t break the silence of what they‘ve been
through in order to bring their families to Canada (40).
In another example, there are a number of events that had happened during the first week
of December 2009 and that had taken place across Toronto, with a major rally on Dec. 2. It was
urgent that the regulations introduced on October 9, 2009, were to essentially deny the right of
full status to temporary migrant workers. This event was the ―Call-out for a National Day of
Action‖ and the headline of the protest was ―Justice for Migrant Workers!‖ It had started from
the corner of King St. and University Ave in front of the regional office of the Immigration
minister, Jason Kenney, and it tried to show the nation‘s opposition to the regressive changes
that the Immigration Ministry was trying to push away and hide. These regulations are part of a
203
larger shift that moves towards creating a disposable migrant workforce with fewer
rights. Tactics were organized in a local rally outside of the MP‘s office, or local Citizenship and
Immigration office, and were also organized by a community delegation belonging to the MP,
pushing it to oppose these changes. There was a petition that was supposed to be emailed to local
MPs. This National Day of Action is called the Coalition for Change: Caregivers and Temporary
Foreign Workers, and has support from its allies in the community, women's and immigrants‘
rights, and faith-based and trade union organizations across the country (41).
On Dec 17, 2009, Justice for Migrant Workers (J4MW) went to Ottawa to intervene at
the Supreme Court, where arguments relating the plight of Canada's migrant workers were to be
heard for the first time in Canada's legal history (42). NOII-Toronto organized a vigil to greet
them on their return, as well as to usher in and commemorate the International Day for Migrants
at the Chinese Railroad Workers Memorial (Between Skydome [Rogers Centre] and Spadina
Ave., south of Front St.) to remember the Canadian collective history of the Struggle of
Resistance (43). This is another example of how shifts and alliances have been changed in the
second period, which shows that NOII-Toronto is interested in the issue of health rights, which is
a fundamental human right. The event headline was ―Crossing the Borders: Creating a Just
Health Care System for Immigrants and Refugees,‖ which was presented by "Health for All" on
November 26, 2009, at 55 Gould Street, Student Campus Centre, Room 115 at Ryerson
University. NOII-Toronto had mobilized academics again with this panel and discussion. The
speakers at the discussion were: Paul Caulford from MD, Scarborough Urban Health Outreach
Centre and Bob Gardner, PhD from The Wellesley Institute, T. Nell and a lawyer, MacDonald
Scott. This participatory evening brought together people who have done migrant research, and
who were frontline health care professionals, as well as administrators and staff who had all
discussed the current challenges and innovations in expanding services and routes of entry into
the health care system for persons without insurance and status. The Health for All Group has
also wanted proposals, questions, and to hear experts‘ experiences, and sought answers. This
event had also shown how NOII-Toronto had worked closely with other social movements or
institutions in the period of 2009, for instance, the event was endorsed by Health Is Political,
Health Providers Against Poverty, Medical Reform Group, Nursing Students of Ontario, the
Public Health Interest Group, U of T Medicine, Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario,
Residents without Borders, University of Toronto and Students for Medicare (44).
In conclusion, I have analyzed the periods of 2008 and 2009 and compared the NOII
Campaign‘s tactics, political opportunities and shifts that it has relied on and human rights
instruments in the context of different campaigns to achieve its objectives. Some of the first
period‘s (2008) tactics were required to direct action and were more similar to the second period
(2009) in the following ways: migrant, refugees and immigrants experiences of violence,
deportations and protests. Media supports, political opportunities and alliances have changed and
depended on the optimal choices. There were little differences between the two periods, as in
resources, technology, organizational forms, local culture and the global position. The major
differences were that NOII had many new alliances in the second period when compared with
the first period, for instance, Amnesty International and the YWCA joined its activities.
The structure of the movement hasn‘t changed in the two periods, but it may shift in the
future because volunteers face inequality internally, and need to have legitimacy and trusts. The
struggle for power isn‘t shown publicly, whereas NOII volunteers have had to satisfy their
funders for their actions with a limited budget. NOII- Toronto has no employee or regular staff,
and it looks like a powerless group even though it is mobilized on the strategies of the media and
academics that provide ongoing support and maintain its solidarity in several events and
conferences, especially with helping to organize the LCP movement in 2009 and stop deportation
204
efforts in both periods. Its organization culture is westernized and open for coalition because
activists are young, second generation immigrants and are educated in Canada. They had several
successes because of their cooperation with other organizations on common goals, for instance,
two major successes‘ were changing regulations on the Live-In Caregiver program and domestic
workers union rights, which required the media‘s and alliance support. NOII has several main
programs, such as the "Don't Ask Don't Tell", the Sanctuary City and the Without Fear for the
equal treatment of all people living in Canada. In both periods, their main demand was to end all
detentions and deportations, as they were unjust and discriminatory in nature. In fact, Canada has
a history of racist exclusionary immigration policies that had served to marginalize and
criminalize migrant workers. Canada's trade agreements such as NAFTA, mining corporations
and wars have displaced millions of people around the world. The Canadian government moves
to militarize its borders and implement programs that deny migrants the right to live in Canada,
and this is achieved by using programs that promise to keep migrants permanently temporary.
There is still incompetence, racist behaviour and abuse in the Canadian immigration system and
the refugee settlement system services, and domestic workers‘ laws and regulations are not based
on needs, but on status.
After years of tireless organizing by NOII- Toronto, Caregivers Action Centre, Migrante,
and many other groups and allies across the country, and since December 9, 2009, Immigration
Canada has extended the number of years within which Live-In Caregivers can apply for
permanent status, and the second medical test requirement was removed to help them more
easily gain permanent status (45). This is proof that grassroots organizing can win changes.
These changes, however, still tie peoples‘ immigration status with their employers, and they
continue to exploit women and put them in a vulnerable position based on their status. The
changes have come on the eve of new regulations that, if they do go into effect, would severely
limit the ability of most migrants on work programs to gain full status (46). The forces of neo-
liberal economic globalizations offer one global economy, culture and global governance based
on consumerism and the implication of modern technology, knowledge and science.
Globalization has not only increased in people with interconnectedness but also social inequality,
injustice and inequity among the migrant communities. The Canadian Immigration and Refugee
Act and migrant workers policy contains racism, sexism, and discrimination because capitalism
and globalization enforce neo-liberalism or globalism which place barriers for controlling
immigration and segregation by the government. Multinational companies force the government
to keep the free unregulated market for labour exploitation. Refugees and migrants are forced to
live in certain social locations, and develop depending on such relations. Most undocumented
workers and refugees, especially women, are afraid of deportation and living in harsh and even
worse helpless work conditions. There is nowhere to turn because of our existing root of
inequalities that remain in our exploited sexist and racist policies under globalization.
Afterwards, the adoption of the USA immigration policy and security doctrine by the Canadian
government had implemented new temporary foreign worker programs and the introduction of
the Canadian Experience Class, which gets rid of refugees and immigrants.
Globalization has encouraged the system more on economic migration rather than family
reunification or humanitarian principles, though they are not the primary drivers of Canada‘s
immigration policy anymore under the pressure of neo-liberal policies. The structure of global
governance is shaped by the ‗global civil society‘ with voluntary, non-governmental associations
worldwide. NOII seems as a powerless organization when it is compared with the Amnesty
International, which represents millions of people prepared to question and challenge political
and economic decisions made by nation-states and intergovernmental organizations (47).
Globalization makes people around the world as the same, and global cities have become more
205
alike because of it, as it supports a few corporate elites to own and create media monopoly. NOII
is like a local actor who opposes the global capital and globalization, which leads to the decline
of the state‘s owned sectors, increases forced migrations and privatization, and creates a global
city within its discontents, like Toronto (48).

References

1-OWJN, December 2008. 'No One Is Illegal' and 'Don't Ask Don't Tell': Advocating Rights For
Non-status, Refugee And Immigrant Women Experiencing Domestic Abuse. Retrieved
fromhttp://www.owjn.org/owjn_2009/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=108&It
emid=67
2-A statement by No One Is Illegal, October 7, 2009. _ HYPERLINK
"http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org/node/336" \t "_blank"
_http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org/node/336_
3- OWJN, December 2008. 'No One Is Illegal' and 'Don't Ask Don't Tell': Advocating Rights For
Non-status, Refugee And Immigrant Women Experiencing Domestic Abuse. Retrieved
fromhttp://www.owjn.org/owjn_2009/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=108&It
emid=67
4- Migrant Justice Assembly with Salimah Valiani, Amina Sherazee, Himani
Bannerji and David McNally, Statement on the Wrongs of the Immigration System, October 23,
2009.
5- A series talk by Salimah Valiani, Amina Sherazee, Himani
Bannerji and David McNally, Statement on the Wrongs of the Immigration System, October 23,
2009.
6- Charles Tilly and Sidney Tarrow, Contentious Politic, Mobilization and Demobilization,
Paradigm Publisher, London 2007, pp 95

7- Solidarity rally with the Greek uprising. 09.01.2009. Retrieved from http://linchpin.ca

8- No One Is Illegal-Toronto: 2008 In Review. Retrieved from


http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org/2008review

9- NOII. Protest the removal of Juana Tejada, a migrant worker struggling against cancer.
27.06.2008. Video: _ HYPERLINK "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_burFtuUms" \o
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_burFtuUms"
_http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_burFtuUms_
Statement: _ HYPERLINK "http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org/node/263" \o
"http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org/node/263" _http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org/node/263_

10-. Representative of NOII provide examples of how police abuse a woman. York University,
Unpublished. 23 February 2010.
11- OWJN, December 2008. 'No One Is Illegal' and 'Don't Ask Don't Tell': Advocating Rights
For Non-status, Refugee And Immigrant Women Experiencing Domestic Abuse. Retrieved
fromhttp://www.owjn.org/owjn_2009/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=108&It
emid=67
12- No One Is Illegal-Toronto: 2008 In Review. Retrieved from
http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org/2008review

206
13- What‘s wrong with Immigration System? A statement by No One Is Illegal, October 7, 2009.
_ HYPERLINK "http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org/node/336" \t "_blank"
_http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org/node/336_

14- The Canadian Council for Refugees Website. Retrieved from _ HYPERLINK
"http://www.ccrweb.ca" __www.ccrweb.ca_

15- Nicholas Keung, The Toronto Star. Migrant families challenge immigration application fee.
25.07.2009. Retrieved from http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org/node/315

16- 31 May - 7 June 2008: No One Is Illegal Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver organized a
National Week of Action against Bill C50 and the SDR Raids. Retrieved from _ HYPERLINK
"http://www.mississauga.com/article/14654" \o "http://www.mississauga.com/article/14654"
_http://www.mississauga.com/article/14654_

17- A statement to protest of series of amendments to the Immigration and Refugee Protection
Act (IRPA), buried in Bill C-50, a 136-page budget implementation bill. Retrieved from _
HYPERLINK "http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org/node/261" \o
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18- Supporting People Rising. Retrieved from http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org/2008review


19- A statement from Justicia for Migrant Workers off to Ottawa. 10.12.2009. Retrieved from
http://www.justicia4migrantworkers.org/supremecourt.html

20- Amai Kuda, Mushfique Haq. 2008. What is a Sanctuary City? Retrieved from _
HYPERLINK "http://www.myspace.com/lalforest" \t "_blank" ___ HYPERLINK
"http://www.dbiyoung.net/" \t "_blank" _http://www.dbiyoung.net/_
21- Sikh Activist network and no one is illegal demonstration. 26.01.2008. Retrieved from
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=4144838521505031239#

22- Protest to Toronto's deportation factory, Greater Toronto Enforcement Centre. 22.05. 2008.
Retrieved from http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org/2008review

23- Lisa Marie Jakubowski. Immigration and the Legalization of Racism, Amending the
Canadian Immigration Act: The Live-in caregiver Program, Halifax: Fernwood Publishing, p 62

24- Sedef Arat Koc. Caregivers Break the Silence. Particatory Action Research on Abuse and
Violence, Including the Impact of the Family Separation. Experienced by Women in The Live-in
Caregiver Program Toronto: Intercede, 2001, p 21

25. Sedef Arat Koc. Caregivers Break the Silence. A.g.e, p 25

26- Sedef Arat Koc. Caregivers Break the Silence. A.g.e, p 22

27-Migrant Justice Assembly talks with Salimah Valiani, Amina Sherazee, Himani
Bannerji and David McNally, the Wrongs of the Immigration System, October 23, 2009.

207
28- Jane Finch Action Against Poverty and Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, November 23,
2009

29- A statement by Jane Finch Action Against Poverty. Jane Finch Community Forum. October
24, 2009

30-No One Is Illegal-Toronto: 2008 In Review. Retrieved from


http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org/2008review

31- Press Release by NOII-Toronto, Shelter Sanctuary Status, September 13, 2009. _
HYPERLINK "http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org/node/228" \t "_blank"
_http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org/node/228_

32- May Day of Action: Over 2000 People Take to the Streets!
http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org/node/302

33- Charles Tilly and Sidney Tarrow, Contentious Politic, Mobilization and Demobilization,
Paradigm Publisher, London 2007, pp 95

34- Makeda Silvera. Immigrant Domestic Workers: Whose Dirt Laundry? Fireweed 9, p 85.

35- Rob Ferguson. The Toronto Star. Ontario nanny bill includes jail terms. 22 October 2009.
Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/714060

36- Deportation is Violence Against Women. International Day for the Elimination of Violence
Against Women. November 25, 2009. _ HYPERLINK
"http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org/node/228" \t "_blank"
_http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org/node/228_

37- Alejandro Bustos. The Toronto Star, Unseen, Unheard And Afraid: Have Politicians Turned
A Blind Eye To Illegal Workers? Aug. 15, 2005
_ HYPERLINK
"http://www.cleonet.ca/external.php?external_url=http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentS
erver?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1124056210404&am
p;call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154&t=TS_Home&DPL=IvsNDS
%2f7ChAX&tacodalogin=yes"
_http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&
amp;c=Article&cid=1124056210404&call_pageid=968332188492&col=9687939
72154&t=TS_Home&DPL=IvsNDS%2f7ChAX&tacodalogin=yes_

38- A statement by NOII. Call-out for a National Day of Action. Justice for Migrant Workers!
December 2, 2009.

39- Barrington Walker. The History of Immigration and Racism in Canada: Essential Reading,
Marginalized and Dissident Non- Citizens: Foreign Domestic Workers, Toronto: Canadian
Scholars‘ Press, 2008 pp 265.

208
40- Lisa Marie Jakubowski, Immigration and the Legalization of Racism, Amending the
Canadian Immigration Act: The Live-in caregiver Program, Halifax: Fernwood Publishing 2002,
pp 62

41- A National Day of Action. The Coalition for Change: Caregivers and Temporary Foreign
Workers, December 2, 2009. _ HYPERLINK
"http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/migrantworkers/" \t "_blank"
42- Justice for Migrant Workers (J4MW) goes to Ottawa for Lobbying. December 17, 2009. _
HYPERLINK "http://www.justicia4migrantworkers.org/supremecourt.html" \t "_blank"
_http://www.justicia4migrantworkers.org/supremecourt.html_

43- Press Release by NOII. Vigil for Migrant Workers. What A Vigil? _ HYPERLINK
"http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org/node/365" \t "_blank"
_http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org/node/365_
44- Crossing the Borders: Creating a Just Health Care System for Immigrants and Refugees‖
presented by "Health for All", November 26, 2009
45- Announcement by Ministry of Immigration web site. Minister Kenney proposes significant
improvements to the Live-in Caregiver Program. December 12, 2009.
46- The Canada Gazette, The proposed changes to the Live-in Caregiver Program. December 19,
2009.
47- Manfred B. Steger. Globalization: A Very Short Introduction – The Political Dimension of
Globalization, chapter4- p 67.
48- Saskia Sassen. ―Introduction‖ and ―The State and the Global City‖ from Globalization and
its discontents – Taken from Transnational Studies Reader. Ed. S. Khagram and P. Levitt (2008),
p 75.

209
Chapter 28

Iraqi Children Human Rights Violations


Children increasingly face varieties of human rights violations and are as targets in the
global economy, such as being trafficked into slavery labour, child soldiers, sex workers, and
being the targets of systemic rape, ethnic cleansing, malnutrition diseases, and injuries from land
mines, victims of torture, displaced refugees, and even genocides. The United Nations
International Convention on the Rights of the Child and its optional protocol has ratified almost
every single country since 1989, but this document provides very little protection to children
worldwide, especially in the third world countries such as Iraq. Since the US-led invasion in
March 2003, every child in Iraq has paid too high a price of several degrees of psychological,
physical, and emotional trauma as a violation of human rights. Iraqi children face ―rape, forced
prostitution, trafficking, forced marriage, domestic violence and sexual exploitation‖ (1).
Several of the United Nation‘s human rights reports, UN-backed surveys, a UNICEF
report, a World Health Organization (WHO) study, the Iraqi Ministry of Planning and
Development Cooperation (MoPDC), and the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MoLSA)
have underlined this issue in separate reports. Several NGO reports on children indicate that a
wide range of grave human rights violations are exposed in Iraq, including death and injury from
sectarian violence of abuse and torture, military operations and the increasing use of Iraqi
children as suicide bombers by armed groups. Between the years of 2003 and 2006, the US
detained 2,400 children in Iraq, and this rate rose dramatically in 2007 to an average of 100 new
children a month from 25 a month in 2006, and by the end of 2008, 1000 children were being
held in the Iraqi detention (2). The number of Iraqi orphans has increased to half a million, and
according to Save the Children, one in eight Iraqi children now live on the streets. Iraqi children
refugees are the most vulnerable population among a growing humanitarian tragedy, and
violence continues on in their fled countries, such as Jordan and Syria, whereas ―these children
are starving to death and the gangs use their desperate situation to force them into drugs and the
sex world‖ (3).
I am interested in this topic because new types of slavery and child sexual harassment are
increasing in business in the global economy through globalization, which triggers the violation
of human rights and is especially spreading out in Iraq against children, and for instance, slavery
grows with the demand of slave labour where extreme conditions are abandoned, and less
protection is provided for the child population so that it faces such problems as poverty, hunger,
homelessness, orphanage, being refugees, and facing torture (4).
The Iraqi government, US army soldiers, insurgent armed groups and Iraqi families
commit crimes and violate the human rights of Iraqi children. Violations of basic fundamental
rights and the physical integrity rights of Iraqi children are recorded according to the UN, and the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Convention on the Rights of the Child,
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights are based on the fourth Geneva Convention on the treatment of
civilians during an international armed conflict. In this research, I explore, argue and measure
specific data after the US led-invasion between 2003 and 2008, which is an Iraqi children human
rights violation where the issue of juvenile justice is specifically addressed as these human rights
violations place a negative effect onto the global economy. This research focuses on problems on
trafficking forced migration, the sex world, and the slave labour traders within the conflict of the
current laws and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and this study finds conditions and
210
possible solutions of the abandoned and desperate population of Iraqi children in the global
economy discourse, and it advocates the international community and the Iraqi government and
states how to stop ignoring the human rights that exist in documents.
My arguments and questions here are why the international community does not take
action and puts pressure on children human rights, while it still programs to save the Iraqi
children who are now paying the high price of war, and why Iraqi children are not given the
priority for international investment in Iraq as they would be the foundation for their country's
recovery, and why it is that the harassment of the global economy and violations of human rights
are never ceasing while the existing human rights documents remain useless?
The U.S.-led occupation of Iraq has greatly affected the violation of the human rights of
many Iraqi children, and the extent of devastation and the deteriorating conditions are unbearable
and consist of the following issues:
1- Suffering Psychologically, Emotionally, and Physically
2- Human Trafficking, Forced Migration and the Slave Market
3- Sexual Exploitation, Rape and Forced Prostitution
4- Forced Soldier work, Torture and Detainment in Prison

Iraqi children suffer psychologically, emotionally, and physically

Iraq has a very young population; almost half of the Iraqi population is estimated to be
under the age of 25, although about 50 percent of them have been suffering psychologically,
emotionally and physically, being in a critical state of fear which can cause mental retardation if
it goes untreated according to the Association of Psychologists of Iraq (API)‘s report findings
(5). The United States and its international community haven‘t engaged with the deconstruction
of the war that had affected millions of Iraqi children, where many youths are in a desperate
position and are either hired by insurgents or live in poverty. Since the launch of the war in
March 2003, many children suffered psychologically extreme stress with insecurity, especially
with the fear of kidnapping and explosions, whereas they were highly vulnerable to disease and
malnutrition and a noticeable increase in the number of children seeking psychological
counseling have learning difficulties. 92 percent of those interviewed were found to have
learning impediments, resulting from the climate of fear and insecurity that they were surrounded
with, and the only things they had on their minds were guns, bullets, death and a fear of the
U.S.‘s occupation of their land, according to the report findings (6). The Iraqi Red Crescent
Society (IRCS) had tried to help children suffering from the trauma of war, but their study had
frozen a couple months later due to a shortage of funding and the need to give preference to
displacement emergencies (7). In a report entitled "Little Respite for Iraq's Children in 2007",
UNICEF had said Iraqi children were so frequently caught in the crossfire of conflict throughout
2007 that two million children in Iraq were facing threats including poor nutrition, a lack of
education, disease and violence, and a lack of healthcare where hundreds were killed in violence
during 2007, while 1,350 were detained, and an average 25,000 children per month were being
displaced from their homes as their families fled from violence or intimidation, 75,000 children
had resorted to living in camps or temporary shelters, and many of the 220,000 displaced
children of primary school age had their education affected in a country where around 760,000
children (17%) were already absent from primary school, and only 28% of 17-year-olds sat to
take their final exams (8). This report provides specific data on what kind of violation of human
rights was committed against children. Roger Wright, UNICEF's special representative for Iraq,
told the media that "Iraqi children are paying far too high a price" (9). This stress and trauma

211
increased when those Iraqi ―children had their main family wage-earner kidnapped or killed‖
(10).

In fact, Iraq has a low capacity of the undemocratic type of regime in which is least likely
to respect human rights, and children are most likely its victims among all citizens according to
human rights watch agencies‘ measurements, their criteria and reports. In practice, none of
human rights‘ treaties have been enforced by the Iraqi government to show respect for Iraqi
children‘s rights, since the US led-invasion was a trigger to increase these violations. The Iraqi
Ministry of Planning and Development Cooperation (MoPDC) and the Ministry of Labour and
Social Affairs (MoLSA), in separate reports, said that millions of Iraqi children are orphans
without shelter, and are being imprisoned in Iraqi and American controlled prisons (11).
A further study conducted for the UNDP by the Fafo Institute for Applied Social Science
found that ―acute malnutrition among Iraqi children has almost doubled since the US invasion
despite UN efforts‖ (12). A United Nations-backed survey, which was supported by the World
Health Organization (WHO) and conducted between 2007 and 2008, revealed that 48 percent of
the 150 schools assessed were dirty, and around 63 per cent of the schools lacked chlorine testing
procedures for drinking water, placing children at a high risk of water-borne diseases (13). T.
Ismael Shreen‘s book, Children Caught in the Crossfire, is about the lost generation of Iraq that
discovers how Iraqi children have had traumas and been exploited in the global economy (14).

Human Trafficking, Forced Migration and the Slave Market

A UNHCR report stated that more than 1.5 million Iraqis are internally displaced in Iraq,
including some 800,000 who fled their homes prior to 2003, as well as 754,000 who have fled
since then. A further 1.6 million Iraqis are refugees residing in neighbouring countries, with the
majority in Syria and Jordan where it registered an average of 13 cases of sexual and gender
violence per week against Iraqi refugee women as well as children in Syria between January and
August 2008 (15). The majority of Iraqi citizens cannot live or make a decent living because
they are unemployed, unskilled in labour, and do exploitative work, whereas there are weak
labour laws and unions, inadequate social services, weak political, social, economic, and security
systems, a declining regulatory state power, and foreign invasion and bloody civil war that yet
continued. Deborah Elli‘s book, Children of War: Voices of Iraqi Refugees, covers many short
biographical Iraqi children stories between 2003 and 2008 that are narrated by the children who
had been victims of the war in Iraq and who range in ages from 8 to 19, mostly in Jordan and
Syria. These children are witnesses to the human rights violations and have had the severe
traumas in experiencing the refugee world (16).
The crucial number of Iraqi child labour consists of those employed as illegal workers in
the informal sector of the economy, though their employers‘ parents and the state are silenced of
these violations because of poverty. The international standard of labour hasn‘t been applied to
Iraqi children labour or their families before and after 2003. In fact, the International Labour
Organization (ILO) first established a minimum wage for the children employed in 1919 and
1973, where the Minimum Age Convention prohibited activities against children under the age
of 15 as labour is hazardous to the physical, mental and moral well-being of a child beneath this
age (Convention 138). Furthermore, CRC (UN Convention on the Rights of the Child) has
accepted several articles in 1989 against economic exploitation and the abuse of children. The
CRC has been adapted as a universal ratification since 25 September 1990 by 193 countries in
the UN, with the only exception of the USA and Somalia.

212
The ILO adapted a new convention called Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention in
1999, stating that the priority of age elimination was extended to the age of 18. The ILO is under
its 1992 International Program on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC), which should be
expended as preventative measure and also helps to rehabilitate child labourers (17). UNICEF
advocated in its report that improved access to education is the most effective way to eradicate
child labour in Iraq (18). The UN has adopted eight Millennium Global Goals in 2000 in which
all of them are related to child labour issues and have provided them emergency relief, and it
seems to be the MDGs goals of 2015 that is not likely to met, especially because the Iraqi
children labour slavery has gotten worse in 2010 (19).

Sexual Exploitation, Rape and Forced Prostitution

The sex trade industry has been increasing its business and exploitation of children
worldwide thought sex traders have targeted war zones in poor countries to have the most
victims of the child for sex trade and tourism. Extreme poverty and nationwide unemployment
have pushed Iraqi parents to resort to selling their children to gangs, and for instance, the Iraqi
government forces have captured 15 human trafficking gangs operating in Iraq in nine months in
2008, in which children are sold for as little as $3,000, and for every young baby, the price could
reach $30,000 and is based on age and gender, where the victims of this practice are driven into
prostitution. While much of this takes place within local borders, there are many occurrences on
an international level as well, particularly in Syria and Jordan. The Iraqi Families Association
(IFA) as an NGO was established in 2004 to register cases of those missing and trafficked, and at
the time, at least two children were sold by their parents every week (20).
The increasing number of children and young women fleeing war live under poverty and
fall as prey to sex traffickers. Iraqi children under the age of 18 and women have been banned
from working legally in Syria, and those who had fled the chaos in their homes are being further
betrayed after reaching ‗safety‘ in Syria because they have few options outside the sex trade, and
over 50 thousand of them are forced into prostitution because either their husbands or parents
had been killed in Iraq (21). A report published by the UNHCR and UNICEF, the UN children's
fund, concluded that an estimated 450,000 Iraqis in Syria "are facing aggravated difficulties
related to their ambiguous legal status and unsustainable income that prostitution among young
Iraqi women in Syria" are being trafficked by organized networks or family members (22).
Children are victims of commercial sexual exploitation and prostitution and have
increasing risks in a number of health and psychological hazards such as AIDS, herpes,
Chlamydia, crabs, gonorrhea, syphilis, and pelvic inflammatory diseases (23). Child prostitutes
and other sexually exploited children are hit by severe psychological depression, low self-esteem
and post-traumatic stress disorder, and they have also attempted to commit suicide, while the
CRC condemns the sexual exploitation of children through prostitutions and other illegal sexual
practices such as child pornography, sex tourism, etc. (24). In 1996, the First World Congress
Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children was held in Stockholm, Sweden, where
120 countries promised to cooperate against the criminal action of child exploiters, though global
commercial sexual exploitation is still within the unstoppable market, the international sex trade
industry is still growing, more children are becoming victimized, and the violation of Iraqi
children rights remains an unsolved problem.

213
Forced Soldier work, Torture and Detainment in Prison

Iraqi rebels, paramilitary groups and militia groups have recruited Iraqi children soldiers
under the age of eighteen since 2003. On the other hand, sexual attacks and exploitation by the
U.S. army and Iraqi security forces are used against children to humiliate and terrorize them in
their community or to torture them in prisons. Iraqi children witness torture, murder and rape,
and watch loved ones beaten to death, experiencing different levels of trauma left as severe
marks on their psychology. Younger Iraqi children have learning difficulties and big children
have depression and more aggressive behavior because a traumatized Iraqi child has a lot of
severe symptoms and complications such as ―anxiety, developmental delays, sleep disturbances,
nightmares, decreased appetite, withdrawn behaviour, and a lack of interest in play‖ (25).
In addition, an Iraqi government report indicates that 1,300 children were held in
detention centres and in government prisons in 2007. US troops say that they are detaining 800
Iraqi juveniles aged 10 to 17 years old. On the other hand, Iraqi child prisoners between 13 and
17 are being accused of supporting insurgents and militias that they are being abused and
tortured by (26). These facts were also claimed in the 21st May 2008 Human Rights Watch
statement (27). An American journalist, Seymour Hersh, wrote on this subject in his book,
named Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib. He states that ―the US
government has videotapes of children being raped at Abu Ghraib‖ (28). The CRC's Article 37
requires that "No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment" (29). As human rights abuse patterns show, it can be predictable that a
hegemonic power invasion were to exploit weak country resources in countries such as Iraq. The
US government plays with language to justify its abuses, but the human rights law, as found in
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, requires ―that all persons arrested be
brought promptly before a judge, have access to legal counsel and family members, be charged
with a cognizable criminal offense, and receive a prompt trial meeting international fair trial
standards.‖ It also requires and states to provide every child with ―such measures of protection as
are required by his status as a minor‖ (30). Holding the detainees without judicial review and
other basic rights is against the operative law of the Fourth Geneva Convention on the treatment
of civilians during the international armed conflict.
A political scientist, Michael Haas, mentions in his book, George W. Bush, War
Criminal?, that ―thousands of Iraqi children have been imprisoned, tortured, and otherwise
denied rights under the Geneva Conventions and related international agreements since 2003. ‖
(31). Haas claimed that the US has been charging minors with war crimes instead of treating
underage persons as victims of war since 2002, and the US army had detained 2,400 children in
Iraq, although other sources state the latter figure was 800 according to the US official report to
the UN's Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Some Iraqi children in prison are not
allowed to write or telephone home for as long as five years in which is against the CRC's
Article 9. This states that a captured child shall be allowed to "maintain personal relations and
direct contact with both parents on a regular basis.‖ (32). Seymour Hersh and Haas have
mentioned that there is no recreational opportunity for the hundreds of children detained at
Bagram or at Abu Ghraib, in which is against CRC Article 31. This requires that children have
the right "to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child‖ (33).
Haas found that the US army, national governments and rebellion groups are currently still
violating the Iraqi children‘s human rights in the national legal system, and they only watch its
violation that occurs in many ways, including the mistreatment of children, lack of investigating
the abuse of children and failure to prosecute prison personnel allegedly guilty of such abuse, not
allowing parents to visit children and to have legal counsel, the failure to provide children with
214
speedy trials and promptly inform children of the crimes against them, and the weakness of
allowing witnesses to testify on behalf of children and not provide them with social programs
(34). The international communities should collaborate with the campaign of the CRC, which
always mentions ―the best interests of the child to be a primary consideration in all actions
concerning children,‖ such as ―specific protection from sexual exploitation and abuse including
child pornography, the right of protection from all forms of physical or mental violence, etc‖
(35).
In conclusion, Iraqi national laws need to take an action on children rights and consider
the optional protocols made by the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Individuals,
institutions and policy makers must actively support the full range of children's rights guaranteed
in Iraq as mentioned by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which supports the lower
poverty rates, provides universal access to child and maternal health care, nutrition, and
education, and guarantees protection for children during armed conflict and other difficult
circumstances (36). I suggest that international organizations such as UNICEF, the UN, the EU,
national governments and human rights institutions and other bodies from all over the world
should collaborate with a stronger international campaign for the enforcement and adaptation of
an optional protocol and associate with an effective working group, adding extra rights in effort
to raise public awareness and mobilize a strong international action against the violation of
children in Iraq.
The CRC also needs to have more unique rights and safeguards because some articles are
not guaranteed to be accessible to everyone, and it needs a strong global enforcement that should
state that all rights should apply equally to all children regardless of race, religion, colour,
gender, ethnicity, etc. The UN should be focusing on the international standards in Iraq on
juvenile justice, such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Beijing Rules, the
Riyadh Guidelines and the UN Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty.
UNICEF and other organizations have indicated that its funds have increased to support the Iraqi
children in need and vulnerable groups in Iraq, and especially mental health care is crucial for
children, such as a post- trauma stress centers which is the most urgent of this care. According to
Hague and Geneva Conventions, the US and UK are responsible for responding to the medical
needs of the population among other nations that want to help the victims of armed conflict,
where most of these victims are Iraqi children; however, the core of human rights is violated
based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, such as the right of social security, the
right to work and be provided protection against unemployment, and the right for health, food,
clothing, and housing for Iraqi children (37). In fact, globalization doesn‘t support human rights
and instead increases inhuman rights and wrongdoing in Iraq, especially against children. Neo-
liberal global economists support the global capital and global governance through multinational
and interrelation institutional dominated states, and they weaken the state role, in which this
process has been noticeable in Iraq since the US- led invasion in 2003. Imperialist forces have
been using the process of privatization of natural resources in Iraq in which increasing numbers
of Iraqi children are suffering psychologically, emotionally, and physically, going through
human trafficking, forced migration and the slave market, sexual exploitation, rape and forced
prostitution, and forced soldier work, torture and detainment in prison. Without a civil society,
strong national state, or legislation and international campaign on human rights, the Iraqi
children‘s human rights cannot be protected and are not sustainable under the pressure of the
global economy.

215
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for 269 War Crimes, Groundwood Books, 2009
32- CRC. 1989. Article 9.
33- Hersh, Haas, CRC Article 31.
34- Haas. 2009. a.g.e. p 57
35- The OHCHR, the Committee on the Rights of the Child. 11 July 2009. Articles _
HYPERLINK "http://www.ohchr.org/english/law/crc.htm" \l "art19" _19_, _ HYPERLINK
"http://www.ohchr.org/english/law/crc.htm" \l "art34" _34_ and _ HYPERLINK
217
"http://www.ohchr.org/english/law/crc.htm" \l "art37" _37_ Retrieved from _ HYPERLINK
"http://www.crin.org/petitions/petition.asp?petID=1007"__http://www.crin.org/petitions/petition.
asp?petID=1007_

36- Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). 1989. The UN General Assembly resolution
44/25 of 20 November 1989
37- The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 1948. The General Assembly of the United
Nations adopted and proclaimed On December 10, 1948. Article 22-5.

218
Chapter 29

School Bullying

Bullying according to Public Safety Canada is defined as the ―assertion of interpersonal


power through aggression; negative physical or verbal actions that have a hostile intent, cause
distress to victims, are repeated over time and involve a power differential between bullies and
their victims. School bullying has many forms including but not limited to; social, psychological
and physical intimidation or assault, extortion; oral or written threats, teasing, put downs, name
calling, threatening looks, gestures or actions, cruel rumours, false accusations and social
isolation.‖ School bullying is a national problem occurring in all schools (inner city and suburb),
in every community; territory and province in Canada, but the municipalities are the ones left to
deal with peer abuse in schools. Bullying is one of the most underrated and enduring problem in
schools today. Statistics published in the Globe and Mail show that 50 percent of students are
being physically or verbally abused in school according to a study conducted by Tanya Beran
and Lesley Tutty of the University of Calgary. They stated that ―In the not-too-distant past,
bullying was more or less thought of as a right of passage for kids, as ―just part of life‖ that
toughens them up and prepares them for adulthood. But things are changing. These days‘,
bullying is seen more as a dangerous activity that has potentially devastating consequences.‖
School bullying directly impacts the students (victims, bullies and bystanders) the parents
and the teachers. Current research shows that the impact on the bystander or the witness to
bullying, can, over time, equal that of the victim. The anxiety about possibly being the next
victim and being in an unsafe environment for verbal, physical or cyber bullying can weigh
emotionally on the students. Young people who worry about violence or who are victims of
bullying cannot focus on their education; bullying affects student‘s attentions spans, memory,
concentration, abstract reasoning and emotional reactivity, making learning difficult. Some
students are simply too afraid to come to school. (Jeff P. Jones, 17) Tanya Beran and Lesley
Tutty of the University of Calgary reported that 10 to 15 percent of those who are bullied require
long-term intervention in order to psychologically cope. Bullies target those who are different;
wear glasses, insecure, or those who have obvious physical differences such as acne, big ears and
overweight classmates. Children who have learning disabilities, who are anxious or have a
stutter, may also be victims. Bullies ―sometimes pick on kids because they need a victim,
someone who seems emotionally or physically weaker to try to gain acceptance and feel more
important, popular, or in control‖. (Canadian Children‘s Rights Council 1996-2007). ―Not all
bullies are ―outcasts‖ some of the most intense bullying that takes place comes from dominant
social groups, often the popular children tend to be bullies in order to gain and maintain
popularity,‖ (Barbarino, deLara, 72).
Author Jeff P. Jones explains, ―teachers cannot do their jobs properly because they spend
so much time dealing with angry outbursts from students, interpersonal conflicts and inattentive
students‖ that students are not getting the education they need. School bullying also impacts the
entire school‘s social atmosphere; as fear and anxiety often becomes the norm, students and staff
feel high levels of stress and a loss of security. Another impact of school bullying is the
implementation of school security measures; staff and technology alike, which taxpayers are
expected to financially support. (Eastdale High School, Oshawa, Ontario) It also indirectly
affects the community; bullying often continues beyond school property; arenas, parks, and
shopping malls, therefore increasing violence within the community and decreasing the level of
219
safety felt by community members. There are many causes of school bullying as Alan Leschied,
a leading Canadian researcher on teen violence explains; ―it is a combination of how culture is
working, how the family is working, how the culture within a school is developing that
determines school bullies, victims, and bystanders and not one primary factor.‖ (Jeff P. Jones, 7)
School bullying is not gender specific, although boys and girls bully their victims differently.
Girls often use psychological tactics such as name-calling, teasing, spreading rumours, sexual
comments and isolation to bully others, while boys often use their physical strengths to bully
their victims. Although the bullying strategy used may be different when considering gender;
they are equally damaging to the bully, the victims and the bystanders. On a personal level some
bullies victimize due to their temperament. ―Temperament refers to the basic tendencies by
children to develop certain personality styles and interpersonal behaviours. Children who are
more active and impulsive in temperament may be more inclined to develop into bullies.‖
(Centre for Children and Families in the Justice System).
Power is another cause of bullying, bullies tend to victimize others in order to gain power
over them. Power makes people feel like they are better than another person; power makes them
stand out from the crowd to obtain attention from peers and adults. As Lord Acton said, ― power
tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.‖ Other causes of bullying are low self
esteem, substance abuse, revenge and most often ―if they can‘t belong in a positive way at the
school, they‘ll find a way to belong to a marginal group like a cult or a gang‖, (Jeff. P.Jones, 26)
which often promotes bullying and hazing. Family violence increases a young person‘s
likelihood to use violence at school more then other‘s including neglect, overindulging parenting
and physical abuse. ―In 1998, two psychiatrists at the University of Pittsburgh investigated
studies dealing with the link between abusive homes and school violence. Rolf Loeber and
Magda Stouthamer-Loeber found that the prevailing conclusion among the studies was that
aggression at the home leads to aggression at school. In fact, their research revealed that children
who are both victims of abuse by a parent and witnesses of spousal abuse have a rate of assault
against other children six times higher than that of children from non-assaultive families.‖ (Jeff
P. Jones, 20) Another cause and risk factor is deteriorated neighbourhoods. The surrounding
community has a direct impact on a school, and violent communities may increase the violence
in schools. According to University of Maryland urban violence researcher Raymond Lorion, the
violence in these communities shapes the attitudes of the students who live there. Students in
turn bring the violence into their schools. Another powerful cause of school bullying is violence
in the media; television programs including animation, movies, violent music lyrics, video games
and virtual violence plays a powerful role in school bullying. Music‘s messages have a powerful
influence on the youth population; ―considering that the average teenager listens to 10,500 hours
of rock music between the seventh and twelfth grades‖. (Jeff P. Jones, 40) The greatest concern
is that music with violent lyrics has the power to influence troubled and insecure teens. Although
these listeners are a minority they do represent a sample of young people who model their
behaviour according to violent music lyrics, such as the lyrics of singer Marilyn Manson who is
ordained as a priest in the Church of Satan. The singer‘s lyrics focus on violence that deals with
occultism, torture, suicide and murder.
There are many consequences to the bully as well as the victim. Immediate consequences
for the bully includes poor relationships with classmates, more likely to carry a weapon, be
injured in fights, loneliness, poor academic achievement, higher rate of smoking, and more
frequent conflict with others. The bully often engages in other anti-social or delinquent
behaviours such as; vandalism, shoplifting, truancy, and illicit drug use. These antisocial patterns
often continue into adulthood and most school bullies tend to become aggressive adults. A
longitude study done over a 35-year span by psychologist E. Eron at the University of Michigan
220
shows that by age 24, 60% of bullies have a criminal conviction, 40% with three or more
convictions, bullies also require more support as adults from government agencies, they suffer
from more alcoholism, more marital violence, more antisocial personality disorders and a greater
use of more mental health services. (Bully B‘ware Productions, British Columbia).
More serious consequences are when bullies severely injure and even murder their
victims: Joel Libin, 14, of British Columbia suffered brain injury after being beaten by three
young men. ―In 1997 British Columbia Reena Virk was severely beaten and drowned by her
bully Kelly Ellard, which has since been found guilty of second degree murder and faces an
automatic life sentence.‖ Bullies take the fun out of school, and they turn a simple trip to a
locker, a ride on the bus or going to the bathroom a scary event that the victim will anticipate all
day. Victims of bullying suffer a great deal at the hands of their aggressors and many victims
report symptoms such as:

Bullied Not bullied


Headache 16% 6%
Sleep problems 42% 23%
Abdominal pain 17% 9%
Feeling tense 20% 9%
Anxiety 28% 10%
Feeling unhappy 23% 5%
Depression scale
Moderate indication 49% 16%
Strong indication 16% 2%

(U.S Department of Health and Human Services)

Victims experience many other consequences due to bullying such as lower self-esteem, higher
rates of depression, post traumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorder, higher rates of absenteeism,
nightmares, fatigue, panic attacks, fear and more suicidal ideation; then those who are not
victims of bullying. The more tragic consequence is when a victim takes his/her own life because
they are too ashamed and frightened to tell anyone, or when they can no longer endure the daily
victimization that they suffer on a daily basis at the hands of the aggressor. Here is a list of some
of these students who felt alone, devastated, frightened and hopeless at the hands of their bully:
Honour student Curtis Taylor, 14, committed suicide on 22 March 1993, when he went to his
bedroom and shot himself in the head after three years of bullying. ―Emmet Falick, 14, shot
himself at home April 2002. He left a suicide note saying he was distraught after being
tormented by students.‖ (Wikepidia) ―In November 2000, Dawn Marie Wesley, 14, of Mission,
British Columbia hanged herself (with her dog‘s leash) shortly after three teenage girls called
her. Wesley‘s suicide note said that bullies had threatened her and she believed death was her
only escape.‖ Research shows that bullying occurs every 7 seconds on Canada‘s playgrounds, it
is the parents and teachers responsibility to make sure that our children feel safe and comfortable
at school. ―We must help our children feel secure in reporting this type of peer-to-peer abuse‖
says Norm Jakubowski coordinator of the RespectED Program from the Canadian Red Cross
Society.
The McGuinty government is investing 23 million dollars over a three-year period to
reduce, prevent and change attitudes in regards to bullying. An ongoing partnership with Kids
Help Phone will allow the government to share 1 million dollars in funds in order to expand a
221
24-hour service hotline to assist children with questions and obtain help in regards to bullying.
Also available, is a 1 million dollar High Challenge Grant for schools who are identified as
having additional challenges and require further financial assistance in order to prevent and deal
with bullying within their schools.
On April 17, 2007 the Ontario government introduced changes to the Education Act with
Bill 212, Progressive Discipline and School Safety. These proposed amendments to the Act are
the Government‘s response to recommendations made by the Safe School Action Team, which
was lead by Liz Sandals, Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Education. The action team
was appointed in December 2004 to advice on the physical and social issues in all Ontario
schools. They conducted a broad public consultation and based its report on what it heard from
hundreds of people from across the province. The proposed legislative amendments would also
include adding bullying as an infraction for which suspension must be considered. The proposed
changes would continue to make student safety a top priority while also ensuring that there are
strong consequences for inappropriate behaviour. The Safe Action School Team also produced a
report on bullying prevention, Shaping Safer Schools: A Bullying Action Plan in November
2005. It can be accessed on the Ministry website
at:'http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/healthysafeschools/actionTeam/shaping.pdf');"
_http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/healthysafeschools/actionTeam/_
In addition to the three provincial‘s principal association, the Ministry funded the
development and delivery training sessions for principals and vice-principals on bullying
prevention. The materials specifically address bullying and school climate in the context of
racism, homophobia and students with special needs. The training sessions commenced in the
spring of 2006 across the province and are continuing through 2007 school year. ―When
completed 7, 450 principals and vice-principals will have been trained.‖ (Manager Ruth Flynn,
Ministry of Education, Policy and Implementation Unit Branch) ―Along with the administrator
training on bullying prevention, training for teachers on bullying prevention is being delivered in
partnership with the Ontario‘s Teachers Federation and it‘s Affiliates. This will result in 25,000
teachers being trained through workshops and an innovative e-learning module, which will be
available in both English and French.‖ (Manager Ruth Flynn, Ministry of Education, Policy and
Implementation Unit Branch).
The Ministry has also distributed a parent resource pamphlet on bullying prevention in all
schools in the province to send home to parents in September 2006. The pamphlet describes
different forms of bullying: how parents can spot the signs of bullying, tips on how to help a
child who is being bullied or is bullying others, and suggested ways for students and parents to
get help from school staff. This pamphlet is currently available in English and French and it may
be viewed at:'http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/parents/bullying.pdf');"
_http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/parents_
In addition, the Ministry has developed a Bullying Prevention Registry to inform
educators and school based teams about which elements of an effective bullying prevention
program are present in each program and resources as well as their cost and age appropriateness.
The classifications are based on the Safe School‘s Action Team recommendation of the key
elements of bullying bullying prevention programs. The Bullying Prevention Registry is
available on the ministry website and is located at:
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/teachers/bullyprevention/"
__http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/teachers/bullyprevention/_
The Shaping Safer Schools: ―A Bullying Prevention Action Plan recommends that part of
an action can, schools conduct a school climate assessment to collect student, staff and parent
perspectives on school safety and establish a baseline of information to inform their decision
222
making around bullying preventative programs. Sample climate surveys are now available on the
Ministry‘s public website. The Safe School Action Team indicated that the use of school climate
surveys is a recommended best practice in schools. ―Schools may choose to make use of these
samples or use surveys that have been locally developed.‖
"http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/teachers/climate.html"
__http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/teachers/climate.html_
Eastdale High School (Oshawa, Ontario) Vice-Principal Carole Trewin confirms that as
of yet, there are currently no specific bullying policies in place; they currently follow the Ontario
Safe School Code of Conduct to deal with school bullying. ―The current Ontario Safe School
Code of Conduct applies on school property, on school buses and at all school authorized events
and activities. It encourages the use of non violent means to resolve conflict, promotes the safety
of people in schools and prohibits the use of alcohol and illicit drugs‖.
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/ssareview/safeE.pdf"
__http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/ssareview/safeE.pdf_
The most recent information I have received is through an e-mail from Mr. Dalton
McGuinty and it reads as follows:

The well-being of students is of great concern to our government. That's why our
comprehensive Safe Schools Strategy was introduced: to ensure that students feel safe at school
and on school grounds, so they can focus on learning. This strategy includes legislation that has
amended the Education Act to more effectively address the causes of inappropriate behaviour in
schools and add bullying to the list of infractions for which suspension must be considered. As
well, in-school suspensions, referrals for consultation and other disciplinary methods would be
considered before expulsion or suspension. This more progressive approach to discipline would
be combined with alternative programs that would allow students to earn their way back into the
classroom to complete their education.
Our government is investing $31 million in 2007-08 to address school safety, including
$23 million in support programs for expelled or suspended students. This builds on the $28.7
million we've already invested in: the development of bullying-prevention programs in every
school; training for teachers, vice-principals and principals in ways to address bullying--
including ways to apply discipline in a non-discriminatory manner; a three-year partnership with
Kids Help Phone to provide immediate and confidential support to students who are victims,
perpetrators or witnesses to violent or bullying behaviour, including cyber-bullying; and the Safe
Welcome Program, which improves security to help staff monitor visitors and limit access to
schools.
My colleagues and I believe that all children deserve a safe and caring learning
environment. I'm confident that these initiatives will ensure that schools are safe and free from
violence and fear.

Thanks again for contacting me. Your input is always welcome.

Dalton McGuinty
Premier of Ontario

A liberal ideology was used to develop the various aspects of the bullying policies. The
economic theory that may have shaped the government‘s thinking in the development of the
policies is economic rationalism, considering this is a targeted expenditure that the government
223
has allowed. The government is searching to maintain future equilibrium for the country,
financial investments have been made in order to ensure or try to ensure future productive tax
paying members of society. Greater efficiency of its citizens is a primary goal in order to remain
competitive; the government must invest in the future of its citizens, which are the children of
this country.
The current policies are adequate to address the peer-to-peer bullying, although I would
recommend the ban of all cell phones on school property. Bullying is often video-taped and then
the videos are posted on websites such as Youtube in order to gain popularity among peers. The
schools are responsible for our children‘s safety while entrusted in their care; therefore, taking
away any tool that is used to bully or that takes away a sense of safety should be banned on
school property. I would forward my recommendation to the school board as well as Mr. Dalton
McGuinty. My recommendation would be met with resistant from parents considering a cell
phone is usually given to a child as a tool to be used in case of an emergency.
School Bullying has become an epidemic, and without a united effort from those
involved (students, parents, educational institutions, government) the statistics will continue to
rise; school bullying is a social problem and not simply isolated incidents. Society‘s fascination
with violence (domestic, community, media) is visible in our children‘s behaviour, and it often
manifests itself in the form of school bullying; it is literally killing our children. The
implementation of policies and programs is urgent, and we must all be accountable in regards to
school bullying for only as a collaborative unit may we triumph over this cruel virus. I wonder,
how many other children must suffer or even worse, die, because we fail to take responsibility as
a society?

Work Cited
Bully B‘ware Productions, 2007.
_ HYPERLINK "http://www.bullybeware.com/moreinfo.html#eight"
__http://www.bullybeware.com/moreinfo.html#eight_

Canadian Children‘s Rights Council, 2007.


_ HYPERLINK "http://www.canadiancrc.com/Bullying.htm"
__http://www.canadiancrc.com/Bullying.htm_
Canadian Red Cross, 2007.
_ HYPERLINK "http://www.redcross.ca/article.asp?id=019185&tid=084"
__http://www.redcross.ca/article.asp?id=019185&tid=084_
CBC News, 2002.
_ HYPERLINK "http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2002/03/25/wesley020325.html"
__http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2002/03/25/wesley020325.html_
Centre for Children and Families in the Justice System, 2007.
_ HYPERLINK "http://www.lfcc.on.ca/bully.htm" __http://www.lfcc.on.ca/bully.htm_
Chappell, Rosalie, Social Welfare In Canadian Society. Nelson a division of Thomas Canada
Limited, 2006.
Carole Trewin, Vice-President.
Eastdale High School, Oshawa, Ontario.

Jones, Jeff P. School Violence. Lucent Books, Inc. 2001.


Garbarino, James Ph.D. deLara, Ellen Ph.D. And Words Can Hurt Forever, How to
Protect Adolescents from Bullying, Harassment, and Emotional Violence. Free Press, 2002.
224
Ontario College of Teachers, Professionally Speaking, 2003.
_ HYPERLINK
"http://www.oct.ca/publications/professionally_speaking/june_2003/bully.asp"
__http://www.oct.ca/publications/professionally_speaking/june_2003/bully.asp_

Ontario Ministry of Education, 2007.


_ HYPERLINK "http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/index.html"
__http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/index.html_

Ontario Safe School Action Team, 2005.


_ HYPERLINK "http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/ssareview/safeE.pdf"
__http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/ssareview/safeE.pdf_

The Epoch Times. Delaney, Jones. Canadian Schools Tackle Bullying, Schools Explore
Ways to Solve the Age-Old Problem, 2005
_ HYPERLINK "http://en.epochtimes.com/news/5-4-2/27514.html"
__http://en.epochtimes.com/news/5-4-2/27514.html_

Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 2007.


_ HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_who_died_due_to_bullying"
__http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_who_died_due_to_bullying_

225
Chapter 30

Systematic Racist and Discriminatory Policies for Nannies


The Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) provides professional employment opportunities
for individuals who want to take care of children, elders and disabled people (Sedef Arat 2001:
1). Every year, thousands of Live-in caregivers, mostly women caregivers, have come into
Canada and left behind their homes, families and sometimes children, where they then enter a
system of temporary and exploitative work and are treated as disposable commodities because of
a Canadian racist exclusionary policy. The Live-in Caregiver Program has been serving as an
immigration policy for marginalizing, criminalizing, and exploiting migrant workers since the
1960s. The Canadian government still has a gate-keeping structure to militarize its borders and to
implement programs that deny migrants the right to live permanently in residence, and this is
achieved by the use of programs that promise to keep migrants permanently temporary. There is
still incompetent, bias behaviour and abuse in the Canadian immigration and refugee settlement
system services, and domestic workers‘ laws and regulations are not based on needs, but on
status. There is little or no monitoring or enforcement of employment conditions, and these
workers ―fall through the cracks between the federal government, which runs the program, and
the provinces, which enforce labour law‖ (Brazao, 2008).
Many researchers have before been done about these vulnerable people‘s rights, where
they are brought into Canada, live in terrible and troubled conditions and are being exploited.
One of them, Makeda Silvera (1981), who had conducted research in the early 1980s had found
that employers were being paid under the minimum wage and also weren‘t paid the over time
wage (Makeda, 1981). Sedef Arat Koc (2001) had found that most domestic worker women
didn‘t break the silence of what they‘ve been through in order to bring their families to Canada,
though many women have been sexually assaulted by employers (Arat Koc, 2001), and similarly,
Lisa Marie Jakubowski (2002) had found discrimination within legalization and segregation
processes, as well as gender inequality (Jakubowski, 2002). The Live-in Caregiver Program was
produced because of common structural economic and political conditions, and it is legitimized
by policies that promote inequality through systemic exploitation, sexual harassment, and
racialization historically, economically and politically.
What is the root of domestics and social exclusion within the history of Canada, and why
has the LCP created systematic racist and discriminatory policies for labour exploitation within
the Canadian immigration system? How has neo-liberal policies shifted and affected domestics
programs and the immigration system in the questioning of transnational communities? Why and
how is Canada still staying as a democratic, lawful and humanist country if yet, Canada
continues to exploit domestic workers, especially Filipino women, as it expands its temporary
foreign worker policies modeled after the LCP and the continuation and expansion of the
modern-day slavery program in Canada? Why do domestic worker regulations still remain
unregulated, and why are nannies unprotected from phony recruitment agencies? Why is the LCP
socially, economically and politically constructed on the basis of culture, linguistics and
racializing gender? Who obtains benefits from marginalized, isolated, and segregated domestics
with low-income status and is kept undocumented and discriminated based on class, race and
citizenship? I will try to briefly answer, in this paper, the questions outlined here and state how
globalization is changing and challenging national policies and attitudes.

226
Historically, domestic workers have been seen, by Canadians in the 18th and 19th
century, as a solution for the demands of household work and child care, and these domestic
workers are called servants and are widely employed in Canada, being brought from among the
poor and white population in feudal Europe before the process of the privatization of family
began. These servants were seen as parts of the family members in patriarchal family structures
and as bonded and trusted persons in comfortable environments, but for the first time, the
feminization of occupation was categorized (Fairchilds, 1984: 23-4). Women had no right of
property or the right to vote or be voted, and so most domestics were females who struggled with
gender inequality and the lower class disadvantage and lived in powerless situations. The
industrialization and urbanization periods that had occurred between the pre-1920s and after the
baby boom of the post-1960s, were very significant to bring domestics into Canada, in which
was connected with the history of racial and ethical relations and the politics of immigration.
Domestic workers had different relationships with their families in wage labour eras,
compared with servants who had worked for families within the family economy, which
provided an indenturing and bonding relationship between the servant and the family before
industrialization. Since the late 1950s, women have enjoyed independent work and private life
when having left domestic, unpaid work; however, the vast majority of Canadian-born white
women were unwilling to enter domestic work and do childcare, as it had become an undesirable
job. The employment involvement of women in labour force was increased to 46.9 percent by
2006, and the employment rate with children under 16 rose from 39 percent in 1974 to 72.5
percent in 2004 (Statistics Canada 2007). Since the 1960s, the Department of Immigration has
been given no choice to develop a domestic worker program to bring cheap labour to Canada and
keep foreign workers within the domestic work force. Between 1973 and 1981, Canada had
recruited foreign domestic workers from other countries with only one year of temporary visas,
and had given specific types of work to specific employers as guest workers instead of landed
immigrants, having promised to some for the landed/permanent status; however, a majority of
such workers (96 percent) were aligned with the live-in status and were predominantly women in
colour, and many visible minorities of women had the lack of basic and political rights in Third
World countries (The Task Force in Immigration Practices and Procedures 1981; 53). Domestic
workers have become strangers since then, and when aligned with new environments, they were
―being in family, but not of it‖ (Leslie 1974: 87). This employment visa system didn‘t care about
how bad living and working conditions were for the domestics. Domestics were unable to leave
their jobs without losing their rights. They were given two weeks of time to find a new employer,
even though individual immigration officers could decide, by discovering the working conditions
of the domestics‘ previous employers by asking them with the use of a letter, if the worker could
switch with another employer (The Task Force in Immigration Practices and Procedures 1981;
26).
The increasing numbers of domestics brought to Canada with employment visas rose
from 1,800 in 1973 to more than 16,000 in 1982 (Silvera 1983; 15). Makeda Silvera (1983) had
conducted research and found that domestics were earning only 3.5 dollars per hour in the early
1980s, and regular hours were 44 hours/week and no overtime work was paid by their
employers. Temporary domestics weren‘t able to expect services while they were required to pay
the Canadian Pension Plan and Unemployment Insurance premium and income taxes, and even
so they could not claim any benefits, whereas Revenue Canada had collected from the CPP and
UIC more than 11 million dollars between the years of 1973 and 1979 (The Task Force in
Immigration Practices and Procedures 1981; 70). The Foreign Domestic Movement (FDM)
program came into effect in 1981 and provided the opportunity for domestic workers to apply for
the landed immigrant status after doing two years of domestic service without leaving the
227
country, and yet there were still extra restrictions that put the live-in arrangement as a mandatory
condition, such as being proficient in either English or French and having specific job skills
(Jakubowski 2002: 62). Jakubowski (2002) explains how the FDM was replaced with the Live-In
Caregiver Program (LCP) in 1992 that has made it somewhat easier for domestics to become
permanent residents because it was advocated by activists, researchers, women organizations and
domestic workers associations and was improved from the past programs that had been in its
place, in which were Domestic Schemes and The Temporary Authorization Program.
The LCP still has a number of conditions, such as having a Grade 12 education, being
able to speak English or French and performing in live-in service, plus proof of six months of
full time training in areas such as early child education, geriatric care and pediatric nursing.
Within their first three years of residence in Canada, domestics are eligible to apply for the
landed immigrant status provided that they have completed two years of domestic work
(Jakubowski 2002; 63). These criteria were not fit in many countries‘ schooling and training
systems, where most Third World Country citizens cannot be qualified for such reasons as the
non-existence of a 12th grade education in high school in most countries. After the completion of
many advocacies, the government revised the requirements of the high school diploma, and the
minimum of work experience in care giving was recognized as equivalent to six months of
formal training. The release letter from previous employers had gotten the requirement to be
removed when domestics had claimed to change their employers, though the domestics still had
to get a record of their employment showing how long they were working and however much
they earned (CEIC 1992). These requirements haven‘t been changed since the economic
restructuring of neo-liberalism that has supported a new form of employment exploitation in the
unregulated free market economy in Canada since the last two decades.
Economically, government policies have been structured based on the labour market‘s
needs, and this is why policies have restricted the gain of full status to domestics and why
lawmakers have an unwillingness to remove unfavorable abusive working conditions. For many
years, Ontario‘s lack of regulation over the nanny recruiters‘ contract and the unregulated sector
has failed to protect nannies from rogue unscrupulous, phony and unregulated recruitment
agencies, which gain benefits from abusive, systematic, racist and discriminatory policies. Under
the depression of social exclusion, many Filipino and Caribbean women have gained double
consequences in transnationalism, and their skills de-professionalized in the Diaspora culture.
Even after receiving the immigrant status, it is difficult for them to move on to other professions
and so they must continue to do nanny slavery. Under the stress of low-earning jobs, placement
fees and abused financial charges, most of these women have suffered in debt, bankruptcy, or
have ended up in a suicidal condition.
Nannies seem to be modern-day slaves who work within long working hours and care
after everything in the home based on the call service where their employers can access them
24/7; however, they cannot access health insurance benefits or choose to be unemployed and
take the advantage of retirement deductions (Silvera 1981: 85). They work as indentured
servants, often doing work that is not related with care giving, and are underpaid and overworked
"morning, noon and night" as cleaners, maids and handywomen (Ferguson 2009). Furthermore,
domestic workers are unable to unionize to protect their rights and bargain for their wage
collectively. The Toronto Star raised this issue on the media in 2008 through a series of reports,
and after a year the government had introduced the Employment Protection for Foreign
Nationals Act in October, 2009. The new bill included provisions to extend the protection of
temporary foreign workers if the government would deem it that necessary. This bill also made
it illegal for nanny recruitment agencies and people who hire nannies to take their documents,
such as passports or work permits. Nanny recruiters would face a maximum fine of $50,000 and
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be placed in jail for up to a year if they were to get caught when "directly or indirectly" charging
foreign caregivers a fee to work in Ontario under legislation. The jail term is the toughest penalty
in Canada in such cases (Ferguson, 2009).
After years of tireless organizing, many other groups and allies across the country won
the fight, and since December 9, 2009, Immigration Canada extended the number of years within
which live-in caregivers could apply for permanent status and removed the requirement of a
second medical test. The changes which were announced on December 12, 2009, included the
extension of the period of the ability to complete the Live-in requirement from three years to four
years; the ability to apply for permanent residency after fulfilling 3,900 hours of work; the
elimination of the second medical examination when applying for permanent residency; that
employers should cover the Live-in Caregiver‘s travel and medical costs and provide signed
contracts that would clearly outline their working hours, overtime work, sick leave and vacation;
and that live-in caregivers were to be given the ability to obtain emergency work permits within
three weeks if they were abused (Canada Gazette 2009). These changes were only band-aid
solutions and still tie peoples‘ immigration status with their employers, yet policies still continue
to exploit LCP women and put them in a vulnerable position based on their status, which
severely limits the ability of such migrants on work programs to gain full status.
Politically, because of a long history of the legalization of racism and the segregation
process (Jakubowski, 2002: 61), an immigrant or domestic worker is assumed to be a person in
color, and the process of criminalization is very dense. The ideology of racism grows out from
colonization. This process has been socially, internationally, and culturally constructed, even
when its exploited migrants have had the capability of committing a human strike. Slavery-based
ideology has encouraged the control and maintenance of society. Moreover, living with the
employer requirement is unnecessary, though it is exploiting caregivers in many ways, such as
while it provides the opportunity for abuse and assault for them, they are also not paid overtime
for their work. This caregiver program comes into play with no strict regulations and with cruel
decisions, such as the living arrangement, where there are employer-caused sexual assaults.
Numerous rapes and harassment incidents have occurred, but the victims of such incidents were
silenced if they wanted to bring their family members after two years of slavery employment.
Undocumented nannies have ended up in the service sector, with work in factories, exotic
clubs and escort services. The bachelor society has made the people who leave behind their
offspring and relatives to work as slaves within the stranger home (Sedef Arat 2001: 25). Sedef
Arat (2001) had made community-based agency research through interviews, and a number of
issues surrounding domestics that she mentions have similar barriers, such as cultural, linguistic
and racial ones, and she had also observed several global characteristics of the LCP, including
the invisibility, isolation and low status of domestics which exist because of the nature of private
works that have led to loneliness and may vary significantly based on class, race and citizenship
(Sedef Arat 2001: 10). The LCP is a racist and anti-woman program by which mostly Filipino
women are brought into Canada to do childcare or elder care and domestic work in the homes of
middle and upper-class Canadians. Ninety-five percent of all those who enter through the LCP
are from the Philippines, and many women face exploitation and all forms of abuse under the
LCP, such as the long-term negative impacts that are, on such women, that when many children
are reunited with their mothers after five or more years of separation, they see them as strangers
(Sedef Arat 2001: 21). This experience of separation, migration, and family re-unification is very
traumatic for the Filipino Diaspora for both mothers and their children. The worsening trauma is
hard to integrate onto both the country of origin and the Diaspora of the country because of
socio-economic and cultural marginalization of the belonging community. Filipino women work
while enduring ‗modern-day slavery‘ where their freedom disappears and a long-term impact is
229
placed on their children because of the program and the long distance between mother and child.
The racist, anti-woman Live-in Caregiver Program destroys family trusts, bonds and intimacy
relationships, whereas feminists have failed to protect LCP women in Canada.
In conclusion, colonialism, capitalism, imperialism and globalization have a high effect
on the LCP. The Canadian system is not equally treating LCP domestic workers and instead
favors the gate-keeping structure. Neo-liberal policies and the global economy have led to the
increase in migration and the decrease of the working condition standard. Temporary status, the
employer-specific contract and the living arrangement are still setting the context for the
exploitative and oppressive conditions for domestics. The Canadian government continues to
dehumanize workers because of their status and maintains the modern-day slavery of women.
The LCP‘s practice is still incompetent, produces bias behaviour and abuses women in the
Canadian immigration system, and it presents that its laws, regulations and practices are not fit in
with such a democratic country as Canada. There is a strict distinction between real rights and
cosmetic rights. Foreign nannies reduce labour costs in the market and save the government
from making major investments on the daycare and childcare system. The current LCP supports
sexism and the exploitation of women, which is Canada's unseen and dark, racist and
discriminatory side. Even though domestic service is paid, as is housework, it is invisible,
economical and ideological and grants the LCP more social exclusion. This is how society deals
with immigrants, as well as how the LCP deals with them, just as domestics struggle with
segregation, marginalization and criminalization. A majority of immigrants and domestic
workers fall as the victims of the present system and racial stigma that say they are disqualified
and deskilled, causing such people to become stereotyped on the basis of colour, gender, race,
ethnicity, etc. Every human being should have rights to move and be given opportunities
regardless of race, ethnicity and culture, etc. Recruiter agencies still preferred to hire women and
not men, and this shows that the LCP has a gender policy that contains inequalities. The bachelor
female society has taken the generations of the LCP‘s family lives to have been traumatized by
this program that survives within the Canadian racist structure, ironically. This struggle will
never stop until racism, sexism and discrimination are removed from Canadian laws and policies,
and otherwise, the LCP will stay ashamed by all Canadians. Canadian domestic worker programs
have different historical, social, cultural and global economical contexts than western countries.
The study of transnational political, social and cultural practices is very important for law makers
and scholars who need to research more on how globalization and neo-liberalism will place an
effect on the LCP regarding its issues of classifying people by their race, ethnicity, citizenship,
transnationalism and so forth, especially with its issue of violating human rights in the future.

References

Arat Koc, Sedef. 2001. Caregivers Break the Silence. Particatory Action Research on Abuse and
Violance, Including the Impact of the Family Separation. Experienced by Women in The Live-in
Caregiver Program Toronto: Intercede, 2001.
Brazao, Dale. 2008. The Toronto Star. Nanny sent to work as underpaid servant. 22 September
2008. Retrieved from _ HYPERLINK "http://www.thestar.com/News/gta/article/503452"
__http://www.thestar.com/News/gta/article/503452_
CEIC, 1992. Immigration regulations, 1978 as amended by SOR/92-214-685
Fairchilds, C. 1984. Domestic Enemies: Servants and Their Masters in Old Regime France,
Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press.

230
Ferguson, Rob. 2009. The Toronto Star. Ontario nanny bill includes jail terms. 22 October 2009.
Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/714060
Jakubowski, Lisa Marie. 2002. Immigration and the Legalization of Racism, Amending the
Canadian Immigration Act: The Live-in caregiver Program, Halifax: Fernwood Publishing.
Leslie, G. 1974. Domestic Service in Canada., 1880-1920, in Women at Work, Ontario 1850-
1930. Toronto: The Women‘s Press.
Ministry of Immigration. 2009. Minister Kenney proposes significant improvements to the Live-
in Caregiver Program. December 12, 2009.
Statistic Canada. 2007. http//www.40.statcan.ca/01/cst01/labour05.htm
Silvera Makeda. 1981. Immigrant Domestic Workers: Whose Dirt Laundry? Fireweed 9.
Silvera, Makeda. 1983. Silenced. Toronto: Sister Vision, 1989.
The Task Force in Immigration Practices and Procedures. 1981. Domestic Workers on
Employment Authorization Report ( Apr)
The Canada Gazette, The proposed changes to the Live-in Caregiver Program. December 19,
2009.

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Chapter 31

Top-down French Secularism Targets the Full Veil

The French parliament will have a debate again, and it is expected to pass a nonbinding
resolution suggested in the 644 page report calling for a ban on the full facial veils anywhere in
the public realm after the regional election in March 2010. Within the policy of the separation of
religion and state, this French top-down secularism has more likely produced a racist
environment among the majority of French citizens who understand that wearing ethno-religious
symbols like the Hijab is a sign that threatens their national identity, and this idea is confusing
the belonging and freedom values in both private and public spheres. In this paper, I argue on the
new French law initiative that the secularization of dichotomy leads to trigger racist images with
―deculturalization‖, ―de-territorialization‖ and ―uprootedness.‖ This is because the ―American-
style communitarianism‖ or multiculturalism is a threat to the model of French citizenship, and
that is why the French politicians use the headscarf as a ―conspicuous religious sign‖ that
deconstructs their race and ethnicity, and exercises their power opposition between freedom and
belonging (Jansen, 2006).
Racist ideas have been triggered by right-wing political mobilizations in France since the
1990s, and they have shifted from being openly xenophobic and belonging to a white superiority
approach to becoming an ―incompatibility of cultures‖ argument in the mainstream political life
in the 2000s. The Stasi report was a big step of deculturalization that went without mentioning
that it was enhanced with 9/11 references that contained the prohibition of the wearing of the
Hijab. It is described as a ―political sign‖ and describes Islam as a ―political religion‖ against
modernity, and this report made legal and political boundaries among ethnic French and religious
groups within France in 2003 (Jansen, 2006). The French government has already banned and
enforced to remove headscarves and other signs of religious affiliation since 2004 from public
schools, passport photos, airline securities and banks which symbolizes France‘s tradition of
strict secularism amid fears of growing fundamentalism among France‘s five million Muslims
(Erlanger, 2010). Since the beginning of 2010, it is sad to see that a broad French alliance from
across the country has come together to discuss and extend racist, discriminatory and oppressive
law preparation. In fact, the people of Islam among the French population are a minority of a
religious group and have no political domination or influence on the majority of the population
to go with the Hijab or go without it. Covering full face or halfway does not indicate whether a
person is a bad or good type of Muslim, but it is their duty to belong to a community and religion
that is not against the creation of national identity or competing citizenship, though the
difference in veils may only be increasing the visibility of the diversity in modernity.
The French believe that the freedom associated with modern citizenship is inescapable
and that diversity is only acceptable because it is inevitable, and because it is something to be
tolerated rather than embraced so that it won‘t turn into fanaticism, oppression and social
exclusion (Jansen, 2006). The French national identity contains strong laicism that is mandatory,
which places effect on the de-territorialization of existing cultures, such as Islam and Muslims.
This model is rooted to colonialism that looms large in the Islamic discourse of the
deconstruction of Muslim cultures, religions and politics over the centuries. According to the
French feminists and secularists‘ point of view, Islam is a man-dominant culture where men
control and oppress women with the Hijab in the domestic sphere, where this dominion presents
232
―gender oppression‖ in the public sphere, but there is a dispute on this issue where a majority of
Muslim women disagreed with this idea and where feminists say that these women must be a
―silent majority‖ (Jansen, 2006). As matter of fact, the Muslim veil, or Hijab, represents simply a
personal expression of faith based on the order of God according to the Qur‘an, the holy book of
Islam, and it is not the main pillar of Islam but is a part of it as being irreplaceable, and only the
wearing style and colour can change and vary from culture to culture, whereas it is not a symbol
of neo-fanatic, traditional or mainstream beliefs nor is it a political sign.
Roy Oliver claimed that it is not only Islam but also Christianity and Hinduism that are
returning to their pure religions in the global world, and laicite and multiculturalism assume that
the existence of Islamic communities is a contribution to their national identity‘s formation (Roy,
2004). Images of uprootedness have been increasing since the deculturalization of religion, in
which leads to the purification of privatization and individualization of religion in the public
sphere, but nobody is concerned about ethnicity, poverty, othering, xenophobia or global politics
over small, victimized populations. The Hijab is linked to Islam, and the French interpret the
Muslims incorrectly, and it is as if they are saying to them that ―If you do not think like us, you
do not belong to us‖ (Jansen, 2006). France is not debating why their Jacobean laicism is
building invisible walls in society, and the French are not willing to accept a law against
Islamophobia, like the laws against anti-Semitism that prevent discrimination against Muslims
and reduce racist anti-Islamic propaganda.
In conclusion, the majority of the French population denies the force of communitarian
sentiment; it perceives the difference as a threat and failure to the reconciliation of the freedom
of conscience with the demands of the neutrality of the public sphere. There shouldn‘t be a
distinction between freedom and belonging which have become more apparent and
interconnected since the start of globalization. ―The scarf is something between women and
Allah that connect to culture,‖ religion and history before feminist claims were constructed
(Jansen, 2006). The majority of French secularists and feminists have a lack of understanding
other religious beliefs and practices, having allowed segregation and ghettoizing to continue to
elaborate the melting pot of general individual citizenship. The discriminatory law initiative
symbolizes cultural and political hegemony, where superiority beliefs are against marginalized
foreigners‘ cultures and religious practices, and in this case, they disrespect multiculturalism and
communitarian values and destroy civic unity and the sense of belonging to France and violate
the universal and even basic human rights of women (Jansen, 2006).
References
Erlanger, Steven. 2010.Face-Veil Issue in France Shifts to Parliament for Debate, New York
Times January 26, 2010.
Roy, Oliver. 2004. Globalized Islam, New York: Columbia University Press. , p 1-10
Jansen, Yolande. 2006. ― Laicite, or the Politics of Republican Secularism‖, Political
Theologies: Public Religions in a Post-Secular World, Fordham University Press, p 475-493.

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Chapter 32

Sociological Research Methods

Research Proposal- Undergraduate level

―Binge drinking among York university students causes bad effects on their grades‖

Social issue
The alcohol drinking, cigarette smoking and use of illicit drug habits of university
students have become widespread for individuals who are still under peer group influence. Since
the 1980s, new adulthood freedom has led to an increase in substance use for some individuals.
Young university students go out at night for fun and recreation and are the ones who are most
likely to drink heavily. Testing with the data gathering process is a deductive method which
allows investigating the theory of middle range within functionalism (Ramsarran, 2010) on
whether binge drinking among York university students causes bad effects on their grades.

Social institution and social structure


The parents of students face difficulty to challenge their dealing with the present day
binge drinking behaviour of their children in the post-modern society under the influence of
media and popular sub-culture. The government and university administration are less likely to
ban or reduce the accessibility of alcohol drinks and change binge drinking habits, and instead
are encouraging university clubs to organize more social activity in pubs. Most York students
are eligible to purchase and use alcohol drinks freely in this social structure. I will examine the
structure of political power and how its interest and role is effective on the drinking of more
alcohol (Bryan; Teevan; Bell, 2009: p 19). The purpose of this study is to understand and look at
the students‘ perception of the risks involved in the usage of alcohol during study periods and
how this habit places effect on their grades.

Operations
A survey examination of the prevalence of rates of alcohol usage will be conducted
among 20 York university student subjects. The assessment will be operated including
demographics such as: age, social group, gender, educational level and ethnic background. The
operation will function in a time frame that is between the last week of November and the first
three weeks of December 2010, which is known as the rush time for projects, assignments and
mid-terms or final exams. This experiment will show how independent and dependent variables
are affected. The survey‘s quantitative numbers will conceptualize how having relatives and
friends who are binge drinking users is highly effective for becoming addictive and earning
failure grades. Binge drinking is defined as having had five or more drinks in a row for the
previous two weeks. I‘ve chosen to challenge my cause & effect question with a ―Middle Range
Theory‖ which focuses on the real situation, identifying problems and resolving some conflicts
rather than using classical ―Functionalism‖ that analyzes society in very simplified ways and
doesn‘t deal with reality or conflict as a theory of social order and stability, which focus on
harmony and efficiency of social order (Ramsarran, 2010).

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Epistemology & Ontological orientation
The effect of being a participant in a socially deviant subculture is highlighted by the
increased probability in social reality that the individual problem of binge drinking is becoming a
public issue. The binge drinking behaviour gets an approval from friends and parents because of
normality, whereas it more likely gets disapproval in the Canadian society, which may be a cause
and effect relationship underestimated. Research will be objective and the use of the scientific
method will rise in desirability of which is quantitative (Bryan; Teevan; Bell, 2009: p, 19). Not
surprisingly, binge drinking in the university years has been legitimized under the cultural
influence of music, the entertainment industry, and media and supported by peers who do not
have knowledge of its risk factors. Facts and the objective reality will appear in my survey data
rather than in the interpretation of inductive knowledge, unscientific personal observation and
qualitative methods of wording, and that‘ s why using the positivist method is more reliable and
will be opposed to the constructionists‘ beliefs (Bryan; Teevan; Bell, 2009: p 10).

Strategy & Research method


This study is very important to investigate and compare between non-drinking and
drinking York students when they study exams and in result of their grades which might place
effect on their future academic success. The survey will be conducted carefully with avoidance
in any ethical concern that ―relate to informed consent, deception, harm to participants and
invasion of privacy‖ (Bryan; Teevan; Bell, 2009: p 19). All participants will be informed orally
and written with their names protected. The survey will allow focusing on the active involvement
of people in a ‗reality construction‘ (Bryan; Teevan; Bell, 2009: p 11). The research question is
very straight forward and considerate in practicality to understand the cause and effect
relationship between binge drinking and grades. Ten survey questions will be asked to 10
drinkers and 10 non-drinkers to get data and analyze it with numbering as use of the quantitative
method to test the theory of Middle Range and provide multiple truths.
This study will be indeed similar to alcohol consumption on a regular basis widespread
for individuals in other locations and times which will then become societal problems at large
rather than by individuals only in my social imagination. Since some social facts and values
construct a form of preconception, I will suppress my bias, prejudice and judgment when
conducting this research (Bryan; Teevan; Bell, 2009: p 13). This survey and the result of its
research may or may not address some similarities with other surveys; however, unlimited data is
unable to critique whether that relationship between binge drinking and the grade theory is true
or wrong. The relationship will be examined using the middle extreme between binge drinking
and grades according to the Middle Range theory; however, the limited deductive data that I will
contrive from this survey will be unable to produce reliable, trustworthy, or valid information
even when we check the relationship between the middle range theory and binge drinking
(Bryan; Teevan; Bell, 2009: pp 22). Testing is my prime objective with the use of the positivistic
science method and that is why I‘ve chosen this strategy and methodology to analyze data which
is quantitative (Bryan; Teevan; Bell, 2009: p 12). Furthermore, it will provide some idea that
binge drinking among university students is a common social ritual as well as a continuing social
concern that has become a public issue in a matter that more or less affects the grades of
students.
College and university binge drinking has been a behaviour of concern in Canada for many
years. This study examines binge drinking in a sample survey of 20 random York University
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students, both men and women over a range of 18-25 years age, through paper structured interviews
and questionnaires on how drinking places effect on their grades, behaviour and health. This
quantitative deductive project allowed me to study a social reality which can be measurable with
consistent empirical study with a cross-sectional research design that focuses on sampling at a
single point in time and comparison and analysis with other studies and documents.

Theoretical Framework
American sociologist Robert Merton‘s ―Middle Range Theory‖ is chosen as a theoretical
frame work. Merton in ―Social Theory and Social Structure‖ (1957) emphasized in his theory that
―all the observed uniformities of social behaviour, organization and social change... starts with
delimited aspects of social phenomena instead of broad, abstract entities such as society‖ (Merton,
1957). Merton theorized anomie, normative structure and deviant behaviour are helpful to analyze
the binge drinking normative with various social strains, whereas there is an evident inconsistency
between the culture's norms and socially defined means about the proper ways to achieve this
anomie at unequal or disproportionate levels based on gender, ethnic, social class, differences etc.
(Merton, 1938, Bryan, Teevan, Bell, 2009, Ramsarran, 2010). According to Merton (1971), ―if
norms are unclear, absent, or constantly changing, people are more likely to break the norms and
commit deviant acts‖ such as will be seen in binge drinking behaviour (Merton, 1971), for instance,
with the view of binge drinking consumption as a deviant behaviour whether the consumer is of a
socially defined ‗adult‘ age or not.

Literature Review
Binge drinking has been a confused concept throughout its history. Berridge et. al. (2007)
discussed that the issue of perception changed the definition of binge drinking, which is related to
―the shift in the focus of alcohol policy and alcohol science,‖ in the last two decades because of the
role of the dominant interest group in alcohol business (Berridge et. al., 2007). Most York students
are eligible to purchase and use alcohol drinks freely in this social structure with two different
definitions under the influence of media and popular sub-culture, for which Berridge et. al. (2007)
suggested an idea using the classical definition linked to the clinical definition of the diseases of
alcoholism, and they described it later on in a single session leading to the speech of intoxication;
actually, both terms co-exist in society (Berridge et. al., 2007). White et. al. (2006) accepted a
definition they observed from the Harvard School of Public Health on how to measure binge
drinking which is ―4 or more drink(4+) for females and 5 or more drinks (5+) for males in a 2-week
period‖ (White et. al., 2006). I will use this definition and measurement to find out how the
individual problem of binge drinking is becoming a public issue in the coexistence of both terms.
White et al. (2006) used this definition in the study of college drinking which is a dichotomous
variable defined by meeting within or exceeding a 2 week period in which students cross the binge
threshold, and their research data collected at 14 schools across the United States indicated another
definition, that ― binge drinking frequently (3 or more times in a 2-week period) leads to a greater
risk of negative consequences who consume high peak level of alcohol than binge drinking
infrequently (1 or 2 times per 2-week period) or drinking but not binging,‖ and binge drinking
measures simply cannot completely characterize the drinking habits of college students (White et.
al., 2006). I will examine a similar pattern of the relationship between frequent and infrequent binge
drinkers of the binge threshold and focus on gender differences. Furthermore, Nelson et al. (2005)
assessed the relationship between college binge drinking, binge drinking in the general population,
and selected alcohol policies and concluded that state-level alcohol control policies may help reduce
binge drinking among college students and the general population (Nelson et. al., 2005). This is
236
related to my research that the York University administration and its social policy are less likely to
ban or reduce the accessibility of alcohol drinks, and instead are encouraging university clubs to
organize more social activities in pubs. In summary, after examining literatures, this study sets out
to answer questions and find gaps between studies such as, ―How do Canadians and the York
Minimum Drinking Age Act depict the use of alcohol by students?‖ ―Is there a significant
difference in the depiction of peer pressure among student males and student females?‖ ―Have do
family relationships, age, gender, and race variables change over binge alcohol consumption, either
increased or decreased in terms of the threshold?‖ Through an analysis of binge drinking behaviour
studied in US universities with cross-sectional analysis, my study adds depth to previous literatures
on binge consumption by York students which examine how the binge drinking effects their grades,
behaviour and health, due to the limitation of numbers involved in my study.

Research Design
A research design refers to ―a framework for the collection and analysis of data‖ (Bryan;
Teevan, Bell, 2009). There are four prominent research designs; the experimental and related
design: such as the quasi-experiment; cross-sectional designs, including survey research as the most
common form; longitudinal designs, such as panel and cohort studies; and case study designs. I
chose the cross-sectional design because it doesn‘t involve any manipulations of independent
variables, and it allows me to focus on a single point in time in which is of two forms. Considering
the quantitative quality of social research, reliability, replicability, and external validity are
important criteria but there may be internal validity that is problematic. A comparison of two forms
which are in a quantitative content analysis of a set of documents that are used in my literature
review relate to a single period of my sample. My sample is not experimental nor a control group on
the dependent variable as an experimental design, and I didn‘t make a research on my sample on
more than one occasion to explore a map change; that‘s why I haven‘t chosen the longitudinal
design. Binge drinking can be a single case study, although I didn‘t study with an organization, a
person, family or community by qualitative interviewing. The cross-sectional design is the best
option for my study with the usage of scientific approaches of both positivism and objectivism ―like
snapshots taken of a group and compare with two variables‖ (Bryan, Teevan, Bell, 2009).

Identifying the Research Strategy


The purpose of this study is to understand and look at the student perception of the risks
involved in the usage of binge alcohol during study periods and how this habit places effect on their
grades. Binge drinking is defined as the action of having taken five or more drinks in a row for the
previous two weeks. The effect of being a participant in a socially deviant subculture is highlighted
by the increased probability of social reality that the problem of binge drinking among individuals
is becoming a public issue. Not surprisingly, binge drinking during one‘s university years has been
legitimized under the cultural influence of music, the entertainment industry, and media and
supported by peers who do not have knowledge of its risk factors. The facts and objective reality of
this will appear in my survey data, for which ten survey questions will be asked to randomly
selected full-time York university undergraduate students to get the data to be analyzed with
numbering, thus having used the quantitative study. Testing with the data gathering process is a
deductive method which allows investigation on the theory of middle range within functionalism on
whether binge drinking among York university students causes bad effects on their grades. This
quantitative project will allow me to study a social reality which can be measurable with consistent
empirical study with a cross-sectional research design that focuses on sampling at a single point in
time and comparison and analysis with other studies and documents.
237
Identifying the Data Collection and Sampling Techniques
Data collection refers to the collection of numerical data, words and images from targeted
populations (Bryan al other, 2009). This is the quantitative study and it can be used to seek for a
positivistic and objectivist understanding of the binge drinking habit as a social reality. There are
two types of sampling techniques, one of which uses probability and the other non-probability. This
project has been using the probability sampling technique, since it is the quantitative method of
research orientation. A structural survey interview examination of the prevalence of the rates of
alcohol usage will be conducted through phone interviews with 20 York university student subjects.
There are four types of probability sampling techniques; namely, the simple random sample,
systemic sample, stratified random sampling and multi-stage cluster sampling (Bryan al other,
2009). This project‘s samples will be selected through use of the technique of simple random
sampling, by which 20 students can, without bias, be selected among the current 30 thousand full-
time undergraduate York students, and in addition, accessing the list of all such students is possible.
Using a table, random numbers can be generated which are between 1 and 30000. This technique
has been chosen over all other techniques because it uses random numbers and causes less of a
sampling error wherein there is no opportunity for bias; therefore, it is also not dependent on
student availability, whereby if students are non-responsive, other students may be chosen (Bryan al
other, 2009). There are various reasons why the subjects may not be representative enough, one of
which concerns the limitations of having 20 subjects only. Random sampling could cause those
belonging to any of the age, subgroup, gender, and ethnic background categories to be chosen.
There is also a generalization problem that will occur because it is difficult to generalize with a
small number of students to represent a larger context. However, the limitations of time and cost
must be placed and can cause a damaging or negative effect on the result, and in terms of
credibility, validity and reliability they weaken the study.

The Method, Advantages, Disadvantages and Challenges


Research orientation and the sampling method are the matters which affect accuracy, cost
and time. Compared to the technique of simple sampling, the other sampling techniques cause
difficulty because I don‘t have enough time to select every 20 students among 30000 and begin
randomly selecting again using a computer program. The stratification criteria may be feasible to
identify subgroups and is more representative, although it is costly and time consuming. My target
is not to reach out to a large population in different regions. Thus, the non-probability and non-
random sampling techniques, such as convenience, snow-balling and quota sampling which are not
useful in terms of reliability, aren‘t legitimate and do not cause generalizing and thus may not be
used for the study. Every random sample has an equal chance to be selected, and there are few
sampling errors that may occur because the survey‘s head and tale is on the basis of 50/50 that
reduces bias, and as well, non-responsive samples do not affect the study. There are many
advantages of using the quantitative method and structural survey in the study; one advantage is that
they increase reliability, validity and replication. Close-ended questions are less time- consuming,
easy for coding, cheaper to progress, have a lesser contamination factor and reactive effect
compared to other orientation studies when compared with the qualitative research method, open-
ended questions‘ coding and their structural observation. There are disadvantages with the use of
the quantitative method, for example, fix-choice questions force respondents to choose between
given options, and cause them to be exhausted in decision-making, reducing their answers in
validity and giving non-sense to the respondent, and causing a category overlap, the loss of
authenticity, as well as causing them to be either stuck with a category or unable to find one,

238
whereas the method thus leads to the loss of information or collapse and reduces the effectiveness
of the report and conversation (Bryan al other, 2009).
In conclusion, this quantitative study will challenge me to use the survey that will be
conducted carefully with avoidance in any ethical concern that ―relates to informed consent,
deception, harm to participants and invasion of privacy‖ and which is more ethical over other
methods (Bryan al other, 2009). The probability technique of the simple random sampling and
structural data collection techniques will suppress my bias, prejudice and prejudgment, and in
comparison with other surveys will increase objectivity and credibility. I will get some micro-level
reliable data through structural interviews and observed behaviours throughout the data. I will deal
with non-responsive participants easily because samples are accessible with lowered bias when
using simple sampling. I will point out my views while analyzing data and testing the middle range
theory in the macro level and try to produce generalized knowledge. Due to the lack of resources,
cost insufficiency and time limitations, it will be hard to generalize my result because my sample
sizes are outnumbered and not representative enough to apply more of the full-time York University
undergraduate population. My analysis will not have an in-depth explanation or narrowed-down
focus, and its meaning is oriented. This cross-sectional study will show binge-drinking behaviour
among societal problems at large rather than specifically by individuals.

References

Berridge, Virginia, Herring, Rachel and Thom, Betsy. (2007) Binge Drinking: A Confused Concept
and its Contemporary History. Social History of Medicine, Vol 22, No 3, pp 597-598

Bryan, Alan, J.Teevan, James, Bell, Edward. (2009). Research Designs, Chapter 2. Social Research
Method. Oxford University Press, pp 21, 41.
Bryan, Alan; J.Teevan, James; Bell, Edward. 2009. Social Research Method. Oxford University
Press, pp 10.
Bryan, Alan; J.Teevan, James; Bell, Edward. 2009. Social Research Method. Oxford University
Press, pp 11
Bryan, Alan; J.Teevan, James; Bell, Edward. 2009. Social Research Method. Oxford University
Press, pp 12.
Bryan, Alan; J.Teevan, James; Bell, Edward. 2009. Social Research Method. Oxford University
Press, pp 13.
Bryan, Alan; J.Teevan, James; Bell, Edward. 2009. Social Research Method. Oxford University
Press, pp 19.
Bryan, Alan; J.Teevan, James; Bell, Edward. 2009. Social Research Method. Oxford University
Press, pp 22.
Bryan, Alan; J.Teevan, James; Bell, Edward. 2009. Social Research Method. Oxford University
Press, p 19.
Bryan, Alan; J.Teevan, James; Bell, Edward. 2009. Social Research Method. Oxford University
Press, p 46.
239
Bryan, Alan; J.Teevan, James; Bell, Edward. 2009. Social Research Method. Oxford University
Press, pp 139-140.
Bryan, Alan; J.Teevan, James; Bell, Edward. 2009. Social Research Method. Oxford University
Press, p 190.
Bryan, Alan; J.Teevan, James; Bell, Edward. 2009. Social Research Method. Oxford University
Press, pp 189-192.

Merton, Robert (1938). The unanticipated consequences of purposive social action. American
Sociological Review1, pp 894, 904.

Merton, Robert (1957). Social Theory and Social Structure. New York: Free Press, 1957, p 51.

Merton, Robert (1971). Social problems and sociological theory. In his Contemporary Social
Problems. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc, p 57.

Nelson, Toben F., Naimi, Timothy S., Brewer, Robert D., Wechester, Henry (2005). The State Sets
the Rate: The Relationship Among State-Specific College Binge Drinking, State Binge Drinking
Rates and Selected State Alcohol Control Policies. American Journal of Public Health, March
2005, Vol 95, No.3, pp 441, 442.

Ramsarran, Parbattie. (2010). Sociological Research Method Lecture. York University.


Unpublished.

Ramsarran, Parbattie. 2010. Sociological Research Method Lecture. York University.


Unpublished.

White, Aaron M., Kraus, Courney L., and Swartzwelder, Harry Scott. (2006). Many College
Freshmen Drink at Levels Far Beyond the Binge Threshold. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental
Research, Vol 30, No.6, pp 1006,1008.

Research Proposal- MA Level

The Hizmet (Gülen) Movement of Canada


The Hizmet (Gülen) movement has involved diverse people in Turkey and abroad,
including Canada, by mobilizing inactive energies within a very short time over a large
geographical area (over 180 countries including many provinces in Canada) and to achieve
joint projects of service that millions of people are taking part in from different nations, and
it provides peaceful solutions to oppose the clash of civilizations. The Gülen Movement has
formed a large number of organizations operating across economic, political and cultural
boundaries in which it circulates and diffuses ideas, information, a new pattern of action and
cultures as it is able to transfer latency into visibility through collective action and services,
which are then institutionalized (Cetin, 2009). I will study the Gülen Movement of Canada
with a deductive quantitative research on its organization activities and qualitative a field
240
research on participants and compare, with existing researches in Texas, the USA,
questioning whereby if the movement promotes solutions to the three major problems of
Canadian society: ―Ignorance (lack of education),‖ ―Poverty,‖ and ―Disunity‖ through its
model of universal education, dialogue and human centered principle to pursue social justice
in late modernity in the period of between 2005 and 2010.

Theoretical Framework
Up until the 1960s, major sources for the sociological understanding of social
movements were: the Marxist theory, the Psychological theory, and the Collective theory.
The Hizmet Movement is, however, a new non-contentious collective action and actors as a
socio-cultural phenomenon. I will use three contemporary approaches, namely ‗the political
opportunity structure,‘ ‗resource mobilization,‘ and ‗the frame theory‘ as multi-polar
approaches. The Political Opportunity Structure studies the impact of structure on collective
action, and vice versa. The Resource Mobilization Theory ignores ideology, origins,
structure, and political style and sees the emergence and development of movement as
arising from the availability and use of resources. The Frame theory focuses on the role of
the shared assumptions and meanings held by actors in interpreting events and redressing
problems. I will take sources from resource mobilization theorists who propose a social
psychology perspective, including Gurr (1970); Turner and Killian (1972); Smelser (1963);
Byrne (1996); Eyerman and Jamison (1991), whereby I will use the Organizational
Commitment Theory, which was researched and concocted by the sociologist Rosabeth
Kanter in the late 1960s and early 1970s (Ebaugh, 2010).
I will study the Weberian approach which shows that the spirit of modernity within
capitalism impacts culture, economic behaviour as the capitalism of products, and unique
cultural totality which is the most rhetorical objective of materialism that has established the
superiority of idealism, trying to change the system. Weber states that the ―spirit of
capitalism as Calvinist movement has ethnos and economic action that is peaceful profit
pursuit. Acquisitiveness is maximum possible accumulation‖ (Weber, 1930). Weber says
that capitalism comes from peaceful, rational pursuit and a pure religion, whereas the
opposite idea of Marx sees religion as opium, stating it as acquisitive and the maximum
possible accumulation. Marx theorized the economic base as being determined by the
superstructure, which includes ideas, laws, politics, religions, etc., although Marx also
recognizes that these institutions will turn in, become converted and then influence the
‗base‘ within which there exists some "reciprocity" between the economic base and
superstructure. ―In the history of primitive accumulation, all revolutions are epoch-making;‖
this is a secret in the political economy (Marx, 1978). Marxist ideas have been shifted under
post modernity and converted by neo-Marxists such as David Harvey and Naomi Klein, who
claimed that neo-liberalism -or the restructuring of globalism- is not offering more than the
current capitalist economic mode of production and political economic system, which
supports a few corporate elites to own and create media monopoly. Globalization is just
promoting the homogeneity and sameness that is associated between Westernization and
Americanization, or the new face of colonialism (Singh, 2009).The Hizmet Movement has
emerged to challenge these current ideologies, values and structural forces.

Social Institution and Social Structure

241
A system of economic global interconnectedness, the culture and system of
capitalism and technological interdependence has taken over what we used to call society.
There is no one in charge or claim to the sole ownership of wrongdoing or control over self-
regulating cultural, economic and political catastrophes (Friedman, 1999). Neither the
developed countries from the West nor the third world countries from the ―Rest‖ are
providing a sustainable solution to either of these problems. The collective action of the
movement provides a new horizon and paradigm as a gross-root non-governmental
organization has put pressure on the political market indirectly and symbolically with its soft
power in democracy, challenging society through educational initiatives, media organs and
network, opposition to violent and coercive means and methods, intercultural and interfaith
dialogue, and cooperation on projects and services (Cetin, 2009). Also, education and media
are also considered to be ‗state apparatuses‘ in neo-Marxist terms and perceived as tools for
power and hegemony.

Operation, Strategy, Research, & Design Methods


My quantitative research will use the scientific and objective methods that rise in
desirability, credibility and validity. I will operationalize with conducting a survey that
contains structural interview questionnaires. The interview will be conducted across Canada
in 2011 and 2012. The questionnaires, altogether 100, will be sent out to educational,
cultural center and dialogue institutions set up by the Gülen Movement‘s participants in
Toronto, Kitchener, Hamilton, Ottawa, Montreal, Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary where
they are more active. Through these questionnaires, I will be able to evaluate the perceptions
and attitudes of administrators, employees and volunteers through the insiders‘ perspectives
(in total from 300 respondents) and the disparity between their representation of the
collective action and that of outside observers or opponents. I will also make interviews with
three front-runner executives of the movement as a field study. I personally have belonged to
this movement for 26 years as a student, journalist and volunteer. An advantage of the
insider role has been that it enables me to obtain the collective actor‘s perspective through
interviews, and, as a result of my insider privilege, such individuals are comfortably able to
answer my questions. The survey will be conducted carefully with the avoidance of any
ethical failure that relates to informed consent, deception, harm to participants and invasion
of privacy. All participants will be informed orally and in writing, while their names will be
protected. The cross-sectional design is the best option for my study with the usage of
scientific approaches of both positivism and objectivism ―like snapshots taken of a social
movement and compare with two variables‖ (Bryan et. al, 2009). This social reality can be
measurable with the consistency of empirical study and a cross-sectional research design that
focuses on sampling at a single point in time and preparing a comparison and analysis with
other studies and documents.

Epistemology & Ontological Orientation


Fethullah Gülen is considered one of the most influential Turkish Islamic scholars of
his generation with his Sufi-oriented (mystical Islam) message of love and compassion, is
the number one contemporary role model in Turkey, as also in much of the rest of the
Muslim world and even non-Muslim countries. He took first place in the Foreign
Policy/Prospect poll of the World's Top Public Intellectuals in 2008. The movement he
initiated in the late 1960s now has millions of participants. It has founded and runs hundreds
of modern educational institutions, as well as print and broadcast media outlets and dialogue
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societies. The author of more than fifty books, Gulen has dedicated a lifetime to promoting
peaceful interrelationship within and between different communities, societies, cultures and
religious traditions (Ahmed, 2009). The Gülen Movement is centered on human rights-
centered godly work of love, compassion, justice, respect and an enhanced quality of life for
all humanity, and it inspires people across the globe, for these are the values of the Divine
that is, through this movement, being transmitted across the globe, as many objective
individuals can find the work of Fethullah Gülen, much like the work of the Dali Lama or
Mother Teresa, capturing the heart of many (Jolly, 2010). The relationship between the
global economy and rebellion and resistance is the tragedy of the common practices of many
anti-systemic protests such as those of peasants, ecology, indigenous and ethnic groups, and
anti-colonial, anti-capitalist and anti-communist movements in peripheral countries
(Robbins, 2008); but this is not the case for the Hizmet Movement which is unrelated to the
power structure of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and other elite groups that
Sedef Arat Koc (2009) mentioned in her article titled ―A Cultural Turn in Politics: Bourgeois
Class Identity and White-Turk Discourses,‖ so-calling privileged elite group members
―White Turks‖ (Koc, 2009). The White Turks are seen as new paradigm challengers, as are
the Black Turks who are part of a less privileged group.

Literature Review
It may be best to begin with defining what Gülen movement is: location, aim, theory,
whichever would cover most briefly. There are numerous publications about the movement
and the Gulen himself that were mostly designed for the popular consumption and regular
audience, not for the academia. These publications lack objective positioning. Berna Turam
(2001) studied the Gülen Movement in McGill University for her PhD that was based on an
extended empirical research project undertaken in Turkey and Kazakhstan between 1997-
1999 and explored ‗Between Islam and the State: The Engagements between Gülen
Community and the Secular Turkish State.‘ Turam mentioned in her main findings of
research contrasts the juxtaposition of Islam and the state in literature: that Gülen creates the
alternative pathways of engagements with the state in which the engagement range is from
domestic symbolic politics and negotiations to international alliances. Her thesis examined
the engagements in three distinct spheres, i.e. national education, international undertakings
and the gender order (Turam, 2001). Muhammed Cetin (2009) studied this faith-inspired
movement in his research and had his book, ―The Gülen Movement: Civic Service without
Borders,‖ published and which focused on motivation for participations that include spiritual
resources and moral values like altruism, which constitute the social capital for the peaceful
civil society movement and on how it developed volunteerism, dialog and relationships to
achieve shared goals, competiveness and non-materialistic and non-contentious services in 9
countries (Cetin, 2009). The counter mobilization has made several accusations whether the
Gülen Movement is a civic initiative or a civil society movement, debating that it had either
arisen as a reaction to a crises or for the expression of conflict, and stating it as either a sect
or a cult, and/or that it is a political movement or an altruistic collective action. Cetin
concluded that the Gülen Movement is not established or struggled based on reactionary,
political or antagonistic interest nor a sect or cult. It is a collective action as the frame theory
for the collective consciousness because in its SMOs lies the ability to pursue general goals
over the long term; additionally, they have insusceptibility to escapism, extremism or
violence and in the simplicity of decision-making and mediation, in their efficiency and
effectiveness, and in their work ethics in which a variety of interests collaborate (Cetin,

243
2009). Altruism is elevated to a virtue of high standing as to be built in togetherness with
others, towards common goals, personal sacrifice in the interest of collective actions, and
working hard in the present for a happy future, while the movement gives hopes of achieving
and preserving the meaning of human behaviour along with the richness of diversity in a
global society (Cetin, 2009).
As an American professor specializing in the Sociology of Religion, Helen Rose
Ebaugh (2010) examined the financial resources of movement in her book “The Gülen
Movement: A Sociological Analysis of a Civic Movement Rooted in Moderate Islam,‖ in
which Ebaugh sees the movement founded by the controversial Turkish preacher Fethullah
Gülen as both an opportunity for the West and a serious alternative to religious extremism
because helping others is the top priority in the movement. Ebaugh states ―A good person
should be educated, uphold moral and ethical values, maintain a relationship to God and
assume social responsibility‖ (Ebaugh, 2010). Ebaugh mentioned a wide array of financial
contributors belonging to different segments of Turkish society, including industrialists,
blue-collar workers, and graduate students. Individualism and individualistic human rights is
very strong in the Western democracies and lead to egoism and self-centred behaviour,
although they are promoted as universal values, and Orientalists still see the East as a
collective culture of weak idealism. Zeki Saritoprak (2007) explained at the SOAS
conference, which was held by the University of London, that Gulen believes in the integrity
of the individual; his approach to social restoration and peace building, therefore, is one of
"bottom-up" social change which is similar to the famous Muslim sociologist Ibn Khaldun's
understanding of building peace that philosophy, individual efforts and sacrifices remain
essential, where he says, ―peace in society is possible through willingness of an individual to
subordinate to the group. Without this, peace and social development are not possible‖
(Saritoprak, 2007).

Conclusion
In conclusion, my study focus and thesis is original, in other words it has never been
studied before in Canada and abroad. In this research, I will answer the question: Can a Turkish-
origined ―Hizmet (Gülen) Movement of Canada‖ promote transferable universal human centred
moralities through non-politic, non-violent and a civic collective action across Canada? The
Movement has already diffused now, all over the world, that empowers are to raise hope for
justice and is the model for a new education with the cooperation of inter-cultural and interfaith
dialogue. Is it relevant to Canadian multiculturalism? Does this collective action respond and
offer workable realistic solutions to local problems in Canada such as ignorance, poverty and
disunity, and issues arising from systemic inefficiencies and global concerns? Are its projects
solving problems of individuals and the society as a whole? The Western civilization, for losing
its monopoly, is now on the decline in the near future of the world, although its monopoly has
been maintained since the 17th century through financial capitalism. Since communism had
collapsed beyond the shadow of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, socialism has become a dead
ideology, left out in Marxist‘s idea of a so-called ―Utopian,‖ whereas Weberian modernity can
no longer deliver what it had promised during its beginning: the freedom of individuals, a
rational society and steady scientific progress towards an infinite horizon (Kalın, 2010). It is
clear that ―Globalization is Americanization‖ as a hegemonic power (Friedman, 1999), which
caused inequality, poverty and injustice all over the world, while the global economy and
globalization dangerously depend on a ―US based recovery of consumerism‖ as the hegemonic
power claimed that the world‘s economic crisis and recession will be solved only within the
244
Americanization context (Harvey, 2005). Marxist‘s thesis concerns ―the crisis tendencies of
capitalism‖ which emerges from under consumption, whereas the general sufficient effective
demand now hits every one of our daily lives (Luxemburg, 1968). Capitalism and democracy,
free markets and free people, do not go hand in hand; in contrast, America‘s ―free market‖
policies have come to dominate the world through the exploitation of disaster, shocking people
and countries through there stages: swift regime change, changes to the economy and the
repression of opponents (Klein, 2007). The ―capitalistic theory of class struggle, democracy, and
the Communism Manifesto‖ has become irrelevant because of over accumulation (Marx, Engels,
1986). In this case, globalization, capitalism and neo-liberalism are restructuring the world
economy through a financialization that cannot be an escape route either. Despite this, Turkey
offers a new paradigm to the old world (the Western civilization) which may challenge the new
future because the Third World Countries will seek justice, happiness and equality through
Turkey‘s miracle model of human centred universal moralities‖ offered by the Turkish
originated ―Hizmet Movement.‖ Neo-liberal and MNCs policies and globalism are still
questionable because the culture of American consumerism has already been invading Turkey
for over three decades. The consumption culture of capitalism leads to the increase of both the
economic growth and destruction within the Turkish miracle, but the new Turkish model offers
social altruism to alter any capitalist approach into becoming an escape route. The recent Turkish
economic miracle is a state model and it is the Hizmet Movement that has been demonstrated as
a civil, moral, holistic engagement model and non-governmental organization which completes
the gap between national state goals; certainly, the Turkish phenomenon cannot exist without the
Hizmet Movement‘s non-political and non-violent enforcements.
References
Akbar, S. Ahmed. (2009). Foreword to ―The Gulen Movement: Civic Service without
Borders‖ Blue Dome Press, Xi.
Bryan, Alan, J.Teevan, James, Bell, Edward. (2009). Research Designs, Chapter 2. Social
Research Method. Oxford University Press, pp 21.
Cetin, Muhammed. (2009). ―The Gulen Movement: Civic Service without Borders,‖ Blue
Dome Press, Xxii, 104, 107, 167, 225, 229.
Daum, Mattihies, 2010. Translated from the German by John Bergeron. An Alternative to
Fundamentalism: Another Interview with Helen Rose Ebaugh. Editor: Aingeal
Flanagan/Qantara.de . Accessed on December 21, 2010 and retrieved from
http://www.fethullah-gulen.org/interviews/alternative-fundamentalism.html
Ebaugh, Helen Rose. (2010). The Gülen Movement: A Sociological Analysis of a Civic
Movement Rooted in Moderate Islam, Springer Press, p 7-8.
Friedman, Benjamin. (1999). The Power of The Electronic Herd, The New York Review of
Books, pp 42.
Harvey, David. 2005. The new Imperialism. Oxford University Press. Paper edition, p 34,
135,137, 227

245
Jolly, Stephen. (2010). The Gulen Movement. Department of Sociology, Old Dominion
University, accessed on 27 November 2010 at http://www.fethullah-gulen.org/op-ed/gulen-
movement.html
Kalın, Ibrahim. (2010). ‗Turkey will save Europe‘. Todays Zaman Newspaper. Accessed on
December 4, 2010 and retrieved from http://www.todayszaman.com/columnist-226252-
turkey-will-save-europe.html
Klein, Naomi (2007). The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Publisher
Metro, 24
Koc, Sedef Arat. (2009). ―A Cultural Turn in Politics: Bourgeois Class Identity and White-
Turk Discourses.‖ In Hegemonic Transitions, The State and Crisis in Neoliberal Capitalism,
ed. Yildiz Atasoy, 209-226. Routledge Studies in Governance and Change in the Global Era.
London and New York: Routledge, p 11.
Luxemburg, Rosa. 1968. The Accumulation of Capital, trans A. Schwarzschild. New York
Monthly Review.1986 edition, p 12
Marx, Karl. 1978. The Secret of Primitive Accumulation‖ in Capital, Vol 1, Publsiher
Penguen, pp 148.
Marx, K. and Engles, F. 1986. The Communist Manifesto. Canadian Scholars Press, 93-99,
21.
Robbins , Richard H. (2008). Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism, Fifth Edition,
The Nation-State in the Culture of Capitalism, Hunger, Poverty and Economic Development,
Religion and Anti-systemic Protest, Pearson Publisher, p 106, 107, 155, 156, 313
Saritoprak, Zeki. (2007). Fethullah Gülen and His Global Contribution to Peace Building.
"Muslim World in Transition: Contributions of the Gülen Movement" was held at SOAS
University of London, House of Lords and London School of Economics on 25-27 October,
2007.
Singh, Hira. (2009). Social Structure and Social Change. York University. Unpublished
lectures
Turam, Berna. (2001). ―Between Islam and the State: The Engagements between Gulen
Community and the Secular Turkish State‖, unpublished PhD in McGill University., p i
Weber, Max. 1930. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism‖ in The Protestant
Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, pp 67-77.

Research Proposal- PhD level

Performative Consumption, Leisure, Pleasure and Religiosity


Keywords: Leisure, Body, Market, Citizenship, Veiling, Turkey

246
Neil Drake, the BBC‘s Europe correspondent, is standing in the posh lobby of a five-star
hotel, located on the Mediterranean coast. What makes this hotel newsworthy is its alternative
twist. As Drake reports on how the hotel offers something different from conventional holidays,
he is shown curiously trying his alcohol-free cocktail, enthusiastically sneaking into the women-
only pool (before opening hours) and dolefully standing in front of the women-only dance-club
which is ―strictly out of bounds‖ for him. Aware of the subject‘s sex appeal, Drake depicts the
women-only pool as ―the only chance for Muslim women to get to strip off to a bikini‖. It‘s not
very hard to imagine how titillating the subject is for a journalist, especially as it allows the
words Muslim veil and bikini to be used in the same sentence. But aside from the sex appeal,
there is a growing market for the leisure demands of Muslim families, especially for those with
concerns about modesty and gender segregation.
My research aims to explore how Muslim women‘s leisure and entertainment activities
entail identity formation processes through performative consumption. More specifically, I am
interested in the ways in which veiled Muslim women entertain themselves, create a demand for
their entertainment in the global market, and construct certain subjectivities that are at the
crossroads of modernity, consumption, desire, body, religion and the state--in the alternative
spaces that are tailored in accordance with their Islamic demands. Addressing the dearth of
research about the ordinary daily lives of veiled Muslim women, I will focus on young veiled
women‘s leisure and recreational activities.
Given the overemphasis on Muslim women‘s veil and piety in recent anthropological and
sociological studies, the lacuna of research about their ordinary life reflects the entwinement of
knowledge production processes with secularist politics to deny these women other (and more
worldly) forms of being. Despite the lack of interest in academic circles, capitalist entrepreneurs
in the Middle East have not overlooked Muslim women‘s interest in and desire for leisure
activities. The market dimension of this new space created and tailored for veiled women
(together with the textile, tourism and entertainment industries) constitutes a rich source for
anthropological inquiry. In Turkey, the market has swiftly adapted to social changes by finding
ways to fulfill the new demands of their customers. To illustrate, the number of vacation villages
which offer a wide variety of women-only beaches, pools and entertainment centers for families
with veiled female members has increased in the last ten years. In Istanbul, for instance, around
12 pools, some of which are run by municipal governments, observe women-only hours
specifically for veiled customers--a response to the demands of citizens who voted for these local
authorities.
I will discuss spaces of leisure and desire as a product of neoliberal markets where veiled
women reify their individual as well as social selves through performative consumption. By
delving into this analysis, this study will contribute to the literature on market and identity, and
try to answer the following questions: In frequenting a separate, ―women-only‖ space for many
of their activities, how do these women re-fabricate their identity, womanhood, secularism and
individuality, as well as religion, sense of community and belonging? How do these women--
whose piety and religious commitment have been the primary focus of attention--experience
entertainment and leisure in their daily lives? What are the women‘s agency roles in shaping a
market around their demands? How do their roles of being consumers and citizens complicate
their sense of belonging while they are using facilities run by municipal governments? How and
why do they articulate secular and modern choices in recreational activities in relation to their
religious identity? How is their contestation about the notion of modernity manifested in the
realm of recreation?
I will look at Turkey because dress code has been an integral part of the country‘s
modernization project, and this project has been defined primarily through female bodies
247
(Kandiyoti, 1989). As part of its nationalist secular project, which began in the 1920‘s with the
rule of Kemal Atatürk, Turkey promoted women‘s involvement in sports and paid particular
attention to their presence in national festivals with their renewed, healthy, disciplined and
―civilized‖ bodies as an indicator of modernization and westernization of the country. However,
as the number of young veiled women increase in Turkey (Özkan, 2005), more women demand
separate spaces in sports facilities, gyms and swimming pools. New Islamist capitalists (Navaro-
Yashin, 2002), as well as secularist capitalists in Turkey are aware of the demand and are fast at
work creating segregated spaces to gain profits. Working out to have a healthy and fit but still
veiled body is a challenge to the conventional dichotomous definition of the ideal female body as
displayed versus the view of veiling as concurrent with an old-fashioned, unhealthy body in the
Turkish context.
My interest in the daily lives of Muslim women was the primary reason behind my
decision to go back to social science studies, after five years of professional experience. I am
pursuing an honour degree in Sociology at the York University. I took undergraduate courses
focusing on capitalism, the modern state, post-colonial social theories, the consumption culture
and politics, social movement, human rights and the family relations. I have researched current
feminist theories on leisure, gender, tourism and capitalism to enrich my perspective on Muslim
women‘s recreation and leisure.
Based on my journalism and academic experiences in sites of leisure both in Turkey and
Canada, I will explore the recreational experiences and perceptions of young veiled women.
During eight months of field research across four different cities in Turkey, I will participate in
recreational activities, interview women who are pursuing leisure, and examine women‘s stories
and experiences of entertainment in their daily lives. I will also interview hotel owners, leaders
of the hospitality industry and municipal government officials. Particularly, I will visit recreation
centers and women-only pools in Istanbul and three vacation villages in Turkey located in the
cities of Antalya, Altinoluk and Alanya. I am a native speaker of Turkish, and I have established
high-quality connections in the field as I have already conducted preliminary data through
interviews and visits in Alanya and Istanbul in 2010.
The remarkable strength of the Cinema and Media Studies Department at York
University is the major reason underlying my decision to apply to its MA program. The MA
program offered by your department, with its vast array of courses, diversity of approaches and
high-caliber faculty, would not only encourage and help me build on my fields of interest, but
would also provide me with the analytical skills and the vibrant intellectual environment vital for
undertaking my graduate research. I believe that a MA in the Cinema and Media at York
University will provide me with the essential training needed to work through and widen my
research interests, as I intend to open up a new area of research on performative consumption,
leisure, pleasure and religiosity after completing my MA.

References:

Navaro-Yashin, Y. (2002). The Market for Identities: Secularism, Islamism, Commodities. In D.


K. A. Saktanber (Ed.), Fragments of Culture: The Everyday of Modern Turkey.
Parry, D. J. (2005). Women's Leisure as Resistance to Pronatalist Ideology. Journal of Leisure
Research, 37(2), 133-151.
Raisborough, J. (2006). Getting On Board: Women, Access and Serious Leisure. The
Sociological Review, 54(2), 242-262.

248
Saktanber, A. (2002). 'We Pray Like You Have Fun': New Islamic Youth in Turkey between
Intellectualism and Popular Culture
Shaw, S. M. (2001). Conceptualizing Resistance: Women's Leisure as Political Practice Journal
of Leisure Research 33(2), 186-201.
Shaw, S. M. (2007). Social Change Through Leisure. Parks and Recreation, March.

Ethical Issues Concern

Critical analysis of Stanley Milgram‟s Obedience Research

Ethical issues arise at almost every stage of Stanley Milgram‘s research, called ―Obedience:
Research,‖ which was carried out at Yale University in 1963. Milgram had set up a laboratory
experiment as an authority figure and asked volunteers to act as the teacher who would punish
imaginary learners by giving increasingly severe electro shocks for incorrect answer to questions.
Milgram and his researchers didn‘t meet seven overlapping areas of ethical concern, including six
areas of informed consent. This study is clearly concerned with the ethical violations of voluntary
participation, no harm to participants, informed consent, anonymity and confidentiality, deception,
debriefing, analysis and reporting as well as the invasion of privacy (1).

Informed Consent
First of all, some of the teacher‘s participants were forced to participate against their own will
and couldn‘t withdraw when they wanted to be withdrawn during the study. Milgram should have
asked the potential research subjects for their consent before he placed them in such an experiment.
Teacher subjects should also have been informed of all the risks they would face in writing before the
start of the experiment. The debriefing session was lacking before and after the study as a procedure.
The purpose of the research was not clear, and any potential risks and benefits were not explained for
the participant‘s to have experienced. The participants were not informed of the basic idea of what
the study would entail, and they couldn‘t quit at any time or even think they were allowed to quit.
Confidential and anonymity relations weren‘t guaranteed; additionally, the confidentiality issue was
especially missing during the research. Milgram didn‘t inform the teachers‘ real purpose in the
research and what they were being studied for; furthermore, his research design and written proposal
contained false information.

No Harm to Participants
In fact, the shocks and learners‘ reactions were not real, but the teachers were not aware of
this and worried about the learners‘ suffering. The teacher only knew that the shocking was a part of
the study and that these shocks would not cause permanent physical harm to the participants. Despite
this, the increasing of the shocks caused fake cries of pain on the learners‘ side, but I observed that
this display really harmed the teachers and visibly severed their psychological, emotional and mental
levels. The teachers were forced to give the highest shocks possible until the volunteer teacher
refused to continue, although the authority figure ordered for them to continue consistently, and
many of the teachers followed the unethical order. Milgram cannot justify the psychological
discomfort that the subjects felt when they believed they were causing an innocent person to suffer
(2). 90% of teachers expressed themselves, saying ―I can‘t stay anymore‖ while smoking cigarettes,
weirdly smiling and wondering if they were responsible for the impairment done to participants.
249
Deception
Milgram involved deception and created an unusually stressful experience for his subjects,
which they had not anticipated because he wanted to limit participants‘ understanding of the purpose
of the research so that they could‘ve responded naturally and authentically in the experiment.
Deception was used on the teachers as they were led to believe that the shocks were real. For
instance, the subjects hadn‘t been told they would be enforced to inflict severe pain and possibly
death on an innocent person. Although if Milgram had given all the details about the research, such
as the involvement of fear of contaminating people‘s answer to questions, this information would
have made the research useless. As a matter of fact, Milgram‘s subjects had debriefed and orientated
instructions as quickly as possible; however, they should have been told of the deceptive side to the
experiment and why it was used, as deception can be used as sparklingly as possible (3).

Confidentiality& Anonymity
Confidentiality was seriously broken. Milgram identified the subjects in the documentary,
didn‘t use fake names, revealed the individuals‘ information that were given and described the
persons in a recorded documentary. The findings are published, and the individuals are identifiable
subjects visually so such an extent that their personal privacy was not protected. The ethical issue of
anonymity was also lacking because the findings did illustrate of the anticipating harms to the
respondents, and their data are reachable. Milgram reported that while 90% of subjects followed
authority orders, only 10% refused as ―many of the participants experienced high levels of stress and
anxiety after being incited to administer what they thought were electric shocks‖ (4).
In conclusion, participants felt stress, embarrassment and anxiety under the pressure on
obedience to authority as it was observable, discrete, and dichotomous. Milgram could have used
deception as a last resort, but whatever the circumstances he couldn‘t have avoided using deception
in this kind of research. This study sometimes is blurry and openly violates all ethical criteria;
Milgram was unable to fit it with his research design and balance ethical issues. Milgram didn‘t show
his limitations, as the presence of a control group was manipulating the truth and manufacturing
consent, which revealed unacceptable causal findings. This may limit the generalizability of the
findings, and the lack of transparency, representativeness, authenticity, trustworthiness, credibility,
validity and reliability are also degrading issues. Many ethical review boards do not allow subjects to
be part of studies with severe ethical violation, which nonetheless arise in the case Milgram‘s study.

References
1- Tracy Supruniuk, 2011. York University, unpublished lecture notes
2- Alan, Bryan, James J. Teevan, Edward Bell (2009). Social Research Method. Oxford University
Press, p 25.
3- Alan, Bryan, James J. Teevan, Edward Bell (2009). Social Research Method. Oxford University
Press, p 28.
4- Stanley Milgram (1963), ` Jour of Abnormal and Social Psych, `A Behavioural Study of
Obedience, 67:371-8, this documentary, available at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2PGnHHnRMk&feature=related

250
Chapter 33
Social Housing Issue for Low-income Families

Introduction

This social policy analysis paper is to focus on the attention of the lack of affordable
social housing issue for low-income families in Greater Toronto Area. Social housing refers to
non-profit or co-operative housing communities where some or all the rents are subsidized.
Subsidized households pay about 30% of gross income on shelter in which 6% of Toronto‘s
population lives in social housing. (Social Housing, 2007) City of Toronto is not having a
strategy and enough budgets to run social housing that has been responsible since May 1, 2002.
Facing long-term financial risk locks up system that increases poverty because of fund model.
Aging of the social housing stock crisis and huge waiting lists for subsidized housing are major
problems. There are limited programs, City is holding back due to declared future crisis. Existing
eligibility criteria rent-geared-to-income (RGI) rules is harsh and complicated, which provides
limited financial assistance where clients applied and remained to the centralized waiting list, or
are a client of the programs' referral agencies. Allowance is likely targeting specific groups such
as homelessness, aboriginal individuals, victim of violence, seniors etc, those clients referred by
Toronto Social Services, Children's Aids Societies, Streets to Homes, Hostel Services and
Violence Against Women funded agencies, so low-income families are not first priority. Many
low income families always struggle find a decent place to live and turn away from social
housing.

Problem Description

An useful indicator of housing need is the big number of people who sought asissted
housing last two decades, so the social necessity for affordable housing that still existed in
Toronto. Each year, CHF Canada‘s Ontario Region, together with the Ontario Non-Profit
Housing Association (ONPHA) publishes Where‘s Home? A Picture of Housing Needs in
Ontario. According to a 2006 survey by ONPHA, 122,426 households across Ontario are on
municipal waiting lists for subsidized housing. The wait times for housing in some larger centre
are up to 10 years. ( ONPHA Survey, 2006). ―… Almost 13 to 22 years long waiting list in
Toronto‖, while 164 thousand people living existing social housing who were not willing to
leave them in a short period of time. ( Lakey, 1998). Even applicants get in there, most low
income families are forced to live in Toronto Community Housing ―with chronic faulty wiring
and plumbing, leaky ceilings, broken doors and windows, rundown playgrounds and unsafe
entrance lobbies and public spaces.‖ , and there is only co-ops or not-profit ―240 housing
providers‖ available in addition to Toronto Community Housing Corporation. (Strong
Foundations, 2007). Funding model which described by The Social Housing Reform Act
(SHRA) is undermining the elements such as fund offer is far to complicated and getting less for
both government and co-ops running social housings that leaves at risk due to not enough money
to keep them in good repair. None of them is still talking build new affordable social housings
instead of keeping existing in good condition for a while with poor budget.

Policy/Law identification and description


251
Social housing responsibility was transferred from the Province of Ontario to the City of
Toronto on May 1, 2002. The Social Housing reform Act was enacted in December 2000.
Municipal is responsible for social housing with the Social Housing Reform Act, but a lack of
reliable long-term funding for social housing and the aging of the social housing stock are the
two main reasons the City of Toronto is facing long-term financial risks as it sits, ―holding the
bag‖. (Social Housing, 2007). The purpose of this Act is to provide for the efficient and
effective administration of housing programs by service managers. ( Social Housing Reform Act,
2000). There are two housing allowance programs in the City of Toronto: The Strong
Communities Housing Allowance Program (SCHAP) - Toronto Pilot, and the Canada-Ontario
Affordable Housing Program. For both programs applicants can‘t apply directly. They should be
already applied to the centralized waiting list, or are a client of the programs' referral agencies.
(Social Housing Allowance program, 2007) Under this Act, Municipalities assumed
responsibility for the funding and administration of social housing program and project
previously funded and administrated by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing and or
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. The Social Housing Reform Act established a new
―operating framework‖ which includes a finding model for the calculation any payment of
subsidies based on ―benchmark‖ for revenues and operating cost developed and prescribed by
the Province. Act requires Minister of Municipal affairs and housing to set these benchmarks for
all housing providers under Sections 103, 106, and 110 of the Act. (Social Housing Reform Act,
2000) With this benchmarks, the City‘s subsidy payments to housing provider have been
increased by $ 8.6 million, increased to 10, 3 million by 2007. City does not have the ability to
increase funding over the benchmarks. (City of Toronto Stuff Report, 2006. p.13). Act section
106 (1) clearly states, ―The amount of the subsidy payable under section 102 to a housing
provider for a fiscal year in respect of its housing projects in a service area of a service manager
is determined in accordance with this section if the housing provider is prescribed by the
Minister for the purposes of this section and if the Minister is satisfied that substantially all of the
units in the provider‘s housing projects in the service area are rent-geared-to-income units.‖
(Appendix)

Historical Overview

― It was tough on everybody‖ during in Post-World War II in Toronto. ( Purdy, 2003).


From the 1950‘s to the 1990‘s decisions were made by other levels of government of finance,
construct and subsidize housing for low and moderate income households to provide affordable
rents, new rental housing and supportive housing for those who need it such as homeless, people
with mental health issues, fairly elderly etc. In the late 1990‘s the federal government
downloaded the responsibility to province of Ontario and in turn the provincial government
decided to transfer administration and funding to the municipal level after the transfer in 2002.
The City has been left lack of financial arrangement and previous agreement with co-ops and not
profits housing providers the end of 35 or 50-year government commitment. After four years, in
2006, City of Toronto has been declared that City‘s ―funding and legal risk are increasing‖
because of fund model. (City of Toronto Stuff Report, 2006. p.2-3). In the late1990s, years
record numbers of families, including escalating numbers of ―single parents, welfare recipients
and poor, visibly minority immigrants have applied for public housing. ― (Sewell, 1998). By
1991, there were 33,000 rent-geared-to-income units in Metro Toronto's public housing system.
However, demand for assisted housing always outstripped the limited supply. In 1998, assuming
they started at the bottom of the list, families requiring a four-bedroom apartment in MTHA
252
would have to wait an average of 21.8 years for a spot while the wait for a two-bedroom
apartment was 12.9 years. (Lakey , 1998) Nearly six per cent of Toronto's population,‖164,000
people with low and moderate income, live in over 2,000 deteriorating buildings‖ that are up to
50 years old and in need of urgent repair and refurbishment in 2007. ― More than 40% of tenants
living in Toronto Community Housing across the City are under 25 years old about 66,000
young people.‖ Strong Foundations. (2007).

Scope of problem

Federal government has under pressure, freed up $1.4 billion in 2006 for the affordable
housing trust funds‖ authorized by the Liberals in 2005. ―The money is paid as a capital grant
that covers less than a third of the cost of a typical subsidized housing unit hat funding will run
out in 2008.‖ (Editorial, 2007) In 2006, Funding was Municipal about 44 %, federal 34 %, GTA
pooling 18% and Province only 4 supporting to City of Toronto operating budget. City receives
―$175 million in Federal funding, this is expected to decrease and will be received $ 11 million
or less by 2020 and 2032 City won‘t receive any funding from Federal government‖ (City of
Toronto Stuff Report, 2006. p.11-12). According to ONPHA, the 2006 reports, over the ten-year
period from 2006 to 2016, demand for new rental housing in Ontario will be in the range of
―12,000 to 14,000 units annually.‖ 270,000 Ontario renter households 20% of all renter
households in the province pay ―over 50% of their income on rent.‖ Rents on approximately ―80
% of all rental units in Ontario have been increasing well above the rate of inflation over the last
10 years.‖ (ONPHA Report, 2006).

Effectiveness of current response (level of government (s)

This Act affects all Ontario social housing programs, including co-ops operating under
provincial programs, but Federal co-ops are not affected. The bill moves provincial social
housing programs from one provincial administrator to 47 municipal service managers. The bill
allows municipalities to create new housing projects, including co-ops, but the province hasn‘t
provided any new funding yet. How effective is your policy and/or legislation in dealing with the
problem. If the problem still exists in society then it is not totally effective.
The Act is not solving problems with existing fund and management model. Low-income
families desperately need more affordable housing. Based on related benchmarks, current plans
and mandates lock into legislation. Municipalities can‘t afford to fund new housing on the scale
that is needed. There is critical housing shortage and new outside applicants turning away by
providers. Co-ops are struggling ―with financial uncertainty and there are a lot of unnecessary
new rules‖ that are discouraging them to work. (CFHT, 2007)
What beliefs and assumptions
Many Co-ops think that downloading responsibility was a ―bad idea‖. ( CFHT, 2007).
The formula for mandatory payments by co-ops to municipalities is short because the current
bridge subsidy formula. The SHRA is damaging co-op works. Management conflict exist,
municipalities are setting centralized waiting lists that co-ops must use. Co-ops providers are
fighting for fix funding model and asking a year budget is to be set by benchmarking costs and
revenues. Co-ops fear that the benchmarking exercise are bringing more cuts to used as ―a
backdoor way to cut operating funding‖( CFHT, 2007) that has been happening since 1995.
Cutting budget and pushing rents to inflated market levels could lock out those low-income
families from system.

253
Implications

Both Liberals and Conservatives ideologies are responsible to abolish the housing
ministry who are ―committed to ending the federal role in all areas of provincial jurisdiction.‖
(Russel, 2007). The municipality replaces co-ops as the provider of rent-geared-to-income (RGI)
service to low-income members. The municipal service manager can make all decisions about
RGI administration and contract with a co-op or another party to provide the service. The bill
sets few provincial standards for RGI. Each municipality can add its own rules about who gets
priority for RGI, the size of units for low-income household and other matters. Co-ops are
forcing to share half of any operating surplus with municipalities, even if they have an
―accumulated deficit‖, but deficit is not shared. (CFHT, 2007).

How does course material applies to your policy and analysis?

Globalization and privatization is highly effective on this Act. New system always set
worse rules and financially inefficient to solve problem. Monetarism ideology is a return to an
old style of government program and promotes a ―use it or lose it‖ approach to spending and put
low-income families at risk. (CFHT, 2007). Social housing providers have to operate with their
reserves to deal with business contingencies. Selective model is getting stronger. New fund
model is causing a critical shortfall in capital reserves for social housing providers across
Ontario. It won‘t work if capital reserves are not increased. Low-income families stay with
―dept and life‖ condition under the monetarism influenced policy.

Personal and Social Location

As a Low-income family, among low and moderate class population in Scarborough in


apartment with high rent means is living in debt. New policy isn‘t changing and affecting life
personally. Potential applicants have scared to apply to social housing because of lack of
availability and huge waiting list in the Greater Toronto Area. New fund model created cut back
on Co-ops that might has been completely ignored low-income families who are not first
priority.

REFERENCES:

CFHT.(2007). The campaign to fix the Social Housing Reform Act (SHRA). Retrieved October
24, 2007, from _ HYPERLINK
"http://www.chfcanada.coop/eng/pages2007/provissues06_1.asp"
__http://www.chfcanada.coop/eng/pages2007/provissues06_1.asp_
City of Toronto, Social Housing Stuff Report. (2006). P. 2-3, 11- 12, and 13.
Editorial. ( July 30, 2007). Follow British lead on social housing, The Toronto Star.
Lakey, Jack. (13 July 1998). Connections Central Registry Report cited, 22-year wait for some
low-cost housing, Toronto Star, , B5.
ONPHA Report. (2006). Where‘s Home? A Picture of Housing Needs in Ontario.
Purdy,Sean. ( 2003, January 1). It was tough on everybody: Low-Income Families and Housing
Hardship in Post-World War II Toronto. Journal of Social History - Volume 37, Number 2,
Winter 2003, pp. 457-482.
Sewell John. ( 1994). Houses and Homes: Housing for Canadian. Keeping to the Marketplace,
138-9.
254
Social Housing Reform Act of 2000: Consolidation Period: From September 1, 2007 to the _
HYPERLINK "http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/navigation?file=currencyDates&lang=en" __e-
Laws currency date_. P. c. 27, s. 1. Last amendment: 2006, c. 34, Sched. A, s. 27. Retrieved
November 19, 2007, from _ HYPERLINK "http://www.e-
laws.gov.on.ca/html/statutes/english/elaws_statutes_00s27_e.htm#BK114"
__http://www.elaws.gov.on.ca/html/statutes/english/elaws_statutes_00s27_e.htm#BK114_
Strong Foundations. (2007). Strong Futures, Toronto Community Housing, Toronto Community
Housing's $300 million capital repair gap. _ HYPERLINK "http://www.torontohousing.ca/"
__http://www.torontohousing.ca/_.
Social Housing ( 2007, November 24). Social Housing Allowance program. Retrieved October
24, 2007, from . _ HYPERLINK "http://www.toronto.ca" __www.toronto.ca_
/housing/social_housing/housingallowance.htm.
Social Housing ( 2007, November 24).What‘s new. Retrieved October 24, 2007, from _
HYPERLINK "http://www.toronto.ca/housing/social_housing/index.htm"
__http://www.toronto.ca/housing/social_housing/index.htm_.
Social Housing.( 2007, November 24). Retrieved October 24, 2007, from
http://www.toronto.ca/housing/social_housing/index.htm
Russel, Frances. ( 2007, November 1). Two million need housing –Homelessness disaster
unfolding as a result of policy vacuum. Canadian Dimension Journal. November/December
2007, Volume 41, Number 6.

APPENDIX
Social Housing Reform Act, 2000
Subsidy re certain housing providers
_ HYPERLINK "http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/statutes/french/elaws_statutes_00s27_f.htm"
__106.__ HYPERLINK "http://www.e-
laws.gov.on.ca/html/statutes/french/elaws_statutes_00s27_f.htm" __ (1)_ The amount of the
subsidy payable under section 102 to a housing provider for a fiscal year in respect of its housing
projects in a service area of a service manager is determined in accordance with this section if
the housing provider is prescribed by the Minister for the purposes of this section and if the
Minister is satisfied that substantially all of the units in the provider‘s housing projects in the
service area are rent-geared-to-income units. 2000, c. 27, s. 106 (1).
Amount of subsidy
(2)_ The amount of the housing provider‘s total subsidy for the fiscal year is determined using
the formula,
(A – B) + C + D – E
in which, ―A‖ is the amount of the provider‘s indexed operating costs for the fiscal year in
respect of its housing projects in the service area; ―B‖ is the amount of revenue received by the
provider for the fiscal year in respect of housing projects in the service area, determined in the
prescribed manner by the provider; ―C‖ is the amount of principal and interest payable by the
provider for the fiscal year under mortgages guaranteed by the Province of Ontario or the
Ontario Mortgage and Housing Corporation in respect of the provider‘s housing projects in the
service area; ―D‖ is the amount of property taxes payable by the provider for the fiscal year in
respect of its housing projects in the service area;
―E‖ is the amount equal to 50 per cent of the amount of the provider‘s surplus, if any, for the
fiscal year in respect of its housing projects in the service area or such lesser amount as the
service manager may determine. 2000, c. 27, s. 106 (2); 2006, c. 32, Sched. E, s. 5 (2).
Minister. 2000, c. 27, s. 106 (4)
255
Chapter 34

Remove Foreign Credentials Barriers for Newcomers

Goal/ purpose of Social Action

The goal/purpose of this memo is to focus on the attention of the foreign credential
recognition issue. The government of Ontario has been passed the landmark Bill 124-The Fair
Access to Regulated Professions Act, 2006. This legislation is supposed to be break down
barriers for internationally trained and educated individuals to obtain a license to work in their
field of expertise. (Breaking Down Barrier, 2006). Unfortunately, Ontario‘s comprehensive plan
of Breaking Down Barriers is not working.
Our goal is that put pressure on the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in order to remove
systemic discrimination against newcomers. Our petitioners requested new Bill that is to create
new evaluation and diploma equivalence system regarding additional licensing tests, degrees
year of experience, practicing and registration requirements must be simple, fairness and less
expensive. Never again an immigrants shall have hide their credentials when apply for a job.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business found that 50 percent of businesses are
worried about labour shortages. However, thousands of skilled and well-educated immigrants
still struggling in finding professional job because of their foreign credential have not been
recognized. (Canadian Federation of Independent Business Poll, 2004; London Free Press, 2004)
So removing foreign credentials barriers that newcomers face in Canada is an urgent issue.
Immigrants‘ past educations and experiences are wasted, because professional organizations are
locking up the system and locking out newcomers. They are likely to resist reforms in the
system, and not willing to change their unreasonable rules voluntarily. Six out of every 10
immigrants who came to Canada were forced to take jobs other than those who were trained to
do in 2000 and 2001 according to Statistics Canada. (Statistic of Canada, 2002;
www.notcanada.com )

Petition on breaking down foreign credentials barriers for newcomers

Petition to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

We, the undersigned residents of Canada, draw the attention of the Legislative Assembly of
Ontario to the following:
The government of Ontario has been passed the landmark Bill 124-The Fair Access to Regulated
Professions Act, 2006. This legislation is supposed to be break down barriers for internationally
trained and educated individuals to obtain a license to work in their field of expertise. We believe
that Ontario‘s comprehensive plan of Breaking Down Barriers is not working.

Past educations of immigrants are wasted, because professional organizations are locking up the
system and locking out newcomers. They are likely to resist reforms in the system, and not
willing to change their unreasonable rules voluntarily. Access to some position shouldn‘t
condition any more by membership. Existing Government funds must use for professional
integration of immigrants in Ontario that funds be used in acquisition of reference material for
these professional candidates, their registration fees in Professional association, training
256
programs of immigrant in their field of competency. Qualified contacts information should be
collected by government and referred to Professional bodies must mandatory. Reform is very
urgent because majority of immigrant are in falling victim of the present system: Therefore, our
petitioners request that parliament must put pressure on regulatory bodies in order to remove
systemic discrimination against newcomers. Parliament should pass a new Bill to create new
evaluation and diploma equivalence system regarding additional licensing tests, degrees year of
experience, practicing and registration requirements must be simple, fairness and less expensive.
Never again an immigrants shall have hide their credentials when apply for a job.

Summary:

The liberal point of view of equality of opportunity and anti-discrimination is the focus of
our action movement which is the basis of our ideology. We have combined to reach our long
term goal that is remove systemic discrimination against newcomers by pressure on Ontario
government to pass a new Bill. Each group member collected 25 signatures individually and
attended Booth to increase awareness this issue on public. We recorded 10 interview and
prepared posters with attractive cartoons on Booth. Our petition target was collecting 200
signatures that have been sent with official letter to Ontario Ministry of Citizenship and
Immigration Michael Chan through his email and mail address. We got automatic receiving
respond and mail proof copy from Canada Post when we sent it. We reached that goal, but we
realized that not good enough to get attention from both media and government with small
number of petitioners. Our weakness was limited time line to focus on such a big social action.
Joined ally with U of T was important to reach big numbers on issue to protest inequality even if
government doesn‘t want to take us seriously. Our proposal to government was taken time to
finalize. We were liked see at following on new Bill: Existing ―$20 million fund over the next
four years‖ that provided by Ontario Government must use for professional integration of
immigrants in Ontario that funds be used in acquisition of reference material for these
professional candidates, their registration fees in Professional association, training programs of
immigrant in their field of competency. (Globe and Mail, 2007).
Our suggestion was that the Ontario government starts, within three to six months,
collecting names, addresses, phone numbers and e-mail and qualifications of landed immigrants,
refugees in Ontario so that they can be referred to professional associations that must mandatory
both side. Access to some position shouldn‘t be conditioned any more by membership. The
professional association should have the responsibility to arrange practical immersion of new
immigrants into the Ontario professional environment and administer an entry test to the
association. This readjustment process would have to be completed within one year and half or
two at most. These reforms are very urgent because majority of immigrant are in falling victim
of the present system.
We don‘t feel successful yet. This social action needs more numbers and longer time to
achieve. Our suggestions were realistic but public is not aware of that system neglected. Without
media attention, our request might be forgotten. Our long-term goal is need to be following up by
group. Our problem-solving model shall be seen only as a frame on which many other elements
could be added later on. Public discuss more and rally must be established. We couldn‘t focus
federal level; immigrants‘ problem is also federal government responsibility. We have started
that action provincial, but also aims need from other province groups to prepare mass protest or
March to Ottawa at large.

257
Role of Group Members; Sonia Sheikh is allying to the U of T working group as relation
coordinator. Sherrieann Farrell is asking interview questions and preparing press release as
media relation coordinator. Yanhong Ou is researching more strategies as researcher. Yanwen
Wu is preparing the booth and collecting data as Information coordinator. Faruk Arslan is
writing petition and offical letters to the Government of Canada as Foreign Relation coordinator.
Amun Hilowle is seeking related agencies such as the Ontario Council of Agency Serving
Immigrants. Marcia Mattison is responsible for the outcomes and monitors the group member‘s
performance. John Wilkie is arranging the video and is preparing the interview questions along
with displaying a booth board. Aaron Szeto records the videotape.

REFERENCES

Armed with degrees, they drive our cabs, London Free Press
January 17, 2004 http://www.triec.ca/index.asp?pageid=41&int=newsite/news-
media/inthenews/MediaClippings/LondonFreePressJan1704.htm
Breaking Down Barrier, 2006. Global Experience Ontario.
Statistic of Canada, 2002. Retriewed from web site _ HYPERLINK "http://www.statcan.ca"
__www.statcan.ca_
Immigrants upset over credentialing process, Globe and Mail,
21 March 2007. The lack of a new agency to assess skills is a broken promise, support groups
say.
Thousands of eager immigrants arrive in Canada only to discover their education and
professional credentials are almost worthless. Article retrieved from web _ HYPERLINK
"http://www.notcanada.com/immigration/immigration1.htm"
__http://www.notcanada.com/immigration/immigration1.htm_
Undated: Immigrants no solution for small business, A poll carried out by the Canadian
Federation of Independent Business _ HYPERLINK
"http://www.rcinet.ca/rci/en/news/2006/12/20061208.shtml"
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258
Chapter 35

Situational Assessment

Client name: Bahar Sahin Date of Assessment: January 21, 2008


(Names, address and phone changed to protect client confidentiality)
Address: 500 Apple Avenue, Toronto, ON M21 2M4
Tel: ( Home) 416-555-5500 (W): N/A ( Cell): N/A
D.O.B : August 2, 1987

Client Information:

Client is 21 years old married female, her husband abused her physically. She is member
of Azerbaijan Community who recently immigrated to Canada with family sponsorship program
as an immigrant. Her high school friend Aygun is referral source that client to agency. Aygun
called to agency and talked to directly supervisor about her condition that client doesn‘t want to
go police or other agencies. Aygun arranged an appointment after receiving guarantee that
agency is able to counselling with her own language, and keep her information confidential,
especially from her husband and Azerbaijan Community in Toronto. Agency become involved in
that case because client doesn‘t trust anybody and wants to talk someone who knows her
language, and show her to right direction.

Presenting Problems:

Client says she doesn‘t know where to go and how to deal with abusing problem.
According to client, abuser is an alcoholic and drug user, and he is threatening her regularly
because of his unemployment condition. Bahar says her husband also has beaten her son when he
is drunk; further more, she has been always saying that he will be taken away her son from her
even if she calls to police based on client accusation. Client states that she wants to divorce and
keep child in her custody.
Referral source has seen that her problem is spousal abuse for nothing. Aygun has known
client since elementary school and her husband for last three months. She says he doesn‘t accept
his child as his own child with his jealousy character that is a main conflict in the family. Client
married early age when she was 18 after graduate high school in Baku, Azerbaijan, and stayed
her husband family house two years until receive immigration paper that‘s why there is no
reason to blame that young mother for cheating based on referral source opinion. Referral source
says alcohol and drug drinking behaviour is a usual for Azerbaijani men, but cheating claim
serious issue in Azerbaijan culture.
As seen by agency that abused spouse beaten by her husband. Clint has been living in
Toronto for one year, seeking help now after serious physical and psychological harassment
occurred. She is a newcomer, and her English is very poor. Agency concerns Bahar and her three
years old son safety. Her husband hasn‘t seen their child since his birth until came to Toronto
with her and blamed her that child wasn‘t from him. She doesn‘t have work experience. She has
been a house keeper and willing to taken care of his son in future. Client previously attempted to
deal with presenting situation, but never happened again because she was scared about own and
her child safety. She was afraid of calling police or talking outsider to get them into situation.
259
Assessment:

Bahar was visibly anxious, said nothing unless spoken to, and avoided eye contact. After
interviewing and discussing an issue calmly with client‘s language, I got more information about
her side of things. She was hospitalized two times, due to physical harm by husband. She went to
hospital with his friend Aygun, and she translated to doctor and police that she fell from stairs.
Client came to agency with a black eye, bleeding nose and lips, and small cut the head. She used
to anti-depression pills and Tylenol 3 for headaches and backaches. In her anxiety, Bahar started
to stutter to the point that she couldn‘t speak and her hands shook visibly. In time, Bahar calmed
down enough to tell me that Azer (her husband) beat her every day. She had once called the
police, but he beat her severely the day he returned from jail, and threatened to kill her son, if she
ever called the police again. He also assured her that he would find her and kill her if she tried to
leave him. Bahar had no family in the area and felt trapped.
Client was lonely and sad. She is isolated from community, difficult to communicated
with others, and had only one friend Aygun who states that she is shy person and hard to make
friends. She prefers to stay alone, and doesn‘t have any type of support from family. She states,
often sleep at home a lot and eats a lot when angry and depressed. Bahar accepts responsibility
for the violence because the abuser has convinced her that she is to blame. Spouse abuser is
overly controlling in relationship. She economically depends on her husband that factor impact
on client decision to stay that long. Bahar grew up in a home where witnessing violence between
their parents was a way of life.

Summary:

Bahar has lack of knowledge about legal rights, potential criminal consequences, and
community resources for spousal abuse. A language barrier prevents the victim from seeking
assistance that is available in the community. Fear of deportation (her husband was sponsor);
also dissuade her from using what protection from assault the criminal justice system can offer.
Bahar‘s husband has the idea that men are inherently superior to women, and what a man
decides, wants, needs, and believes is more important than what a woman decides, wants, needs,
or believes. Immigrants, especially first generation immigrant like Bahar, find themselves
isolated from the support and counsel of family and friends that were left behind. Due to
geographical isolation and financial constraints, the victim trapped in the home, as there is
nowhere to turn. Her social environment is oppressing and impacting on client negatively.

Plan for action:

Victim safety is the first consideration for treatment plan involving spousal abuse. After
mutually understood her condition, agency has presented several strategies that victim safety as
quickly as possible, and providing a basic victim safety plan. Agency also offered to collaborate
on community-based problem solving method if client wish. The first step was educate to Bahar
about her legal rights, and the aggressor about potential legal and economic consequences should
the criminal justice system become involved. Bahar understood about the pros and cons of
domestic violence protective orders, and consider the use of protective shelters. Next step was
informing client about specific resources in her community by contacting local shelters or calling
agencies. Referral to Family Shelter, Children Aid Society, Child Protection Worker (i.e CAS/
CCAS) was primarily dealing with domestic violence shelters that can provide victims of spousal
260
abuse and their children a safe haven and specialized counselling that appropriate for Bahar.
Review the frequency, severity, and potential lethal suicide or homicide risk factors in the case,
and consider the need for a victim urgent safety plan is recommended. Bahar insisted to have
more time to achieve it. Plan is submitted to supervisor approval.

Implementation:

First goal is that Bahar needs to move out, and leave her husband today or next day with
her son. I asked Bahar to talk with a representative of a woman‘s shelter on my office phone
with my translation, but she refused, fearing that Azer would find out. I asked her to take a list of
community resources for victims of spousal abuse, but she refused, saying that Azer was sure to
search her on the way home. Bahar finally accepted the list of resources, but folded the page into
a small square and hid it inside her clothing, much as a prisoner. Finally, client agreed to go
Family Shelter with Aygun‘s help. Client doesn‘t want to contact over home phone, referral
source Aygun was a key person to keep in touch and monitoring process. As was evidenced in
this case, the emotional component of abuse is strong and dominant. Children Aid is also
informed about client and her son.

Evaluation:

As a result, implementation of plan changed that Bahar preferred to call shelter with
Aygun and me together in our office after one week. She came in with her son and Aygun but
she got several new bruises on her face. I felt guilty that we should have been convinced her to
made rescue plan one week ago. I would do differently next time. The experience of dealing with
spousal abuse case and helping the victim was get into the victim life. I have learned
interpersonal skills and how to deal with spousal abuse in the Centennial College. I used an
interview techniques, self discloser, and empathy method to gather information and get to know
her, and identify problem. Through direct counselling, I help client to identify her real concerns,
provide concrete information, help her to consider solutions and find resources. She went
through a painful process, first confrontation, as well as anger, resentment, guilt and shame,
which characterise the condition of the true self. Agency responded that case truly on time but
her community still ignores spousal abuse facts. I was successfully able to cope with situation
that early intervention saved Bahar and her son‘s life. Principles of human rights and social
justice are fundamental to social work, and helping individuals, families and communities.

261
Chapter 36

Death Penalty Right or Wrong


Capital punishment, also called the death penalty, is "death by execution" as stated in The
American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language.( American Heritage Dictionary)
As of 2007, currently, 90 countries abolish capital punishment for all offences, 11 for all
offences except under special circumstances and 32 others have not used it for at least 10 years,
and a total of 64 countries retain it. The Death Penalty does not stop people from killing others,
only does stop is killers from killing people again. Many of the families of victims do not want
the criminals to be put to death, as a result, executing the offender doesn't allow them a chance to
get rehabilitated and become a productive member of society. The death penalty outmodes today
and must eliminate from all world system of justice that is extremely racially biases and is not
assigned justly. The purpose of this paper is to review the arguments for the death penalty to
show that it unethically utilizes discriminatorily against minorities, the poor and uneducated,
leaving no possibility for correcting errors of justice, and keeping that one of the oldest crime
belong to an uncivilized countries in this Millennium.
First of all, the Death Penalty discriminates unfairly against racial and other minorities
and to undermine the presumption of innocence in the flaw criminal justice system in USA. A
well-known writer Bill Kurtis‘s book shows bad lawyer and judge make worse especially on
colour people. Lower class individuals are far more likely to receive the death penalty than
individuals of upper or middle class backgrounds. He states, "More than 2000 people are on
death row today. Virtually all are poor, a significant number are mentally retarded or other wise
mentally disabled. More than forty percent are African American and disproportionate numbers
are Native American, Latino, and Asian." (Kurtis, 2007, p. 26-4). In approximately 90% of cases
presently on death row, defendants could not afford to hire a lawyer when they try. Profiles
conducts on death row defendants consistently point out that defendants are poor, show a lack of
firm social roots within their communities and received ―inadequate legal representation at their
trial‖ or on use of the appeals process. ( Sarat, 2001). United States Supreme Court justices
follow previously establish legal rules even when they ―disagree with them‖ and accepts that
system of Criminal justice does not work with the efficiency of machine, making error is normal.
(Jeffrey; Harold, 1996). Explore the place of capital punishment in popular culture by examining
such films as Dead Man Walking, The Last Dance, and The Green Mile, books and some
statistics indicate that Capital Punishment kills more blacks then whites, more poor then rich, and
more less educated than well educated citizens.
Secondly, the possibility of an innocent person being put to death is another factor some
people are against the Death Penalty. Some convicts are able to have the evidence that use
against them, and chance to re-examine those DNA analysis. By 2000-JAN, tests prove that 13
inmates on Illinois' death row are innocent. (The Death Penalty Information Center) The death
penalty can lead to the death of innocent people. For example, ―…According to a study, serious
errors occur in almost 70% of all trials leading to the death penalty…‖ (Leibman, 2002). This
statement alone shows the truth about the death penalty. In numbers far beyond our greatest
fears, innocent people are being convicted of murder and sentenced to death that proves the U.S.
death penalty system is "collapsing under the weight of its own mistakes." (Leibman, 2002).
Nobody on either side of the death penalty debate wants to see an innocent person put to death,
and yet studies find that one in seven people sent to death row are later proven innocent. Despite
those who favour the death penalty as a fair and just punishment that applies without prejudice or
262
bias, new technologies prove. New technologies make free a number of death row prisoners
because of DNA evidence that indisputably demonstrates they are innocent of the crime. Flawed
laboratory testing is responsible for several wrong convictions.
As of March 2005, 119 innocent people _release [d] from death rows across the country
since 1973. Only 200 death row inmates are allowed DNA testing, one quarter of the defendants
are exonerated. (DP Information Center). Statistics such as these that lead to the very real
speculation that there are many more innocents on death row at this present moment. It is unfair
and unacceptable that all countries must allow all death row prisoners doing it to avoid leaving
no possibility for correcting errors of justice.
Thirdly, the European Union (EU) opposes to the death penalty_ in all cases and is
deeply concerns about the increasing number of executions USA. Even Russia and Turkey
eliminate it from their system of justice despite fighting with domestic terror and ethnics‘
conflicts. Any civilized society cannot at the service of death in order to human to become ―an
agent of the Angel of Death." ( Elie Wiesel, 2003) Capital punishment is immoral and unethical
based on basic human rights watchers and many thinkers see that way because a life is taken by
another it is always wrong. By killing a human being the state lessens the value of life and
actually contributes to the growing sentiment in today's society that certain individuals are worth
more than others. It epitomizes all that's wrong with the American judicial system. There is not
enough evidence to prove whether or not capital punishment deters crime. If the state
governments use the death penalty consistently it could become an effective deterrent of violent
crime. The opposition of the death penalty group gaining ground and getting strong support from
public in order to put limiting use of the death as well as the methods usage in state because USA
citizen is ashamed of that belong to the third world countries.
In conclusion, capital punishment is a crime and morally wrong. The modern or first class
country does not have the right to end a person's life or say when it ends because it is legal
murder. It is also practically out of our modern time, must remove not only from USA, also who
recognize it since it is both discriminatory and arbitrary, has no proof of acting as a deterrent,
and risks the atrocious and unacceptable injustice of executing innocent people. Who are we to
take life into our own hands? Do we actually know if he accused person is guilty, so we are
willing to risk the chance of being wrong, and murder a human being for his wrong doings.
Some people still consider this justice, while others consider it cruel and unusual punishment.

References:
Jeffrey A. Segal, Harold J. Spaeth. (1996). American Journal of Political Science, Vol. 40, No. 4,
pp. 971-1003.
Kurtis Bill. (2007). The Death Penalty on Trial: Crisis in American Justice. Public Affair
Publisher: New York.
Leibman, James. (2002). "The Death Penalty in 2002: Year End Report," The Death Penalty
Information Center. (2007). Retrieved November 17, 2007 from web _
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/yrendrpt02.pdf_
Sarat Austin.(2001). When the State Kills: Capital Punishment and the American Condition.
Princeton University Press Publisher.
The Death Penalty Information Center. (2007). Retrieved November 18, 2007 from web
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org
The American Heritage Dictionary.(4th ed.). (2000). Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Retrieved
November 18, 2007 from Dictionary.com website:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/scrotum_
Wiesel, Elie.( 2003). Conversations with Elie Wiesel , Publisher Schocken.
263
Chapter 37

Alcohol and Other Drugs Survey


The Survey examination of the prevalence of rates of illicit drug use was conducted
among 40 Canadian subjects. The assessment included the demographics such as: age group,
gender, educational level, profession and ethnic background, which were gathered by our group.
The study asked 22 participants, 18 of them College students mostly between 18 to 22 years of
age up to 29 whether consume alcohol, smoke marijuana and cigarettes, take clubs drugs, LSD,
speed, heroin or cocaine past 12 months, weekly and daily basis. Other 11 Canadian who older
than 30 has been used drugs, cigarettes and alcohols with different level. (Appendix)

Tobacco

A distinct trend compared with data from 2004 and 2005 surveys combined ―about 12
percent of college students smoked cigarettes on a daily basis, with about 7 percent smoking
more than half a pack per day‖, there was not the steady decline found in the percentage of
college students according to our study (Johnston; O‘Malley; Bachman; Schulenberg, 2006) in
the most frequent news, it was shown that smoking cigarettes about 55% weekly or daily as
regular smoker.

Alcohol

About 73% of our surveyed population reported drinking alcohol and about 64% subjects
took more than 5 a time, while have relative or friends‘ were alcohol user about 64% according
to our survey. The drinking habits of college students have shown a little increase since 2005,
based on national survey indicated‖ 69 percent of college students surveyed were drunk at least
once in the previous month‖. (Johnston; O‘Malley; Bachman; Schulenberg, 2006). This study
was indeed similar to our survey in 2007, alcohol consumption on a regular basis widespread for
individuals who has still under peer group influence.

Illegal drugs

The leading factors for marijuana use is the degree of availability, also a combination of
drugs such us LSD, speed, heroin or cocaine and club drugs include the potential friends
approval among college students haven‘t been changed since 1997, especially an American
―across cultural groups; white, African, Latino and Asian youngster‖ according to study of
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration even though compare with our
Canadian survey. (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2001). Our
study shows that using marijuana or harsh usage reported about 34 % weekly, at the same time
they were taking LSD, speed, heroin or cocaine about 23%, and 32% of the population
participated in club drugs once in a while.
Illicit drug using behaviour has increased since the past year among persons who are 30
years or older based on our study since 2005, as compare with result of the National Survey and
Drug Use and Health and with University of Michigan survey results, only ―10% percent of this
population reported illegal drug, and about 7 percent used marijuana or hashish‖, and less
numbers engaged with heroin and LSD, but Cocaine and club drug usage backed up. (Substance
264
Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2006). Marijuana or Hashish users
percentage was 36%, LSD, speed, heroin or cocaine usage was 13%, but clubs drug particularly
is striking in the case of Ecstasy use boomed to % 40 dramatically according to our survey result.

Age differences

In general, alcohol drinking preferences among 30 or older years groups were about 67%
over recent year while drink 5 alcoholic beverage in a time was 46%. In contrast, relationships
have relative and friends with alcohol use was about 60%. ―Binge drinking among students and
other young adults is a common social ritual as well as a continuing social concern‖ while
habituation continued when they are middle aged or older (Levinthal, 2007).

Gender differences

Women consume more alcohol than men. 67% of male used alcohol, meantime 43%
female preferred it. 75% of women had influenced with their relative and friends and 67% of
men were under pressure. Our study had similar results with the survey conducted by the
Harvard School of Public Health on alcoholic consumption among College students except ―men
had 5 drinks at a time, but women had four drinks.‖ (Brower, 2002). Our study shows that 56%
of women are having drinks more than 5 times while only 43% of men had it. Drinking gap
between men and women are not twice anymore. 75% of women have friends that use drugs
while 67% of males have it. The 30-year and older age group still have relatives who use drugs
addictive about 60%.
Having Marijuana or harsh, LSD, speed, heroin or cocaine and Club drugs usage gap is
still twice between men and women while women smoking habituate was pretty close to men.
For example, about 52% for Marijuana or harsh, LSD, speed, heroin or cocaine were about 23%,
and drug clubs about 43% for men usage. At the same time, women use about 25% for
Marijuana or harsh, LSD, speed, heroin or cocaine were about 12%, and drug clubs about 25%.
But Women smoking behaviour is also changing and getting closer to men like alcohol usage
attitude according to our survey. 50% of women had regular smoking habituation; on the other
hand, 67 % of men still are smoking cigarettes. Historically, when women use drugs in the past
the perception was completely different and usage was very low, hundred of years ago, possibly
even 50 years ago. Today, ―Even 17% of pregnant women smoking cigarettes, about 12%
consume alcohol, 4% reported to use illicit drugs in State‖ those numbers are less than our study
numbers. (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2006).

Cultural background differences

North and South American and European origin Canadian were most likely to use more
alcohol regularly (about 90%) than Caribbean (about 50%) and Asian and Middle East
population (about 54%). 81 % of first group are having 5 drink at a time, 46% of third group
consuming that level but only 25% second group. 100% of the first and second group population
have relatives or friends with alcohol use while only 50% of the third group has it according to
our study. Using Marijuana or harsh percentages is closer with first (about 54) and second (about
%50) ethnic groups while Asian and Middle East group less likely to use it with 30%.

The other factors

265
LSD, speed, heroin or cocaine and club drugs usage are very high with first group about
%36. Second and third group are less than those illicit drug users except 30% of third group are
using club drug while second group percentage is about 25%. Smoking behaviour is higher in the
first group with 72%. Second group are also smoker with 50% while the third group has a
smoking percentage of 20%. Having relative and friends who are illicit drug user are highly
effective on first and second group about 100% while 50% of the third group has friends who
illicit drugs.

Summary: The Survey used only 40 subjects to reach conclusion that is weakness of
study. Finding higher percent of college students smoked cigarettes on a daily basis than other
study might be not objective with our limited numbers. The alcohol drinking habits of college
students show that they are still under peer influence in both studies. Illicit drug using behaviour
has increased since the past year among all age groups, gender and ethnic background group
based on our study. Comparing with other studies, our survey found all illicit drug usage has
highly increased especially Ecstasy usage boomed, but the other studies found declined in some
illicit drug. The similarities found that having relative and friends who illicit drug user are highly
effective for all groups. The other similarities with other study, women illicit drug usage,
smoking and drinking alcohol behaviours have been changing and getting closer to men, but our
percentage always higher than the other studies. Both studies found women use drugs in the past
the perception was completely different than today with evidence of those high numbers.
Regarding the Cultural background differences. North and South American and European origin
Canadian were most likely to use more alcohol, cigarette, and all illicit drugs regularly than the
Caribbean and Asian and Middle East population. Our survey found some similarities with other
surveys, but still our percentage way higher than other studies. It makes our study subjective
because of using fewer subjects for survey.

References:

Brower, Aaron M. ( 2002). Are College student alcoholic? Journal of American College Health,
50, 253-255; Finding from Harvard School of Public health College Alcoholic Study Survey
1993-2001.
Levinthal, Charles F. ( 2007). Drug, Behaviour, and Modern Society, 5th edition. Publisher:
Pearson Education Inc, page 220.
Johnson, Lloyd. D;O‘Malley, Patrick M; Bachman Jerald G; and Schulenberg, John E. (2006).
Monitoring the Future: National survey results on drug use. Vol. II, table 2-3 and 2-4.
Johnson, Lloyd. D;O‘Malley, Patrick M; Bachman Jerald G; and Schulenberg, John E. (2006).
Monitoring the Future national survey results table 2,3 and 4. D;O‘Malley, Patrick M; Bachman
Jerald G; and Schulenberg, John E. (2006).Vol. II, table 2-4.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2001). Risk and protective factors
for adolescent drug use: Finding from the 1997 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse.
Rockville MD: Office of Applied Studies, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service
Administration, pp, 27-42.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2006). Result from the 2005
National Survey on drugs Use and Health: Detailed tables. Rockville MD: Office of Applied
Studies, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration, Table 1.4A.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2006). Risk and protective factors
for adolescent drug use: Finding from the 2005 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse.

266
Rockville MD: Office of Applied Studies, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service
Administration, pp, 22, 30, and 41.

APPENDIX TABLE 1.1


Illicit drug use during the past year, weekly and daily basis among person in Toronto aged 18 to
29 and 30 and older.
GROUPS Consume Alcohol Drink more than 5 a time Have Marijuana or harsh LSD, speed,
heroin or cocaine Smoke cigarettes Club drugs Have relative or friends with alcohol use 29 and
under(18/22 are students) 16/22(73%) 14/22(11/22 once in while)64% 8/22(5/22 weekly) 36%
5/22(23%) 12/22(weekly or daily)55% 7/22(once in a while)32% 14/22(64%) 30-39
10/15(67%) 7/15(46%) 5/15(33%) 2/15(13%) 10/15(daily) (67%) 6/15(once in a while) (40%)
9/15(60%) 40-49 50-59 60+ Male 14/21(7/21 weekly or daily)67% 9/21(5/21
weekly)43% 11/21(6/21 weekly)52% 5/21(23%) 14/21(daily) 67% 9/21(43%) 14/21(67%)
Female 7/16(43%) 9/16(once in a while)56% 4/16(once in a while)25% 2/16(12%) 8/16(daily)
50% 4/16(once in a while)25% 12/16(75%) N, S America, Europe 10/11(5/8 weekly) 90%
9/11(81%) 6/11(weekly) 54% 4/11(36%) 8/11(72%) 4/11(36%) 100% Caribbean(4)
100%(50% once in a while) 1/4(25%) 2/4(50%) 1/4 2/4(50%) 1/4 100% Asia and Middle East
11/20(54%once in a while) 9/20(46%) 6/20(30%) 4/20(20%)once in a while 11/20 (54%daily)
6/20(30%) 10/20(50%)

have
relative
drink or friends
more have LSD, speed, with
comsume than 5 a Marijuana heroin or smoke club alcohol
Alcohol time or harsh cocaine cigarettes drugs use
14/22(11/
7/22(on
29 and 22 once 8/22(5/22 12/22(wee
ce in a 14/22(64
under(18/ 16/22(73%) in weekly)36 5/22(23%) kly or
while)32 %)
22 are while)64 % daily)55%
%
students) %
30-39 6/15(on
40-49 10/15(dail ce in a 9/15(60
7/15(46% 5/15(33%) 2/15(13%)
50-59 10/15(67%) y) (67%) while) %)
)
60+ (40%)

14/21(7/21we 11/21(6/2
9/21(5/21
ekly or 1 5/21(23%) 14/21(dail 9/21(43 14/21(67
weekly)4
daily)67% weekly)52 y) 67% %) %)
3%
Male %
9/16(once 4/16(on
4/16(once
in a 8/16(daily) ce in a
Female 7/16(43%) in a 2/16(12%) 12/16(75
while)56 50% while)25
while)25% %)
% %
N, S 10/11
9/11(81% 6/11(week 4/11(36
America, (5/8weekly) 4/11(36%) 8/11(72%) 100%
) ly) 54% %)
Europe 90%
100%(50%
Carribean once in a 1/4(25%) 2/4(50%) ¼ 2/4(50%) 1/4 100%
(4) while)
Asia and 4/20(20%)o
11/20(54%onc 9/20(46% 11/20 6/20(30 10/20(50
middle 6/20(30%) nce in a
e in a while) ) (54%daily) %) %)
east while
267
Chapter 38

My Portfolio of Social Work

Mission Statement:
To help low-income, especially immigrant and new Canadian people, improve, inspire and
empower them to live passionate, fulfilling lives of service through educational, cultural
programs, and social problem solving activities that focused on issues to meet their needs.
Goal Statement:
Mobilizing resources for human care services along community partners to community problem
solving process such us with a Counselling and Settlement programs, provide information and
referral service that offer the skills and support to enter and stay in the workforce, an opportunity
to grow and prosper, safe place to live with sufficient food, in their efforts to remain
independent.
Model of Practice:
I believe that a person's conceptual framework is more than the sum of experiences. Systems
Theory was my model (as modified by Germain's Ecological Model) as a framework for
organizing the experiences in a person‘s life. Life experiences happened within a context (home,
school, mosque, life stage, etc), which was conceptualized as system which influenced a person
and could be influenced by that person. One of the systems that were pivotal in shaping my
conceptual framework was my undergraduate studies at Azerbaijan University, Social Service
Worker studies at Centennial College and work as a reporter in Zaman newspaper since 1990‘s.
My undergraduate major was International Relation, an International Law major which actively
removed the artificial boundaries between disciplines. One way in which this was done was to
have a class co-taught with professors from different disciplines. For example, one course called
"Human Rights and Genocide" was co-taught by a historian and a philosopher. I got similar
Human Right course at Centennial College and recognized that root of discrimination and
oppression in order to confront with anti-oppressive, empowerment, non-discriminatory, critical
and reflective thinking. It was important to see all of the different ways in which the persons and
systems inter-related. I have influenced system theory + ecological = life model in social worker
studies and my field placement at College, I was drawn to Germain's Ecological perspective for
the same reasons. However, I found that only one-theory to be lacking in practical application.
In 40‘s Ludwig Burtlaffey introduced cell system theory that our interactive parts make up us a
whole. We must look at past, present and future, search single problem in body such as headache
what could cause of it. Taking a cell and examine it, show us part of community problem where
it come from. During 60‘s that theory developed as interacting parts make up more than the
addition of mutual impact of subparts. One impacts to another how status maintains a steady
state. Postmodernism and Critical Theory are broad rubrics for intellectual movements rather
than specific theories, postmodernism derives from Post-Structuralism and Deconstructionist,
which were initially criticisms of the Structuralism movement of the 1960s. Critical theory
derives from neo-Marxism and Feminist theory, extended to include Post-colonial theory and
Queer theory. (Singer, 2008). After learning structural and constructivist theories about the basis
for the approach, I really felt that the constructivists were doing exactly what I had always done
in ―my own naive psychology‖ (Heider, in Fiske and Taylor, 1991). The structure, strengths
perspective, systemic involvement, use of language and metaphors as an indicator of a person‘s
construction of reality in 80', all fit my experience. The truth may be right until you could prove

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it wrong that theory doesn‘t allow fluidity; multiple truths, validation, inductive thinking, etc.
The science doesn‘t have answer for everything that creates problems.
One of my problems with the distinction modernism/postmodernism is that I think a great
deal of what is interesting in postmodernism is actually present in confusion of science. ―The
postmodern version of the relation between theory and practice is discourse unto death.‖ Theory
begets no practice, only more text. It proceeds as if you can deconstruct power relations by
shifting their markers around in your head like all formal idealism, this approach. As an
approach to change, it is the same as the conventional approach to the theory/practice relation:
head driven, not world driven. Social change is first thought about, then acted out. As theory, it
is ―the de-realization of the world‖ (MacKinnon, 1991).
I haven‘t learned about the constructivist approach to cognitive theory, I probably would
have aligned myself with another theory. Nurius and Berlin (1995) summarize it best when they
say that cognitive concepts have been strengthened by "the more general emphasis of
postmodernism on constructivism and deconstruction" and have been integrated into "ecological
systems theory" (p. 514). Discourse and deductive thinking are need it that variety of approaches
assigned based on client needs. Ecological needs nutrition to adapt and evolve and it depends on
power and structure of society who has benefits.
Based on critical perspective, there false consciousness, deconstruct, dominate group who
benefits from consciousness such as capitalism, and historical facts were choices influence our
lives, not the truth. I searched several approaches such as reflective that put yourself in someone
else shoes to understand others. The empathy could be fraud. When empower someone from
your point you could prevent with your mimics and client knows it. Contextual thinking,
inductive knowledge, interpretation, non positivism and discount intuition will be effective as a
whole reflective approach. Such as man are socialize low context people in society and more
problem solving oriented like me while women socialize high context people and with many way
of knowing. We need to see broader picture. All approaches could use an equal transformative
approach to SSW or SW.

Plans for Continuing Education with the Model


I am equally a kinaesthetic, aural and verbal learner, so I plan to take advantage of all the
possibilities those forms of learning afford me. One of the best ways for me to learn how to
apply ecological-systems model is to actually get trained in the techniques. Although not a
financial possibility right now, I am considering it as part of my future professional development.
More immediately there are seminars and workshops I can attend on specific techniques. Since I
plan to become a registered Social service worker, I will be looking for a supervisor who can
fulfill the requirements for supervision, but who also is well versed in ecological-systems model
expert. In addition, I plan to subscribe to journals such as the Journal of in order to maintain my
knowledge of the field. If available, I would like to take classes at York University a school of
social work to maintain my education.
As I mentioned earlier, it is very important to be flexible. This applies to my knowledge of
different theories as well. The ecological-systems model provides a good framework within
which both system and contextual theory can work. In addition, ―The Life Model has been
developed as a practical application of the ecological perspective‖ (Germain and Gitterman,
1986).
I really appreciate the emphasis that is placed on the person environment interdependence in this
model. Another model that has arisen from this model is mutual-aid, which has been very useful
in my work with groups. Like the life model, mutual-aid emphasizes the social benefits of a
group where people can validate each others experience and "share data" that only someone "in
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the same boat" would have (Gitterman and Shulman, 1994). This complements the cognitive
theories because it maintains that people in similar situations (women with breast cancer, teenage
alcoholics etc) share similar (though not exact) views of reality and can therefore support each
other ((Gitterman and Shulman, 1994).

Evaluation Plan

The competent SSW has strong reflective listening skills. They can hear not only the
words, but also the emotions, tone, context, etc. and be able to reflect the meaning behind the
client's statements. The less competent SSW confuses the art of reflection with interpretation,
and will throw out interpretations based more on their own understanding of the client's situation
than reflections based on the clients‘ reality.
The competent SSW is flexible and confident. She/he is culturally competent and is able
to address issues of oppression when brought up by the client. The less competent SSW is not
interested in his work as a helper of people, but rather as an expert of people. He lets his ego get
in the way of working effectively for clients. He does not keep up with the literature. He does not
have strong boundaries and cannot recognize when he is bringing his own issues into the
professional relationship. The competent SSW is purposeful in what they do. I read the literature
and consult with my supervisor and peers about different issues that have arisen. I am taking
advantage of this opportunity, the luxury of time, to discover which avenues are available to
increase my competence so that when I am a busy professional I can spend my time tapping the
resources I have worked to find.
Finally, I would look to anti-oppressive, empowerment, non-discriminatory, critical,
reflective, and systemic and life model, also contextual model for guidance in encouraging my
clients to change the system. I have heard it said that Social Service Workers are the keepers of
the status quo. Since there are a lot of things about society that I work to change, I will support
my clients who wish to become agents of change to do so. For example, I would support my
clients to get involved in community groups that are actively working to improve their
environment. Since we cannot change anyone but ourselves, this would provide the client with
an opportunity to improve their lives. I will go back to view my evaluation plan to see where I
would be at.

Summary
It has been my intention to reach my mission statement in my own life. I see my values of
structure and the unique perspective of each person reflected in the ecological-systems life model
theory. I share the importance of study, research and clear goals with my chosen perspective. My
desire for economic and social justice is not fully addressed by the model, but it is complemented
by other theories that are focused more on macro-level change. I believe I am prepared for
registered SSW to accomplish my goal. My skills as a SSW are adequate to help people within a
certain context; I have experience working in Canadian Interfaith Dialogue Center, Canadian
Turkish Friendship Community, Azerbaijan Turkish Regions Association, Sunrise Education
Trust and Canadaturk as Community developer, events organizer, media relation, public relation,
grant writer for refugees, Immigrant, new Canadians, for persons with case management with
high-risk families, and been successful doing SSW work with families and children. At a certain
point I still am in need of direction and supervision. For example, I have very little experience
with counselling drug and alcohol addictions. I have worked with families that have the issues,
but I have had no formal training, and I have not done any serious reading on the subject,
although I feel comfortable reading the social work literature.
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The main area of improvement I see is in my role as a SSW-researcher. It is my hope that I will
feel more confident upon completing York University- Social Work. Ultimately, I feel it is
important to know more about my theory, have an idea of my own biases, but to never let a
certain perspective or technology limit what I can do for a client. Respect for human diversity
has always been a core social work concern. It is the centerpiece of many of our best efforts to
enhance human growth and potential. Respect for cultural, racial, ethnic, gender, and sexual
diversity in Canada to grow ever more illusive ( Besthorn, 2001).
Perhaps a more difficult path toward developing a deeper ecological approach to social
work is reclaiming a sacred relationship to the Earth Community. The effects of the ecological
crisis on our comminute, on the clients we serve, on national and international socio-economic
and socio-political relations and on us as professional healers and helpers offer a unique
opportunity for social work to re-evaluate our connections with nature and community(
Besthorn, 2001). The social work profession works mostly with underprivileged segments of
society that include a large number of culturally diverse populations. I have assumed the task of
broadening my cultural competency to improve my ability to work with clients whose back
grounds and culture are different from my own. My experiences living in other countries (Russia,
Azerbaijan, Turkey and Germany) have allowed me the perspective of being outside the
mainstream. Social work can and must be part of a greater effort to create an ecological re-
awakening which seeks to repair damage to the earth but which also continues to work to repair
the damage of a long history of patriarchy, racism, ethnocentrism and classism (Besthorn, 1999).
Social work must now put aside its past reluctance and become actively involved in seeking new
ecological initiatives that can support and enliven struggles for social, racial, and political justice
and ending the growing economic divide between the rich and poor. The challenge to our
professional and to us individually is to find a way to act with the calm inner support of
spirituality, immersed in hope, that what we are doing is necessary and right. Our actions must
resonate with authenticity, compassion and justice. They are not dependent on specific outcomes,
but rather reflect a way of being in and of the world ( Besthorn, 2001).

Learning Contract

1. Develop and maintain professional relationships which adhere to professional, legal, and
ethical standards aligned to social service work.

PLAN: Respect clients, staffs, and programs confidentiality based on social work ethics, codes,
and present material at an agency in-service.

EVIDENCE/PROOF:

Informing client rights when disclosure with them. Keep confidentiality about programs and
clients. Identify potential ethical dilemmas represented in assigned cases, to discuss probable
ramifications, and to work through possible resolutions with Field Instructor and report to him
result with note.

2. Identify strengths, resources, and challenges of individuals, families, groups, and communities
to assist them in achieving their goals.

PLAN: Participate in meetings, identifying and discussing clients and programs issues
associated with development as a helping professional.
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EVIDENCE/PROOF:

Evidence is Minutes from agency meeting. Participate in Minute taking process, suggest and
share ideas to discuss about agenda. Find out community resources how values, attitudes and
cultural factors influence the outcome of assigned case. Watch team-building principles, send
email to ask how achieve to goal and get respond from staffs for fulfill duties with satisfaction.

3. Recognize diverse needs and experiences of individuals, groups, families, and communities to
promote accessible and responsive programs and services.

PLAN: Assess which of resources and out reach programs are in high demand at the agency.

EVIDENCE/PROOF:

Participate in discussions of outreach to the multi-faith community, clients and service


to diversity background clients at the agency. Explore how the agency assesses what
constitutes culturally appropriate services and how the standards would or would not be relevant
to the agency setting, and identify key cross cultural/class characteristics that may enhance or
impede cross-cultural interventions with multi-faith clients or programs. Ongoing evaluation
from client such us from responds card and staff will provide more responsive creative program.
Joining faith basis meeting associated with service delivery to multi-faith clients or programs
that will be reported to Field Instructor.

4. Identify current social policy, relevant legislation, and political, social, and/or economic
systems and their impacts on service delivery.

PLAN: Identify and analyze a supporting multiculturalism public policy issue in Ontario that has
an impact on clients, programs and service delivery.

EVIDENCE/PROOF:

Find, identify and analyze an existing multiculturalism policy and legislation in Ontario, in
which impact on agency work. Learn how to deal with politicians and how to evaluate that
public policy to agency. Write to inform with a note to Field Instructor.

5. Advocate for appropriate access to resources to assist individuals, families, groups, and
communities.

PLAN: Identify agencies in the local community, which provide services and resources relevant
to the agency‘s service population, and work together to find sponsor, funding and refer to apply
potentials grants opportunities.

EVIDENCE/PROOF:

Get knowledge of community resources by integrating community referrals into service


plans, programs and funding ability. Writing about problems to MPP, assessing issues and learns
how to process that grants. Find potential sources to run programs effectively, advocate to apply
272
for grants with funding proposals, show how to fill them up. Submit to referral to supervisor for
their approval.

6. Develop and maintain positive working relationships with colleagues, supervisors, and
community partners.

PLAN: Maintain professional relationship with staffs and clients with appropriate boundaries.

EVIDENCE/PROOF:

Establishing professional relationship with staffs will provide positive and warm work
environment in terms of legal and ethical standard of practice and use code of ethics. Become a
good professional work partner with them within agency, but keep distance outside of work. Get
to know community partner for professional manner. Using informal letter and professional
language is an evidence of professionalism while sending and replying emails.

7. Develop strategies and plans that lead to the promotion of self-care, improved job
performance, and enhanced work relationships.

PLAN: Exercise a wellness plan for healthy life style between work and family.

EVIDENCE/PROOF:

Get feedback from my wife and children regarding how look like my personal life style. Prepare
fun day for my children, BBQ picnic with my family while organizing Potluck or dinner with
staffs at work. Weekly ask to my wife what kind of positive spirit she sees on me. Her respond
will be taken in written note regularly.

8. Integrate social group work and group facilitation skills across a wide range of environments,
supporting growth and development of individuals, families, and communities.

PLAN: Collaborate and working with a Group, and transfer professional skills.

EVIDENCE/PROOF:

Establishing Media Team to contact media to invite them to programs and keep them informed
regularly with press releases. Organizing agency activities such as updating
agency web site, taking pictures, recording activities to video, writing news, e-newsletter,
designing yearly Annual Report, marketing programs to community as a team.

9. Work in communities to advocate for change strategies that promote social and economic
justice and challenge patterns of oppression and discrimination.

PLAN: Become a Community Developer, change strategies that promote challenging and
improving existing services, and creating new programs.

EVIDENCE/PROOF:

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Provide research, involve in administrative support, and establish communications within agency
and between related agencies in order to become a Community Developer. Attending workshops
to learn how to evaluate current programs and develop new programs. Examine similar programs
in community such as an intercultural and an immigration based programs may promote positive
change for agency. Create program and ask to Field Instructor about his comment before finalize
it.

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Chapter 39

Vocational Learning Outcomes


1. Develop and maintain professional relationships which adhere to professional, legal, and
ethical standards aligned to social service work.

Establishing professional relationship is my outcome. Respecting clients, staffs, and programs


confidentiality based on social work ethics, codes, and present material at an agency in-service
was important to gain trust. I did hard work everything possible.
Became an excellent member of the team, while completing my SSW education, and I provided
my expertise and solutions to our team. My primary responsibility was to coordinate our events,
programs, prepare news release, an official letters and update our web site for online
information. I successfully completed my work, and enabling our customers to more easily find
the information they need.
I gained respect from our staffs because contribute my effort to the team‘s goals, working many
nights and weekends to meet our deadlines. In addition, by virtue of his determination and
cooperation, I developed a wonderful working relationship with the other members of the team. I
had a very comfortable working relationship and developed positive environment.
My ability to work well with all of his coworkers greatly increased the possible scope of my
contributions, and my mature, professional approach to monitoring and completing my work
allowed me to work autonomously and effectively.
See Appendix 1- Letter of Recommendation from Fatih Yegul, Team Leader/ Public Relation
Manager of CIDC.

See Appendix 2- Evaluation Report

2. Identify strengths, resources, and challenges of individuals, families, groups, and communities
to assist them in achieving their goals.

My outcome is assisting community in achieving their goals with community assessment.


Participate in weekly staff meetings, taking Minutes from meeting give me opportunity to find
out community resources and strengths how values, attitudes and cultural factors influence on
their decisions. After many discussing and brainstorming, I have met group of community leader
who agreed to have the Clairlea-Birchmount area community assessment before make any
commitment.

I was able to use my model of practice: Critical reflective and ecology- life model. I use
antiracism and anti-oppression approach to practice in order the breakdown barriers. I did
advocacy for social justice. I confronted the idea create new program in which will be targeting
one nation and race in the area. I create possibilities for multiple perspectives and develop
explanation as a critical reflector. Talking with this practice impact on community leader and
challenge their mind to work on community based project for all. We formatted group, made
research and analyzed community and clear out need statement, promote programs in the area
non-discriminatory basis. See Appendix 3.

I have been working in a team with my Team Leader Fatih Yegul. See Appendix 4.
275
I tried that our group achieved their goal. My duty was in the group getting media attention,
write new release. See Appendix 5. I prepared web site and updated for group needs. See
Appendix 6.

3. Recognize diverse needs and experiences of individuals, groups, families, and communities to
promote accessible and responsive programs and services.
I reached variety of people during my field placement I never imaged that was my outcome.
Agency‘s Noah‘s Pudding Campaign was anti-discriminatory event to reach wide range of
diversity in GTA. Canadian Interfaith Dialogue Centre promoted for free 13511 cases Noah's
Pudding across the GTA in churches, hospitals, Police Headquarter and Police Divisions,
Universities and Colleges, FedEx, business and residential neighbourhoods, homes, shelters, and
more during campaign between January 19 to March 10 2008.
CIDC volunteers served up 200 helpings of Noah‘s pudding, to each police division –
including Traffic Services and police headquarters – in celebration of the values of teamwork
and diversity between the Service and the communities they serve. See Appendix 7.
Diversity is the one true thing we all have in common. Celebrate and enjoy it every day! It is
amazing that on almost every day of the year, some of our fellows and citizens are celebrating
some tradition, festival, or holy day. North America is like a cup of Noah‘s pudding as it
embodies and contains the diversity and richness of almost all human civilizations. Canada has
become post-national and multicultural societies; containing the globe within their borders, and
we know that our diversity is a comparative advantage and a source of continuing creativity and
innovation. We grow socially, economically, culturally and spiritually by valuing our diversity
and contributing to the world.
I have attended two Toronto Area Interfaith Council meeting and one Breakfast Planning
Committee meeting. See Appendix 8. Mayor David Miller had breakfast last year with the 150
faith leaders and thanking for their commitment to Toronto, noting how churches, synagogues,
mosques and temples have been key partners in the city‘s effort to fight youth gangs and crime in
13 priority neighborhoods. We are organizing now on second major breakfast that is to initiate a
dialogue among leaders of city government and of faith communities to create a foundation for
understanding, co-operation and partnership between the City of Toronto and the Faith
Communities in the Toronto area.
From Anglican to Zoroastrian faith communities come together to put the stamp of faith
on Toronto‘s immense diversity at the inaugural breakfast meeting of the Toronto Area Interfaith
Council. The Interfaith Council has been coming together ever since Toronto‘s faith groups got
together to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Peace Garden in Nathan Phillips Square in 2004.
At that point a number of faith leaders noted that cities much smaller than Toronto — Hamilton,
Calgary, Mississauga — had interfaith councils, but Canada‘s largest and most diverse city
lacked a forum for all faiths to meet and discuss common concerns. City Hall Community
Developer Michael Skaljin was introduced about a draft Community Safety Project with faith
agencies which were successfully done in South Africa. We are working on to involve in this
project. See Appendix 9.

4. Identify current social policy, relevant legislation, and political, social, and/or economic
systems and their impacts on service delivery.

My outcomes are able to identify current social policy and relevant legislation of

276
the Social Housing Reform Act and the landmark Bill 124-The Fair Access to Regulated
Professions Act, 2006.

The Social Housing reform Act was enacted in December 2000. Under this Act,
Municipalities assumed responsibility for the funding and administration of social housing
program and project previously funded and administrated by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs
and Housing and or Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. Responsibility for social
housing was transferred from the Province of Ontario to the City of Toronto on May 1, 2002.
Municipal is responsible for social housing with the Social Housing Reform Act , but a lack of
reliable long-term funding for social housing and the aging of the social housing stock are the
two main reasons the City of Toronto is facing long-term financial risks as it sits, ―holding the
bag‖. (Staff Report, 2006) Housing allowance programs give time-limited financial assistance to
households who have applied for a rent-geared to income subsidy. To qualify for a housing
allowance are be eligible for the centralized list for rent-geared-to-income (RGI) subsidy, or have
an active application on the centralized waiting list. There are two housing allowance programs
in the City of Toronto: The Strong Communities Housing Allowance Program (SCHAP) -
Toronto Pilot, and the Canada-Ontario Affordable Housing Program. For both programs
applicants can‘t apply directly. They should be already applied to the centralized waiting list, or
are a client of the programs' referral agencies. (Social Housing, 2007)
The Social Housing Reform Act established a new ―operating framework‖ which includes a
finding model for the calculation any payment of subsidies based on ―benchmark‖ for revenues
and operating cost developed and prescribed by the Province. Act requires Minister of Municipal
affairs and housing to set these benchmarks for all housing providers under Sections 103, 106,
and 110 of the Act. (Social Housing Reform Act, 2000) With this benchmarks, the City‘s subsidy
payments to housing provider have been increased by $ 8.6 million, increased to 10, 3 million by
2007. City does not have the ability to increase funding over the benchmarks. See Appendix 10.
Secondly, I worked on with our group relevant legislation that the government of Ontario has
been passed the landmark Bill 124-The Fair Access to Regulated Professions Act, 2006. This
legislation is supposed to be break down barriers for internationally trained and educated
individuals to obtain a license to work in their field of expertise. I believe that Ontario‘s
comprehensive plan of Breaking Down Barriers is not working.
Immigrants‘ past educations are wasted, because professional organizations are locking
up the system and locking out newcomers. They are likely to resist reforms in the system, and
not willing to change their unreasonable rules voluntarily. Access to some position shouldn‘t be
conditioned any more by membership. Existing Government funds must use for professional
integration of immigrants in Ontario that funds be used in acquisition of reference material for
these professional candidates, their registration fees in Professional association, training
programs of immigrant in their field of competency. Qualified contacts information should be
collected by government and referred to Professional bodies must mandatory. Reform is very
urgent because majority of immigrant are in falling victim of the present system.
We prepared petition with 200 signatures, and draw the attention of the Legislative Assembly of
Ontario. Therefore, our petitioners request that parliament must put pressure on regulatory bodies
in order to remove systemic discrimination against newcomers. Never again an immigrants shall
have hide their credentials when apply for a job. See social action project and petition 11.

5. Advocate for appropriate access to resources to assist individuals, families, groups, and
communities.

277
My outcome is learned how to write a grant proposal and fill up forms while advocating for
appropriate access to resources.

After identified agency Canadian Turkish Friendship Community in the local community, which
provide services and resources relevant to the agency‘s service population, I worked together to
find sponsor, funding and refer to apply potentials grants opportunities. I got knowledge of
community resources by integrating community referrals into service plans, programs and
funding ability.

I searched about problems, assessed issues and learned how to process that grants. I found
potential sources to run programs effectively, advocate to apply for grants with funding
proposals, showed how to fill them up. I applied as the Toronto Turkish festival Coordinator to
Ontario Ministry of Tourism 2008 grant. See Appendix 12. I collected 4
supporting letters for application. See Appendix 13. I got responds from Ministry through email
and letter. See Appendix 14.

As a group leader for Social Action, I wrote a letter to Ontario Ministry of Immigration Michael
Chan for parliament should pass a new Bill to create new evaluation and diploma equivalence
system regarding additional licensing tests, degrees year of experience, practicing and
registration requirements must be simple, fairness and less expensive. I received very positive
letter from him. He is inviting our group to present him our suggestion and follow-up this issue
with his colleagues. See Appendix 15.

I refer a spousal abuse client to Family shelter. I gathered information through interview and
counseling.

See Appendix 16.

6. Develop and maintain positive working relationships with colleagues, supervisors, and
community partners.

Copy of Evaluation

Time and Task Log

Supervisor letter

PLAN: Arrive at work and sign in on time everyday.

EVIDENCE/PROOF:

Show evidence of work is sign in sheet that will be shown at Time and Log Task report.

7. Develop strategies and plans that lead to the promotion of self-care, improved job
performance, and enhanced work relationships.

278
My outcome is quit smoking and have a free time with my family on Sundays.

PLAN: Work collaboratively as a team, identify factors that contribute to job satisfaction with
staffs, discuss and write up a professional development plan and review with field instructor.

EVIDENCE/PROOF:

Prepare fun day, BBQ picnic, Potluck or diner with staff members to make warm relationship for
maintain accountability with colleagues. Taking pictures with staffs and put them on agency
board. Outline and explain factors involved in promoting professional development and renewal
to Field Instructor that will be done until April 15.

8. Integrate social group work and group facilitation skills across a wide range of environments,
supporting growth and development of individuals, families, and communities.

Carassauga festival meetings.


Nil academy chess teacher.
Telebody Project
Media team

PLAN: Getting media attention for with a new Media Group and organizing agency publication
such as web site, brochures, flyer, and press release as a team.

EVIDENCE/PROOF:

Since October, 2007, establishing Media Team to contact media to invite them to programs and
keep them informed regularly with press releases. New web site will be done by February 4 and
updated. Taking pictures, recording activities to video, writing news, e-newsletter, yearly Annual
Report, visual arts will organize as a team in March.
Events news will be covering by media and establish media alliance as a result.

9. Work in communities to advocate for change strategies that promote social and economic
justice and challenge patterns of oppression and discrimination.

I advocated for change strategies to CTFC and CIDC as following.

After prepared community assessment and program, I took an appointment with Scarborough
Southwest Councillor A.A. Heap to present our community assessment and get respond potential
program what we will be working on. Three community representative and I joined meeting with
Mr. Heap and his secretary Angela, talked about need of community, problems and simple
solutions. I have introduced that assessment and project to Councillor, and answer his questions
such us how to know low-income families youth to provide free TTC ticket. He liked to answer
that I made. Through interview and counseling, we will know them with individual assessment.
He liked the idea and encouraged us to follow-up for City funding with Angela and with me. I
wrote thank you letter about meeting and follow-up next procedure. See Appendix 4.

I made research to find out alternative grant opportunities. I wrote email-letter to Atkinson
Charitable Foundation for this project. I got email from Atkinson with suggestion.
279
See Appendix 5.

I also will apply to Ontario Trillium Foundation. I prepared cover letter to introduce our
assessment and project, talked with representative of Foundation to fill up application form
before deadline July 1. See Appendix 6.

PLAN: Join the OCASI advocacy group for change strategies that promote challenging and
improving existing, and creating new programs.

EVIDENCE/PROOF:

Contact to the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI), for


seeking a Research & Communications Assistant to provide research, getting communications
and administrative support, and establish the Organizational Standards Project in my agency.
Attending workshop regarding what is missing how to fix it. Taking intercultural and
immigration based programs will be promote positive change for agency, remove barriers, and
challenging community needs in terms of oppression and discrimination that will be done by
April 20.

Vocational Learning Outcomes

2. Identify strengths, resources, and challenges of individuals, families, groups, and communities
to assist them in achieving their goals.

PLAN: Create a group to provide such a brainstorm for new strategies about existing events and
program. Observation and read through clients‘ files, regular activities to obtain information as
to the needs of agency and clients.

EVIDENCE/PROOF:

Checking and reviewing previous activities and client& activity documents are giving a lot of
knowledge about what agency is doing at past. Finding similarities and differences will guide
how to improve agency works. Reaching list of clients, previous activities reports, and programs
shows client population, and more target group needs to be identified. Creating a brainstorm
group to find out how to assist them more and accomplish their goal.

PLAN: Participate in meetings, identifying and discussing clients and programs issues
associated with development as a helping professional.

EVIDENCE/PROOF:

Evidence is Minutes from agency meeting. Participate in Minute taking process, suggest and
share ideas to discuss about agenda. Find out community resources how values, attitudes and
cultural factors influence the outcome of assigned case. Watch team-building principles, send
email to ask how achieve to goal and get respond from staffs for fulfill duties with satisfaction.

Vocational Learning Outcomes

280
3. Recognize diverse needs and experiences of individuals, groups, families, and communities to
promote accessible and responsive programs and services.

PLAN: Assess which of resources and out reach programs are in high demand at the agency.

EVIDENCE/PROOF:

Participate in discussions of outreach to the multi-faith community, clients and service


to diversity background clients at the agency. Explore how the agency assesses what
constitutes culturally appropriate services and how the standards would or would not be relevant
to the agency setting, and identify key cross cultural/class characteristics that may enhance or
impede cross-cultural interventions with multi-faith clients or programs. Ongoing evaluation
from client such us from responds card and staff will provide more responsive creative program.
Joining faith basis meeting associated with service delivery to multi-faith clients or programs
that will be reported to Field Instructor.

EVIDENCE/PROOF:

Previous events reports will guide us which program has a high demand and how to achieve
similar one today. Discussing with staff is giving chance to assess which of the resources need
and concern. Ongoing evaluation from client and staff will provide more responsive creative
program. Keep everything confidential in terms of encourages them to speak up, and meet to
Social Code of Ethics standard.

Vocational Learning Outcomes

4. Identify current social policy, relevant legislation, and political, social, and/or economic
systems and their impacts on service delivery.

PLAN: Work together to find sponsor, grant, funding or government funding.

EVIDENCE/PROOF:

Writing about problem is about discussing grant opportunities. Assessing funding issue, funding
and grant opportunities with specific existing programs are important for agency operating.
Agency needs advocacy group who will provide guidance or direction to follow up. Accessing
current resources and address for services knowledge needs for advocacy such as informal
helping network or individual support system. Submit a note the supervisor about structure for
approval.

PLAN: Identify and analyze a supporting multiculturalism public policy issue in Ontario that has
an impact on clients, programs and service delivery.

EVIDENCE/PROOF:

Find, identify and analyze an existing multiculturalism policy and legislation in Ontario, in
which impact on agency work. Learn how to deal with politicians and how to evaluate that
public policy to agency. Write to inform with a note to Field Instructor.
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Vocational Learning Outcomes

5. Advocate for appropriate access to resources to assist individuals, families, groups, and
communities.

PLAN: Identify agencies in the local community, which provide services and resources relevant
to the agency‘s service population, and work together to find sponsor, funding and refer to apply
potentials grants opportunities.

EVIDENCE/PROOF:

Get knowledge of community resources by integrating community referrals into service


plans, programs and funding ability. Writing about problems to MPP, assessing issues and learns
how to process that grants. Find potential sources to run programs effectively, advocate to apply
for grants with funding proposals, show how to fill them up. Submit to referral to supervisor for
their approval.

PLAN: To refer a client to join agency workshop about program.

EVIDENCE/PROOF:

Current Jail and Hospital program has a workshop schedule with Mental Health Spiritual Care
Service. To refer a client who involve with this program, and send a note to supervisor for follow
up this client.

Vocational Learning Outcomes

6. Develop and maintain positive working relationships with colleagues, supervisors, and
community partners.

PLAN: Maintain professional relationship with staffs and clients with appropriate boundaries.

EVIDENCE/PROOF:

Establishing professional relationship with staffs will provide positive and warm work
environment in terms of legal and ethical standard of practice and use code of ethics. Become a
good professional work partner with them within agency, but keep distance outside of work. Get
to know community partner for professional manner. Using informal letter and professional
language is an evidence of professionalism while sending and replying emails.
PLAN: Arrive at work and sign in on time everyday.

EVIDENCE/PROOF:

Show evidence of work is sign in sheet.

Vocational Learning Outcomes

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7. Develop strategies and plans that lead to the promotion of self-care, improved job
performance, and enhanced work relationships.

PLAN: Exercise a wellness plan for healthy life style between work and family.

EVIDENCE/PROOF:

Get feedback from my wife and children regarding how look like my personal life style. Prepare
fun day for my children, BBQ picnic with my family while organizing Potluck or dinner with
staffs at work. Weekly ask to my wife what kind of positive spirit she sees on me. Her respond
will be taken in written note regularly.
PLAN: Work collaboratively as a team, send out questionnaire to staff, interview with them one
on one to get to know them better more closely

EVIDENCE/PROOF:

Prepare fun day, BBQ picnic, Potluck or dinner with staff member to make warm relationship for
maintain accountability with colleagues. Taking pictures with staff and put it on agency board.

Vocational Learning Outcomes

8. Integrate social group work and group facilitation skills across a wide range of environments,
supporting growth and development of individuals, families, and communities.

PLAN: Collaborate and working with a Group, and transfer professional skills.

EVIDENCE/PROOF:

Establishing Media Team to contact media to invite them to programs and keep them informed
regularly with press releases. Organizing agency activities such as updating
agency web site, taking pictures, recording activities to video, writing news, e-newsletter,
designing yearly Annual Report, marketing programs to community as a team.

PLAN: Getting media attention for Whirling Dervishes and conference, and organize agency
publication as a Media team.

EVIDENCE/ PROOF:

Establishing group like Media Team will be scheduled before on November 1, 2007. Contacting
with media to invite them to events and programs is difficult to achieve alone. Media team will
keep them informed on time regularly. Use agency media list and discover more area related
journalist, columnist and reporter and, intimate with them. Recording activities, writing press
release and sending them to Media will give a result events appearance on media. Press release
and pictures will publish on agency web site, a regular e-newsletter will prepare on first week of
December with supervisor approval

Vocational Learning Outcomes

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9. Work in communities to advocate for change strategies that promote social and economic
justice and challenge patterns of oppression and discrimination.

PLAN: Become a Community Developer, change strategies that promote challenging and
improving existing services, and creating new programs.

EVIDENCE/PROOF:

Provide research, involve in administrative support, and establish communications within agency
and between related agencies in order to become a Community Developer. Attending workshops
to learn how to evaluate current programs and develop new programs. Examine similar programs
in community such as an intercultural and an immigration based programs may promote positive
change for agency. Create program and ask to Field Instructor about his comment before finalize
it.
PLAN: Join the advocacy group for change strategies that promote challenging and improving
existing and new programs.

EVIDENCE/PROOF:

Find out this agency how close will be connected with other Multi faith, inter and cross cultural
social work group agencies such in UOFT Multi Faith Centre, University of York Sufism Centre,
and USA origin Rumi Forum agencies. Their similar programs may helpful for change strategies.
Attending and joining workshop regarding compare what is missing here or there, and where can
find and fix it, and what kind of new programs will be challenging for community needs. Submit
Minutes of the meeting. Contribute to action plan and funding proposal how it will be process
and how long it takes to activate. Taking sample program such us ―Annual Essay and Art
Contest 2007 Respect for Human Dignity‖ in California origin Istanbul Center agency, and other
Canadian oriented same field agencies which one was successful their once. Create new program
that will be promote positive change for agency, their clients and Community at large.

References

Besthorn, Fred H., ( 2001). Deepening Earth Consciousness in Social Work, First Annual
Symposium, (Washington, DC) Is It Time for a Deeper Ecological Approach to Social Work:
What is the Earth Telling Us?
Besthorn, F. (1997). Reconceptualizing social work‘s person-in-environment perspective:
Explorations in radical environmental thought. PhD Dissertation. University of Kansas. Ann
Arbor: UMI Microform 981157.
Besthorn, F. H. & Canda, E. R. (2001). Revisioning Environment: Deep Ecology for Education
and Teaching in Social Work. Journal of Teaching in Social Work.

Besthorn, F. H. & Tegtmeier, D. (1999) Opinions/perspectives/beliefs: Nature as professional


resource-A new ecological approach to helping. Kansas Chapter NASW News, 24(2), 15.
Germain, C.B. (1991). Human behavior in the social environment: An ecological view. New
York: Columbia University Press.
Germain, C.B., & Gitterman, A. (1986). The life model approach to social work practice
revisited. In Francis J. Turner, (Ed.), Social work treatment: Interlocking theoretical approaches,
3rd ed. New York: Free Press.
284
Gitterman, A., & Shulman, L. (1994). Mutual aid groups, vulnerable populations, and the life
cycle. (2nd ed.). New York: Columbia University Press.
Fiske, S.T., & Taylor, S.E. (1991). Social cognition (2nd ed). New York McGraw-Hill, Inc.

MacKinnon Catharine A., (1991). Yale Journal of Law and Feminism, From Practice to Theory,
or What is a White Woman Anyway?.
Nurius, P.S., & Berlin, S.B. (1995). Cognition and social cognitive theory. In Encyclopaedia of
Social Work (19th ed.). Washington, D.C.: NASW Press. 513-24.

Singer, Jonathan, ( 2008). Constructing A Model for Personal Practice. Continuing Education
for Social Worker. Retrieved from Jonathan Singer‘s web site on February 24, 208 at _
HYPERLINK "http://home.flash.net/~cooljazz" __http://home.flash.net/~cooljazz_.

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Chapter 40

The Jane and Finch: The Gosford Community

The Gosford Community is so-called ‗marginalized‘ community; face ‗extra‘ barriers


because they are labelled as ‗bad‘ area. There are many positive aspects at work in this
community; it is also true that they had many problems. This community has positive indicators
that show their strengths and capacity could act against their best interests. Furthermore, it is also
important to ―recognize and build on community strengths, identify and address barriers, and
measure/evaluate positive change‖ even if we would like to success. (Jackson, 2003).
As its main assets and needs in the Gosford Community, based on my research,
Jane/Finch Community & Family Centre, Gosford Public School, Hullmar Park, the Community
Center located in Driftwood. Private companies are owner of apartments such as Myriad
Property Management Ltd , Rudfel Apt , North West Apartments Ltd, Gold Field Holding, Jane
Gosford Apartments Ltd. York Condominium Corp has new Condo‘s.
The types of housing that exists in the Gosford Community are Single- Detached houses,
Semi- Detached, Row houses, and Apartments/Duplex‘s which are all privatized. On the other
side of Gosford there are regular Apartments (co-ops) and Subsidy homes. For the private homes
the quality is good, the residents upkeep their homes and apartments. They have well manicured
lawns as for the apartments, they are clean and maintained. As for the other side of Gosford the
buildings and co-ops are mediocre, they could be cleaner. The subsidized homes look like
subsidized homes. The fronts of the lawns are not clean and are unwept. Some residents try to
make it look presentable but the houses that are in bad shape, devalue the appearance of the
presentable yards. The homes are aging but no one seems to be fixing the issues. 25% of the
housing in the community is non-profit or co-op, 10% is subsidy, 5% are apartments/duplex,
while 60% are private owned homes (Census, 2006).
In the community, I anticipate people hang out at the Hullmar Park, the Community
Center located in Driftwood and in the school playground/fields. The services that exist for
children, youth, and parents with young children, families, and seniors are the care facilities, the
arena, schools, legal aid, and church. The recreational facilities that exist is the Hullmar Park,
Driftwood Community Center, Jane and Finch Community and Family Center, Yorkgate mall
which has a youth program called ―The Spot‖, clubs for children and youths, Go-Karting and
Mini Putting, and the Arcade located in the shopping center. These facilities are used daily by
everyone in the community no matter what age and race they are. The facilities are most busy
during weekends, lunch time, and after school. They are most empty in the morning, during the
day, and on Sundays.
On the other hand, the implications for community and agency actions are complex in the
area. The degree to which all community members have access to human settlements facilities
and services are not sustainability, such as roads, markets, potable water, access to education,
health services, their dependable maintenance and repair. All members need to equally access to
needed communal facilities more directly. The Community has isolated when designed to build.
First of all, The Gosford Community need to have a positive social environment which a
key factors that supported community action such as caring neighbors, strong sense of
community, celebratory events. Secondly, the ability to work together, link to one another and
participate. Third key factors that hindered their individual and collective work included against
a negative public image of the community. Forth key, those high levels of individual stress
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trying to meet basic needs, and speak out to challenge micro to macro level because policies and
regulations set by agencies, institutions and governments. ―Four factors that presented both
supportive and hindering dimensions are diversity, the physical built environment, community
infrastructure and agency characteristics.‖ that keys are important for Gosford (Bartle, 2007).
More specifically, the Chrysalis - Women Moving Forward pilot program was one of
useful program for women to reach the goal of ‗economic self-sufficiency‘ in the area in 2007. It
recognizes that post-secondary education or training (i.e. college, university, trades school) is
often necessary. (WMF, 2007). But it was limited for 20-29 years old women, not sustainable.
The valuable of community development practices would be ―a multidimensional model.‖
Central to the model are organizational commitment, rooted in particular values and beliefs,
leadership and shared understanding of it; supportive structures and systems, such as job design,
flexible planning processes, evaluation mechanisms and collaborative processes; allocation of
resources and healthy working relationship (GermAnn; Wilson, 2004).
An important element of a community becoming more empowered is for it to engage in
action. Simply forming some structures with a Chair, Vice, Treasurer and Secretary, for example
is not action in itself, such structures are means towards organizing the community to act.
Mobilizing is important that means moving; getting something done. Organizing to get
something done effectively is important in management training ( Bartle, 2007).
The degree to which members of the community trust each other, especially their leaders
and community servants, which in turn is a reflection of the degree of integrity (honesty,
dependability, openness, transparency, trustworthiness) within the community.
More trust and dependability within a community reflects its increased capacity. Dishonesty,
corruption, embezzlement and diversion of community resources all contribute to community or
organizational weakness. When a community or organization is more unified, it is stronger, and
collaborated to solve any problems. Unity does not mean that everyone is the same, but that
everyone tolerates each others' differences, and works for the common good. I expect basic
human dignity, rights and value to work effectively in a group as a team. Other values come
later on with our humanity.

References:

Bartle, Phil ( 2007). Community Empowerment- Training as Mobilization. Retrieved March 6,


2008 from web site at _ HYPERLINK "http://www.scn.org/cmp/modules/mob-trn.htm"
GermAnn, Kathy; Wilson, Doug (2004). Organizational capacity for community development in
regional health authorities: a conceptual model, Health Promotion International Vol. 19. No. 3 ,
Oxford University Press 2004. _

Jackson, F. Suzanne ( 2003). Working with Toronto neighbourhoods toward developing


indicators of community capacity, Health Promotion International, Vol. 18, No. 4, 339-350.

Statistics Canada. 2007. Census tract profile for 0316.01, Toronto, Ontario. 2006 Census Tract
(CT) Profiles. 2006 Census. Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 92-597-XWE. Ottawa. Retrieved
February 21, 2008 from
"http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/data/profiles/ct/Index.cfm?Lang=E"
Statistics Canada. 2007. Census tract profile for 0312.05, Toronto, Ontario. 2006 Census Tract
(CT) Profiles. 2006 Census. Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 92-597-XWE. Ottawa. Retrieved
February 21, 2008 from
"http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/data/profiles/ct/Index.cfm?Lang=E
287
Chapter 41

“Whispers of Love “Program Assessment

Celebrating anniversary of Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi and his peace and love values are
getting more important every day and these values in the hearts and minds of millions throughout
the world. The goal of the ―Whispers of Love ―program is to put forward Mawlana‘s thinking,
which develops along the axes of compassion and tolerance, and to apply its contemporary
implications for the benefit of all humanity. Holding symposiums, putting on Whirling Dervishes
performances, all the while, telling and helping people to understand what they represent, in
order to familiarize Mevlana and his teachings. Joyful festival of Sufi music, whirling dervishes,
and poetry of Rumi offer a rare glimpse into Islamic mysticism and prayer for Global Peace. In
honor of Mevlana‘s 800th birthday, UNESCO has declared 2007 to be the Year of Mevlana – a
year of love and understanding. In the 13th century, Mevlana (known as Rumi outside Turkey)
affected the world with his philosophy.
Presenting problem is providing a new, alternative solutions and prescriptions for today's
social problems, in terms of great variety and diversity exist within society. Rumi is such a
personality that his thoughts, analyses, explanations, and spiritual messages, which will never be
lost who with the help of his voice and breath, his love and excitement, and his promise for
humanity, always remain fresh and alive over the course of centuries. Time evidently fails to
make his character obsolete. Despite the vast amount of time that separates his life from ours,
Rumi continues to hear and to listen to society, to share our feelings, to present solutions to
social problems in a voice that is without equal. Program will be the thought of Rumi and its
reflections on the sincere endeavours of tolerance and dialogue today for building bridges
between cultures and civilizations.
The Toronto based Canadian Interfaith Dialogue Centre (CIDC) has been involving
Mevlana program since in 2006. The Mevlevi order has been established on the teachings of
Mevlana Jalaladdeen Rumi in late 13th century. As a poet, Rumi has enjoyed enormous
popularity in the Canada in 2006, the CIDC brought Whirling Dervishes in May 8, 2006 and it
was performed in 5 different cities, Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Ottowa. During
this event more than 750 people in Toronto and more than 4000 people in total had the chance to
see the sema of dervishes.
As the International Mevlana Foundation, proposed the project, first to the Ministry of
Culture, Turkey and then to The United Nations Educational, Scientific & Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) and the year 2007 was declared as the Year of Mevlana. After the declaration of
2007 as the Year of Mevlana, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs called
several Mevlana foundations to their meetings. European, American and Canadian based related
interfaith dialogue agencies such as Rumi Forum in Washington DC and Canadian Interfaith
Dialogue Center in Toronto, extended their programs with a conference which is ― Mawlana
Jalaluddin Rumi and the Importance of Inter-Cultural and Civilization Dialogue. ― The name
Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi stands for Love and ecstatic flight into the infinite. Rumi is one of the
greatest spiritual and literary figures of all time and was the founder of the Mawlawi Sufi order.
Century Sufi philosopher-poet Mawlana Jalaladdin Rumi, whose reach embraced all humanity as
personified by his message,‖Come, whoever you are, come…‖ Agency welcomes everyone who
has a desire to explore ‗the other‘ in the spirit of mutual respect and tolerance. This is a symbol

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figure for these love, tolerance and dialogue. Agency is motivated by Rumi's well-known
message and call for love, humanity and peace. Program target is increasing public awareness of
love and peace through Mawlawi Sufi order.

STRATEGY AND MEETINGS

Canadian Interfaith Dialogue Centre is holding two events for commemorating the great
literary and spiritual leader as 2007 program called ―Whispers of Love‖ that Canada celebrates
UNESCO ―Year of Rumi‖ with ―Whirling into Peace‖. The first event was a conference at the
University of Toronto (Premises of Victoria University) on the 3rd of November 2007 between
10.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. on Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi and the Importance of Inter-Cultural and
Civilization Dialogue. Ottawa and Montreal conferences are organized by other connected
interfaith organizations such as Dialog Foundation Montreal, QC, Canadian Institute of
interfaith Dialogue, Ottawa, Harmony Dialogue Foundation, Edmonton, AB and Damla
Foundation, Vancouver, BC.
The second event was the 800 year old traditional dance and music performance by the
Whirling Dervishes at the Toronto Centre for the Arts on November 4th at 7:30p.m to 10.00 p.m.
These events sponsored by Canadian Turkish Friendship Community, Media 55, Toprak Group,
Ebru TV and Saygi Canadian-Turkish Academics Association. Dervishes will perform this
unique and spiritual dance in November 7 in Ottawa, November 11 in Montreal, November 16 in
Edmonton and November 17 in Vancouver. Other interfaith Dialogue agencies are organizing
those events outside of Toronto.
There were 35 guests landing on first to Toronto from Turkey, USA, Ottawa and
Montreal. They were arriving different times to Toronto and leaving to back home different
times. It was difficult to organize every single aspects of schedule to avoid conflict during the
programs. Supervisor was seen that problem would be occurred so that‘s why teams set up
separately. Agency created three main teams to achieve its goals three months before events in
first week of August 2007, which were Conference Academic team, Whirling Dervishes team
and Guests Accommodation and Tour team. Each team are preparing their programs and
schedules with their team members, and provide to supervisor approve. Once a week all teams
meet up together and talked about their schedule and where they were. It was every Friday
before then it has been changed to every Wednesday at 2.00 p.m. in November. Teams meeting
are three times in a week regular basis without supervisor. Team leader was organizing major
things and give responsibilities and roles to others.
Supervisor Varol Soyler rented out the Toronto Center for the arts and Victoria
University in UofT Northrop Fry Hall, Room NF003 that was 73 Queens Park Crescent. There
was Media team and Advertisement design team established in October 1. Posters and Flyers
created by Advertisement design team. 3000 posters and 10,000 flyers printed in first week of
October month before events. Supervisor used 20 volunteer students to distribute them out in
Toronto streets, major Universities and colleges through student associations and business
communities, cafeterias etc.
Media team was weak before. Supervisor has figured that out after fourth general meeting
in first week of October. Three more members joined to media team with changing their roles.
Media divided four divisions that were print media, radio and televisions reporter, columnist, art
writers and producers, and also Internet media parts. Writing press release was not good enough
to advertise that events. Media didn‘t get attention, so second step was contact with individual
journalist and writer one by one basis.

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After too much effort, events published in Turkish Community newspaper, the Toronto
Star in Editorial page with article by Yilmaz Alimoglu. Sun TV made an interview with
supervisor, and more than 25 Internet media announced. A film producer wanted to film and one
writer wanted to write column. Whirling Dervishes poster was also published in Canadaturk as
full page coloured advertisement twice. Canadaturk also covers events with news on front page
four day before in November 1, 2007 issue. The Toronto Star advertisement cancelled before of
too expensive that exceed of budget. The North York Mirror accepted to use event news that was
written by agency media team.
Supervisor was always using blackboard to follow up what teams doing. Team leaders
were providing reports daily basis to supervisor and telling problems. Whirling Dervishes
activity ticket was for sale from 33 to 54 Canadian dollars at the ticket master and box offices. 15
days before event, supervisor indicated that only half of tickets sold out. One of team member
suggested that agency has to offer a chance to win a spiritual journey to Konya, Turkey where
Mevlana philosophy born for selling more tickets. After long discussion, Teams member have
decided to offer free ticket that withdrawn a respond card from participants box, which they have
to fill up during event. Also all Teams‘ members were focused on ticket sale with contacting
community members through phones, and client list used for it. 400 invitation letters have been
sent to previous events presenter and agency clients, and community members. Data gathered
from respond cards which events were held in May 8 2006 and September 23, 2007.
Dramatically, academic conferences are usually not getting attention from ordinary people even
though it is admission free. Conference Academic team leader Fatih Yegul stressed out that
strength and asked help from other team members in mid of October meeting that held October
24, 2007 at 7.30.p.m. at the president of CIDC house. Supervisor had a dinner with president of
St. Michael College, president of University of Victoria and director of University of Toronto,
Multicultural Community Center to introduce conference of Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi and the
Importance of Inter-Cultural and Civilization Dialogue. Supervisor made huge effort to invite
academic community to event. But most posters took down at the universities and colleges next
day. It was sad.
Unfortunately, Fatih Yegul was right. Limited numbers of participant showed up at
conference on November 3. Even famous participants were there who are Dr. Ali Yavuz Zeybek
(McGill University), Contemporary Implications of Mevlana: In the case of Gulen Movement;
Prof. Nathan Funk (Conrad Grebel, UW, Canada): Speaker and moderator for Panel 3, The
Notion of Peace in Mevlana (with views of other religions); Dr. Jill Carrol (Lecturer, Rice
University, USA), Rumi's Love: What It Is, What It Is Not, Emeritus Prof. Dimitri Kitsikis
(Eng. and French, Ottawa University); Compassion, Tolerance, and Dialogue form Mevlana to
F. Gulen and Prof. Dale M. Schlitt (Saint Paul University – President, Ottawa). There were also
5 professors came from Turkey who are Prof. Ahmet Hadi Adanali (Lecturer, Ankara
University), Prof. Burhan Tatar (Lecturer, 19 Mayis University), Prof. Sinasi Gunduz ( Lecturer,
Istanbul University) Prof. Samir Salha ( Lecturer, Kocaeli University) and Prof. Kenan Gursoy (
Lecturer, Galatasaray Universiy). There were also two journalists came from Turkey to follow
up that events who are Turkish Star columnist Nasuhi Gungor and Yeni Safak columnist Mehmet
Seker. It was sad that both local media and public are not interested in such an important event.
On the other hand, picking up guests from airport and providing them transportation during their
stay went through very smoothly. It was written and scheduled timely. The last general meeting
was on October 31, 2007 at 7.00 p.m. at the agency boardroom which took more than four hours
to finalize everything. Some roles have been changed in that meeting. Whirling Dervishes team
leader Imral Baysal requested additional members or volunteers to achieve his goal. He needed

290
one more driver and helper at accommodation place for dervishes. Also he asked meal plans for
guests.

At the meantime, Guests Accommodation and Tour team leader Senol Kaya was asking
to have more details of having breakfast, lunch and dinner with guests when, where, how and
who are responsible to take care of them from agency. Those are scheduled with timeline how,
when, where and with who questions answered. City tour, shopping tour and Niagara fall tour
have been scheduled very timely too. Supervisor saw weakness of schedule that lack of driver
and car availability when two teams wanted to use same driver and car. Problem solved right
away by arranging another car and driver. Agency has a strong community support. Many meals
have provided by Community members for free of charge to agency. It was helpful to run such
an expensive program effectively.
During the Whirling Dervishes event more than 850 people in Toronto had the chance to
see the sema of dervishes. From different background, culture, religion, age, gender, race and
colur people showed up that event and wanted to learn more about Rumi's well known message
and call for love, humanity and peace. Keynote speaker Prof. Ahmet Hadi Adanali made a
wonderful speech with explanation of Rumi‘s spiritual journey and messages. Whirling
Dervishes were produced amazing atmosphere in the Hall. Some tour schedules have been
changed during event, but replaced to another one by team leader and supervisor decisions.
Those were small details that not affecting program after all.

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Chapter 42

Journal Assessments

Journal 1# The Case of Racial Discrimination and the Hatred Crime

The agitated Polish immigrant, Robert Dziekanski, died in the age of 41, after being
jolted five times with a taser at the Vancouver Airport on Oct. 14, 2007 while confused and
unable to communicate in English (Diabel, 2009). The case of the tasering death had gotten
plenty of attention in Canada just as well as the international public outrage because of hatred
and discrimination issues that had risen up after the recorded videotape of the incident. It had
become just at the tip of an iceberg once Canadian policemen hadn‘t shown respect for those
who couldn't speak English well in the sphere of minorities. In this journal, I‘ll be focusing on
the grounds of indirect racial discrimination, with the language barrier as a lame excuse, and the
fate newcomers facing many hatred crimes based on their ethnicity and religion.
First of all, as we already know, the British Canadian laws and institutions had contained
direct and indirect discrimination establishments throughout history, yet ―its history of racism is
often ignored‖ (Walker, 2008-p 78). Many immigration and police officers have some level of
discrimination and racism in their mind, as shown in their behaviors and attitudes, but have never
accepted how awful they‘d treated newcomers. One of my Turkish origin friends, Erhan Sen, had
been interrogated, humiliated, and placed for 60 days in the Detention Centre in April 2002 in
the age of 23. The police had searched his house with an arrested warrant, but were unable to
find him there in that day. He went to the Immigration Office in Mississauga voluntarily and
turned himself in, wondering what the problem was. An immigration officer came up after two
hours and soon cuffed him without giving any explanation with only a cruel smile, and
transferred him to the Detention Centre. The police officer had pushed him harshly from the back
while walking to the bar, and chained him as if he‘d been a dangerous criminal.
Unfortunately, he was intervened and suspected as a Muslim, so therefore, he was
unfairly treated. Erhan Sen had entered Canada from the bridge of Niagara Falls, applying for a
refugee claimant status, but failing to send his address in on time to then have to fill up more
forms in 15 days. He was unable to speak any English and was unaware of the problem as it had
seemed to be another Robert Dziekanski case. He‘d seen cuffs on his hands for the first time, and
cried enough to lose 20 lbs in a surprisingly short time. He called one of his friends to hire a
lawyer and bring a translator after the following week, and soon the problem was found to be
that language was a barrier to the understanding of his condition. He needed to have a Canadian
citizen who supposed to bail him out and pay 3000 CDN. But how was he to find a willing
Canadian as a newcomer? He was freed after three trials, in which the judge had wondered why
he‘d turned himself in without even knowing any English, and seeing an officer as his
explanation was a lame excuse.
Moreover, Erhan Sen had seen the hatred crime in the Detention Centre. Muslims were
being treated as though they were animals, and were given pork, in which they couldn‘t eat, to
humiliate their religion. He protested against these menus and asked to have Halal food for his
meals. They refused to provide him anything Halal and watched him while he‘d been suffering
of hunger for the reason of these people that weren‘t properly trained and culturally sensitized.
We that know women in colours, people in different ethnic backgrounds, and new comers,
especially the ones with headscarves and males with dark beards, are particularly vulnerable to

292
anxiety, the fear of discrimination, and the having to face of hatred crime because of society's
perception about their religion.
In conclusion, many Immigrants and refugee Muslims and Arabs have been feeling the
effects of discrimination and hatred crimes in their daily lives since the terrible event of
September 11 because of the media‘s behavior of intolerance. Some of them had been wrongly
arrested, faced through unfair trials, and prolonged through detention. Erhan‘s case proves that
he‘d felt fear and discrimination because of his race and religion, and was afraid of being labeled
as supporting terrorism. Racial discrimination and the hatred crime, as well as the lame excuse of
English communication, are highly critical regarding the lack of transparent information to
newcomers, as well as the history of incompetence, bias behaviour, and abuse in their
immigration and the refugee settlement system. Canadians should remember that ―they
themselves or their ancestors came to Canada as refugees‖ (Dench, 2008-p 12).

Journal 2# Jeopardizing the Integrity of the Live-in Caregiver Program


Ontario‘s lack of regulation of the nanny recruiters‘ contract and unregulated sector has
failed to protect nannies from rogue recruiters. Many unscrupulous nanny recruitment agencies
that exploit foreign caregivers who offer bogus contracts now are considering into putting them
in blacklists where they no longer get labour marketing opinions (LMO). This would drive them
out of business so we‘d be tough enough against fraudulent agencies like all western provinces
had done before (Cribb, 2009). In this journal, I will argue that there has been a fraud going on in
the Live-in Caregiver Program because there are long delays in processing foreign nanny
applications, and the living arrangement would allow to cut off accommodation, where
employer-caused sexual assaults were silenced, but raised high off the human rights issues.
First of all, I know from my personal experience that long delay is a crucial issue for
exploitation. One of my friends, Musa Ozturk in Saskatchewan, asked help from me to search for
a nanny from Turkey, or a Turkish origin young lady from Toronto about three years ago. I have
referred to a nanny recruiter agency, and found a nanny for his two children and grandmother.
The agency advised a couple, rather than a single lady. The couple‘s application process had
started before, but still wasn‘t done yet, not because of their well formal trained and experience,
and instead because of their lack of education. When their visas were rejected by the embassy of
Canada, they‘d changed their passports to apply for the worker visa again. Another firm had
been proposed to an undocumented worker who would live with an employer for 24 hours, even
with a low wage because of the need to hide and work illegally. He employed another lady
because the couple‘s promised jobs wouldn‘t exist once they‘d arrived.
Secondly, living with an employer is like unreality in the current market‘s condition, so
then the LCG requirement wouldn‘t work properly, but would give this privilege to an employer.
There is an argument on employment situations and bargaining rights because ―Canadian citizen
employers, common structural conditions that promote systemic exploitation and racialization
come into play‖ (Walker, 2008-pp 265). Our system is not equally treated to domestic workers
and favors the gate keeping structure. For example, a living arrangement requirement allows
cutting off for accommodation costs from some earnings, and forcing them to live in bad
conditions to do extra work such as ―not only look up children as well as elderly and disabled‖
(Das Gupta, 2009). Domestic workers cannot be unionized and go to advocacy to seek their
rights, such as strikes etc.
Thirdly, most domestic worker women don‘t break the silence of what they‘ve been
through in order to bring their family to Canada. Even though many women have been sexually
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assaulted by employers who do domestic work in Canada, they ―already had children whom they
were supporting‖ (Jakubowski, 2002-p 62) and sent money back to feed them. They could apply
to landed immigrant status with conditions such as the ability to manage finances, pass medical
and security exams, as well as support their families. After paying up to 10 thousand placement
fees, or abusing with financial charges, most of them suffer in debt, or bankruptcy, or end up in
suicidal condition. Many agencies use the government‘s weakness as an advantage, and send
domestic workers to minimum or under minimum wages, even opening bank accounts to deposit
all paycheques until the loan is fully paid. Therefore, the human rights are violated.
In conclusion, removing the unfair placement fees as bogus offers and accepting new
protected regulations within federal and provincial level legislations may stop the use of this
poor practice that forced work illegally or under minimum wage. Long delay in processing
domestic worker applications are prompting unscrupulous firms to import caregivers towards the
bogus contract, jeopardizing the integrity of the Live-in Caregiver Program and placing
desperate caregivers at risk. Living with the employer requirement is unnecessary in exploiting
to caregivers in many ways, such as without being paid overtime and providing the opportunity
for abuse and assault. The big concern here is that ―human trafficking that those vulnerable
people exploited who despaired about job, brought here and live in trouble condition, work under
the table undocumented‖ (Das Gupta, 2009). Employers were supposed to pay minimum wages,
but also weren‘t paid over time wages, or even under the minimum wages. They were afraid of
losing their jobs, helpless with nothing to turn to. New immigrants and refugees are also falling
in this job scam, in which we need new fair regulations in the Live-in Caregiver Program.

Journal 3# Immigrants‟ Past Educations and Experiences, Wasted


The current immigration law restricts, for elderly senior immigrants, the government‘s
benefits because they‘re sponsored by their children, while with worse economic recession time
now, they‘re unable to find even part-time and low paying jobs and also face age and language
barriers (Aulakh, 2009). The federal government is supporting family reunification, and
sponsored immigrants, and takes more skilled immigrants now, so that even the point earning
jobs don‘t exist in the market. In this journal, I‘ll be focusing on the problems of internationally
trained immigrants, as most sponsored immigrants are professional women who have ended up
as unemployed, with the lack of recognition for foreign credential and skilled immigrants, also
with their devalued practices as seen as useless because of the excuse of the Canadian
experience.
First of all, family reunification is the key to successful integration and ―has become a
pillar of Canada‘s immigration program‖ (Telegdi, 2008-p94). Parents and extended family
members are very important and provide financial help to struggling relatives. Elderly
immigrants, especially women who‘d need more ESL classes, have limited job opportunity
available. Internationally educated nurses aren‘t able to practice only because they don‘t have the
license unless they pass the exams. Even though there is a huge shortage of nurses, all the sudden
the crisis of the economy prevented their practicing; this is political. When a nurse needs less,
she deports with other professions, such as a caregiver, who‘d been trained in other countries
(Das Gupta, 2009). A York professor‘s wife is of Chinese origin who knows five languages, and
holds two PhD‘s, yet still couldn‘t find a decent job because of the lack of foreign credential
recognition or because of the labeling of being over qualified for a low waged job.
Secondly, highly skilled and well educated immigrants‘ past experiences have been
wasted because of the professional associations‘ set up rules, controlling the entry for profession,
294
and making monopoly. The government can put some pressure on these associations, but the
gate- keeping process is yet still continuing. For instance, if an engineering job opening doesn‘t
exist, the government still brings more engineers or others professions every year, and as the
result, we have a lot of well educated and skilled cap drivers and construction workers in
Toronto. Interestingly, my wife Suna has gotten a cosmetology diploma and had worked in
Saskatchewan, but Ontario hasn‘t recognized her diploma and asked for additional work
experiences to give the exam.
Thirdly, even immigrants pass the language barrier; employers make up excuses such as
the Canadian work experience and the occasional problem of another‘s accent. How could we as
the newcomers gain the Canadian experience whether the issue of being skilled or unskilled?
There are bridging and mentoring programs, as for example, nursing courses for internationally
trained nurses are being matched up and practiced in their fields. Landing a job is sometimes
accidental with reference and a friend‘s help. Internship is very important for newcomers, and
even if you‘ve trained, there is still discrimination. Employers reject newcomers, and don‘t even
review their resumes. They‘ve ended up working for temporary job agencies that provide labour
jobs, though these jobs were thought to give the Canadian experience by the newcomers while
they don‘t. Most employers assume that newcomers don‘t have the Canadian experience,
meaning they aren‘t qualified enough. But of course they cannot have the experience unless
they‘re hired in a real and skilled job.
Finally, an immigrant‘s past education and experiences is wasted in Canada because of
the professional organizations that lock up the system and lock out all newcomers, and are not
willing to change their unreasonable rules voluntarily. The systemic discrimination still exists,
which then places barriers for controlling immigration and segregation by the government.
Immigrants are forced to live in certain social locations, and ―the space- ghetto that socially
constructed‖ (Das Gupta, 2008). Credentials aren‘t always the issue; the lack of the language
barrier can be huge, and many other barriers as well such as age, race, colour, and gender. Even
if immigrants have an English education and are fluent in English, often the language barrier is
used as an excuse. The gender issue is important while most of the sponsored population of
woman is unfairly threatened. ―Women in colour have the toughest time finding work‖ (Taylor,
2008). A woman isn‘t seen as a breadwinner according to many immigrants‘ family cultures.
―The lack of Canadian experience is a technical problem, it has, at the same time, racial, ethnic,
and class dimension‖ (Mojab, 2008-p 125). ―They say that accent is a problem but reality that is
discrimination‖ (Das Gupta, 2009). Many employers have blamed the immigrants‘ languages,
accents or the Canadian experience as lame excuses rather than saying just the word of
discrimination.

References:

Aulakh, Raveena. 2009. Aging newcomers at a loss for jobs. The Toronto Star. March 24, 2009.
Cribb, Robert. 2009. Nanny ‗blacklist‘ proposed. The Toronto Star. March 22,2009.
Das Gupta, Tania. 2009. Class Lecture, February 10, 2009. York University.
Das Gupta, Tania. 2009. Class Lecture, October 7, 2008. York University.
Das Gupta, Tania. 2009. Class Lecture, March 24, 2009. York University.
Diebel, Linda. 2009. Taser death avaoidable, inquiry told. The Toronto Star, March 24, 2009.
Dench, Janet. 2008. Why Take Refuges?, pp 12. York University Publication.

295
Jakubowski, Lisa Marie. 2002. Immigration and the Legalization of Racism, Amending the
Canadian Immigration Act: The Live-in caregiver Program, pp 62 Halifax: Fernwood
Publishing.
Mojab, Shahrzad. 2008 .Canadian Women Studies. Volume 19, Number 3, pp 125. York
University Bokstore Publication.

Walker, Barrington. 2008. The History of Immigration and Racism in Canada: Essential
Reading, Marginalized and Dissident Non- Citizens: Foreign Domestic Workers, Toronto:
Canadian Scholars‘ Press.

Walker, Barrington. 2008. The History of Immigration and Racism in Canada: Essential
Reading, We Had No Desire To Be Set Apart, pp 78, Toronto: Canadian Scholars‘ Press.

Taylor, Lesley Clarula. 2008. Degrees don‘t ensure jobs for female immigrants, pp 103. York
University Publication.

Telegdi P.C., Andrew. 2008. Family Reunification: The key to successful integration. Clearance
Centre of the York University Bookstore.

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Chapter 43

Social Programs

Intercultural Dialogue Institute (IDI)


Hope Muslim-Jewish Dialogue Program (HMJP)

Table of Content……………………………………………………………. Page

1. Executive Summary……………………………………………………
2. Organizational Credibility………………………………………………
2.1 History………………………………………………………………
2.2 Existing Programs............................................................................
3.Vision, Mission and Goal Statement ……………………………….
3.1 Vision ................................................................................................
3.2 Mission...............................................................................................
3.3 Goal Statement....................................................................................
4. Incorporation………………………………………………………...
5. Significant Accomplishments……………………………………….
6.Future Developments…………………………………………………
6.1 Meet Your Jewish Neighbours..........................................................
6.2 Turkish-Jewish Coffee Nights...........................................................
6.3 Sharing Noah‘s Pudding with Jewish Community............................
6.4 Trip to Turkey and Israel....................................................................
6.5 The Dialogue and Friendship Dinner...................................................
6.6 Muslim-Jewish Talk Series.................................................................
7. Board of Directors……………………………………………………...
8. Evaluation and Monitoring………………………………………………….
9. Anticipated Outputs……………………………………………………..
9.1 Participants Impacts……………………………………………………..
9.2 Specific Outcomes………………………………………………………
10. Monitoring………………………………………………………………
11. Reporting………………………………………………………………..
12. Financial Management………………………………………………………
13. Budget……………………………………………………………………
14. Advertising and Promotion………………………………………………

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1. Executive Summary

Intercultural Dialogue Institute (IDI)- The ―Hope Muslim-Jewish Program‖ (HMJP) was created
and is dedicated to encourage Muslim-Jewish Dialogue in Canada to bridge healthy intercultural
interaction with social and cultural programs and consult to continue ongoing, sustainable,
durable basis. Our services are available to everyone from the Muslim and Jewish communities.
We live in a world of ever-increasing interdependence between nations, but of growing enmity
between cultures, religions and social groups. A lack of knowledge about other traditions and
beliefs can be a catalyst for antagonism between individuals and groups when forced to live in
close proximity. The same can be true on a global level, when groups‘ only exposure to each
other is the media. At both global and local levels, the widening divide between Western and
Islamic civilizations requires urgent attention. Exposure to different cultures and faiths will build
mutual understanding between groups and individuals and contribute to peaceful
interdependence. Cultural and religious understanding cannot be perpetuated through an
international charter or political summit. It must be generated among individuals in and between
their neighborhoods, religious communities, and workplaces. To achieve this goal, we are
pursuing intercultural and interfaith initiatives to encourage and support local authorities and
community groups in managing their religious and cultural diversity to bring benefit rather than
conflict.

2. Organizational Credibility

2.1 History
Since 2005, with several other sisters of non-profit organizations and newly established branches
throughout Canada, we are forming a new organization: Intercultural Dialogue Institute; namely
IDI. Besides continuing the current activities with its branches, IDI aims to coordinate and foster
the dialogue efforts of Turkish Canadian citizens across cities of Canada.
IDI will also be the unified brand name of our dialogue activities and organizations from New
Foundland to Vancouver. With its currently established nine branches; IDI is committed to
improving the dialogue and solidarity between cultures, ethnicities, communities throughout the
nation. IDI‘s main purpose is to forge bounds of lasting friendship among diverse Canadians by
identifying what is that we have in common, by learning to appreciate and honour differences,
and by collaborating on mutually led beneficial projects. IDI is supported in large part by modest
but crucial financial contributions from members of the Turkish-Canadian community. Equal
contributions are the generous contributions of time and talent by a huge number of volunteers
dedicated to IDI‘s vision of global human solidarity.

2.2 Existing Programs


Some of our activities are Dialogue and friendship dinners, talk series and seminars,
neighbourhood visits; community based Dialogue programs, courses and learning activities, as
well as cultural events. In this regard, IDI works to bring top quality culture activities to
Canadians. The whirling dervishes of turkey performed one of the most popular expressions of
Sufi music and traditional meditative dance. IDI is also one of the organizers of Turkish
festivals in Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton, Kitchener, and Hamilton, which attract
hundreds of thousands every summer.
Turkey has a strong diverse background cultures and faiths and is a modernizing Muslim
democratic and secular state. IDI‘s mission includes representing this face of a tolerant forward
looking Islam as taught by great scholar Fethullah Gulen. Since its inception IDI has been
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working hard to establish meaningful enduring friendships among Muslims, Jewish, Christians
and people of other faiths.
As the Intercultural Dialogue Institute, we are here to say as Haci Bektas would have said;
Let‘s unite our souls
Make our job easier
Love each other
Because no one will get to keep this

3. Vision, Mission and Goal Statement

3.1 Vision: To create community that is vibrant, thriving, peaceful and safe, free from crime and
a better place for all to live in for Social Justice. The vision of Intercultural Dialogue Institute is
to contribute to Canada‘s diverse and multicultural atmosphere by service and contribution to
society. We dream for a cosmopolitan world of peace, tolerance, love and compassion where:
The environment and all life is cherished, protected, and improved, religious and cultural fears &
hatred are replaced with understanding and respect people come to know and care for their
neighbours, and the richness of human and religious diversity is woven into the fabric of
communal, civil, and societal life, religious and spiritual communities live in harmony and
contribute to a better Canada using their richness of wisdom and compassion.
3.2 Mission: Oneness helps our struggle to harvest our dreams. Our mission is to promote cross-
cultural awareness, in order to attain peace and diversity with our neighbors, help establish a
better society where individuals love, respect and accept each other as they are. We endeavour to
bring together people of goodwill from all cultures and faiths on a common platform of love and
tolerance to develop an understanding that can inspire peace and harmony in our community. On
this path, we are very much inspired by the vision and experience of the world‘s most prominent
intellectual and spiritual leaders, especially Fethullah Gulen.

3.3 Goal: To establish a Muslim-Jewish Interaction programs and consulting service, which
provide everyone with an opportunity to develop their interest to channel their energy toward
constructive activities, and to build positive relationship between Muslims and Jewish.
We seek and welcome the gift of diversity.
We respect the differences among religions and cultures.
We maintain the highest standards of integrity, ethical conduct, as well as accurate disclosure of
information.
We honor the richness and diversity of all languages, religions and cultures.
We value constant positive action based on universal values such as love, respect, tolerance,
mercy, and compassion which are crucial for healthy dialogue in a diverse university
environment.
We respect the uniqueness of each religion, and differences of practice or belief.
We have no one particular agenda and no inherent ideology, other than a genuine concern for the
spiritual quality and welfare of life on Earth.
We make efforts to be absolutely inclusive, and to deny participation to no one.
Our members are entirely free to disagree on matters of belief, but join together to act in a
common spirit of friendship and mutual respect.
We are committed to universal values of democracy and human rights.
We act from sound ecological practices to preserve our world for future generations.

4. Incorporation
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Intercultural Dialogue Institute is a non-profit organization whose purpose is to promote respect
and mutual understanding among all cultures and faiths through partnership with other
communities, cultural, religious and interreligious organizations by organizing educational and
cultural activities such as seminars, conferences, discussion panels, luncheons, interfaith family
dinners and cultural exchange trips. Intercultural Dialogue Institute aims to promote enduring
interfaith and intercultural cooperation, tolerance and dialogue by sharing the differences and
similarities in cultures in an effort to achieve global peace in the foreseeable future. The Institute
aims to eliminate or reduce false stereotypes, prejudices and unjustified fears through direct
human communication. By this mission IDI aims to contribute to improvement of diversity,
pluralism and multiculturalism throughout Canada. Intercultural Dialogue Institute (IDI) grew
out of the need to address the question, ―How can citizens of the world live in peace and
harmony?‖ From this question a conversation took root and began to grow. The founding
members of the IDI knew from personal experience that a discussion on cultural differences did
not have to digress into confusion, fighting, and anarchy. On the contrary the founding members
understood that peace could be achieved by sharing different perspectives by listening to each
other from the space of love, respect, tolerance, mercy, and compassion.
Headquartered in Toronto, Intercultural Dialogue Institute currently has branch offices and sister
organizations in nine cities throughout Canada. The people who initially thought about the
necessity founded Intercultural Dialogue Institute were Turkish Canadians; however, our
members increasingly come from diverse cultures, faiths and nations. Intercultural Dialogue
Institute welcomes especially members and volunteers from diverse traditions, faiths, races and
nations.

5. Significant Accomplishment

We have been organizing different social activities, including picnics, dinners, interfaith
gatherings, tours, workshops, seminars, training programs, special cultural performances and
discussion groups that bring people of diverse backgrounds together. We create opportunities
and activity platforms for people of diverse faiths and spiritual traditions to live and act together,
performing charitable services. To this end, the Institute sponsored and organized a number of
events. These events include:
Dialogue and Friendship Programs.
Talk Series and Seminars
Community Outreach Programs
Noah‘s Pudding
Meet Your Neighbor Program
Intercultural Study Trips to Turkey
Cultural and Art Programs
Whirling Dervishes
Exhibitions
Conferences and Panels, Symposium
Relief Efforts and Community Service Projects
Festivals
Visits
Courses and intercultural learning programs

6. Future Developments
300
We will expand our programs to include Jewish population at the following programs:

6.1 Meet Your Jewish Neighbours

―Meet Your Neighbours‖ is a series of programs where families affiliated with IDI invite guests
to their homes to have dinner together. In these programs, families meet, greet, and create a
joyful family atmosphere. Families also maintain good relations with their neighbours, regardless
of what their religion, beliefs, culture, or race may be.
The purpose behind these programs is to build bridges between communities and experience
intercultural interactions. Through these experiences, exchange of ideas, tolerance, development
of new forms of dialogue and new friendships are gained. This brings about kindness,
respectfulness, generosity and above all else cultural harmony. These programs are about sharing
a great time together in a learning environment with the preparation and eating of good foods.

6.2 Turkish-Jewish Coffee Nights

At the cultural center, we hold monthly themed Turkish Coffee Nights. The themes of these
evenings are generally centered on the historical and cultural significance of Turkish coffee. The
main attraction is the presentation of the significance and preparation of Turkish coffee by our
guest speakers. The presentation emphasizes how Turkish coffee isn‘t significant because of its
unique texture or aroma, but rather the setting that it must be enjoyed in. Turkish coffee should
be enjoyed with friends in a comfortable setting. There is a Turkish Proverb that says,‖ A cup of
coffee is remembered for forty years, sharing a cup of coffee creates an unspoken commitment to
a lifetime everlasting friendship.‖ Hopefully our guests create such friendships that they will
never be forgotten

6.3 Sharing Noah‟s Pudding with Jewish Community

IDI has distributed more than 50000 cups of Noah‘s Pudding across Canada as a symbol of
richness and diversity with the following famous Turkish motto: ―Let‘s eat sweet and talk
sweetly‖. The events took place in different organizations such as churches, homeless shelters,
senior houses, police stations, government offices, universities, NGOs, community centers, and
schools to promote peace and dialog between people of communities and groups. Some
organizations include: Ontario Parliament, Alberta Parliament, St-Joseph Oratory, St. Michael‘s
Cathedral, McGill University, University of Toronto, York University, University of Alberta,
and Toronto City Hall.
People from different backgrounds, ethnic groups and faith groups have come together to cook
Noah‘s Pudding as symbol of richness and diversity of Canada; handing out Noah‘s pudding
dessert to Canadians. Noah‘s Pudding is a symbol for different cultures living together in
harmony while each preserves their original identities.

6.4 Trip to Turkey and Israel

IDI has been organizing several intercultural trips to Turkey every summer. These study tours
are designed and organised to strengthen existing relations with tour participants and build
bridges between communities, organizations and cultures.
301
These series of interfaith trips to Turkey are parts of the effort to share the cultural richness of
this beautiful country with the community we serve. The trip helps discover the historical,
cultural and natural beauties of Turkey, a living example of the harmony of different faiths for
centuries.
IDI strives to make study tours a success, with participants as tour delegates, in cooperation with
Turkey‘s participating cities, community and business representatives, families and NGOs.
Participants have the opportunity meet and interact with the different sections of Turkish society
acting as our hosts: individuals, business people, cultural religious representatives, educational
institutions and officials in the designated cities.

6.5 The Dialogue and Friendship Dinner

Intercultural Dialogue Institute hosts the Dialogue and Friendship Dinner in many cities,
including Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Kitchener, London, Hamilton, Edmonton, Calgary, and
Vancouver. Since 2004, each of these dinners has served approximately 200 attendees; who
come from all walks of life; including the members of the government, members of parliament;
ambassadors, bureaucrats, business people, media members, professors, as well as religious and
community leaders. To reinforce dialogue and friendship between different communities, we
also gather in interfaith dinners (Iftars) during Ramadan with our friends from universities,
NGOs, governmental organizations, churches, different communities, and religious organizations
in Canada.
Intercultural Dialogue Institute is committed to the principles of discussions, the productive
exchange of ideas and the celebration of the richness of the cultures, ethnicities, religions and
races that are present within our community. Speakers convey the message that people could be
very diverse, but should be accepting of other cultures. Speakers reflect on the importance of
interfaith and cross-cultural dialogue in forming a global agenda of love, peace, cooperation, and
compassion.
Each of the dialog dinners has a distinct theme. Some of the themes we explored up to now
include:
• Family of Families: Sharing the House of Toronto
• Cooperation of Civilizations
• Peaceful Co-existence
• The Harmony of Diversity
• Respect for the Sacred
• Spiritual Democracy for the 21st century: Nurturing Humane Love, Respect, and Compassion

6.6 Muslim-Jewish Talk Series

IDI Talk Series is a venue designed to cultivate friendship, celebrate diversity, strengthen civic
dialogue and society and deepen inter-cultural awareness and understanding among the many
diverse ethnic and civil communities across Canada.
The talk series is held every month in different cities across Canada. The talk series and seminars
aim to improve the knowledge and awareness of various issues in our lives. Guest speakers from
different backgrounds and faiths share their valuable ideas and knowledge with us. The speakers
at these series include prominent government, corporate and media officials, opinion-makers,
academics, diplomats, clergy and other civic leaders who share their viewpoints, perceptions and
experiences on timely and important issues facing our local communities and our world.
Sample topics include:
302
• Sharing the Faith of Abraham
• Interfaith Dialogue Encouraged
• Dialogue with the people of the Book
• Common Grounds between Judaism and Islam
• Mary, Mother of Jesus
• Secularism and Pluralism in Quebec
• The Future of Capitalism and the New World Order
• Isolation, Loneliness and the Environment in Modern Society
• Mystic Figures for Hope
• Clash or Dialog: 21st Century Tale of Civilizations.
• Dreaming about Peace and Compassion in the post- 9/11 World: 11 Wishes and 11 Global
Principles
• Cross-Cultural Dialog and Communication Skills: Educating Children for Peace
• Media and Diversity: Preventing Bias and Fostering Intercultural Sensitivity.

2.6 Board of Directors


President – Ahmet Tamirci
Vice President- Azim Shamsiev
Chair Person – Fatih Yegul
Secretary – Faruk Arslan
Treasurer – Emir Karapinar
Member- Fehmi Kala
Member- Ahmet Basoglu
Member- Metin Keles
Member- Yavuz Zeybek
Member- Mustafa Kaya

3. Evaluations and Monitoring

3.1 Anticipated Outputs

The anticipated output from this program would be to reach everyone from Muslim and Jewish
community to reduce misunderstanding, bias, racism, anti-Semitism and xenophobia about
Islam.

4.2 Participant Impacts

As Muslim and Jewish participants go through the program they learn how to accept differences
as its and become better people; i.e self-value and self worth to learn about personal changes.

5.3 Specific Outcomes

By coming together here, at one table, we can prove that this is a situation of great richness, with
remarkable opportunities for mutual understanding and for creating a society rooted in common
values. We can demonstrate to society the idea that people can live together, regardless of group,
faith, or ideology.

303
5.4 Monitoring

Program staffs such as public relation, media person, program coordinator and executive director
do monitoring, as well as we would have one Social Service Worker on staff.

5.5 Reporting

This program would work in cooperation with IDI and Turkish Cultural Center as well as
Funders. Executive Director is responsible for reporting for Monthly, Quarterly and yearly to
those places, and IDI Accountant supervises accounting.

6. Financial Management

IDI offers physical needs for events and outreach programs. The HMJP won‘t spend budget for
start-up and equipments at all. The program will use the Turkish Cultural Center‘s existing
facilities between 11.00 pm to 7.00 pm.

6.1 Budget

BUDGET - START-UP COST


Personnel (Part-Time for 10 Months) Hourly Rate Monthly Rate Annual Salary
Executive Director 28.00 (3) 1008.00 12,096.00
Public Relation 20.00 (3) 720.00 8640.00
Program Coordinator 20.00 (3) 720.00 8640.00
Media 20.00 (3) 720.00 8640.00
Social Service Worker 20.00 (3) 720.00 8640.00
Total 3888.00 X 12= 46,656.00

Real Estate Monthly Annually Rent (included utilities) 1500.00


Total 1,500.00 X+ 18,000.00
Inventory items Unit Cost Extended Cost Reception& Office
Modular workstation 1 800 800.00 Samsung-Printer-Copier/Fax 1 499 499 General 2 line
speakerphone 5 280 1,400.00 Office computer and installation 5 500 2500 Manager Tables 4
104 416 Stackable Chairs 50 10 500 Adverstising material 500 Internet/Email 250
Television 1 2000 DVD player 1 150 Display case/flyer rack 1 300 300 Book shelf set 3 100
300 Desk 4 119 476 Office chairs 8 80 640 Low back manager chair 4 104 416 Couch 2 550
1100 Barfridge 1 350 350 Kettle, coffemachine set 1 150 150 Office stationary supplies
1000 Cleaning material and supplies 150 Renovation and Setup Lawyer fee- incorporate
fee one time 1 1000 1000 Accountant fee (volunteer) 0 0 Rent deposit 0 0 Signage ( one
time fee) 3,500.00 3,500.00
Grand Total 18397.00
Start-up expenses Personnel Total 3888.00 Space Rental Total 1500.00 Inventory
Total 18397.00
Start-up Total 23,785.00

OPERATING BUDGET

304
Personnel (Part-Time) Hourly Rate Monthly Rate Annual Salary Executive Director 28.00 (3)
1008.00 12,096.00 Public Relation 20.00 (3) 720.00 8640.00 Program Coordinator 20.00 (3)
720.00 8640.00 Media 20.00 (3) 720.00 8640.00 Social Service Worker 20.00 (3)
720.00 8640.00
Total 3888.00 X12= 46,656.00
Real Estate Monthly Annually Rent (utilities included) 1500.00 X12= 18,000.00
Total 1,500.00 18,000.00
Inventory- Ongoing expenses Unit Monthly Annually Reception& Office
Telephone bill 60.00 680.00 Media expenses 1300.00 13,000.00 Office Supplies 250.00
2500.00 Advertising material 200.00 2000.00 Internet high speed business 80.00 860.00
Misc.( stamps, cleaning supplies) 200.00 2400.00
Grand Total 2090.00 X12= 21,440.00

ANNUAL OPERATIONAL TOTAL Salary Total 46,656.00 Space Rental Total 18,000.00
Inventory Total ,21,440.00 TOTAL 86,096.00
MONTHLY OPERATIONAL TOTAL Salary Total 3888.00 Space Rental Total 1500.00
Inventory Total 2090.00 TOTAL 7478.00

7. Advertising and Promotion

Our Media 55 Service will prepare advertising and promotion needs such as flier, brochures, web
site, posters, etc.

Second Project

Canadian Turkish Friendship Community (CTFC)


Hope Youth Centre (HYC) Project

Table of Content……………………………………………………………. Page

Executive Summary…………………………………………………… 2
Organizational Credibility……………………………………………… 3
History……………………………………………………………… 3
Vision, Mission and Goal Statement ………………………………. 3
Incorporation………………………………………………………... 3
Significant Accomplishments………………………………………. 3
Future Developments…………………………………………………3
Board of Directors…………………………………………………… 4
Needs, Client Group, Program/Service……………………………….4
Defining Needs……………………………………………………………4
Problem Identification and Area Description………………………….5
Needs Statement………………………………………………………. 5
Project Importance and Community Strengthening……………………5
Geographic Analysis……………………………………………………6
Community Participation……………………………………………….6

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Project Description…………………………………………………………7
Goals and Objective…………………………………………………….7
Project Activities and Strategies………………………………………...8
Clientele…………………………………………………………………8
Project Outcomes and Benefits to the Community……………………...8
Evaluation and Monitoring………………………………………………….9
Anticipated Outputs……………………………………………………..9
Participants Impacts……………………………………………………..9
Specific Outcomes………………………………………………………9
Monitoring………………………………………………………………10
Reporting……………………………………………………………….. 10
Financial Management……………………………………………………… 10
Budget…………………………………………………………………… 11
Advertising and Promotion……………………………………………… 12

1. Executive Summary

Canadian Turkish Friendship Community (CTFC)- ―Hope Youth Centre‖ ( HYC) was created
and is dedicated to encourage high-risk teens-youth to complete their secondary education with
after school programs, and consult to continue their education on to post secondary. Our services
are available to junior and senior students from age 12 to 15 and 16 to 21.
The target groups for CTFC- HYC project are those living in the area of the Clairlea-Birchmount
Community that neighbourhood is bounded by Eglinton to the North, Birchmount to the East
(although it follows St. Clair to the railway tracks), Mack Ave to the South and Victoria Park
Ave to the West in Toronto, Canada.
This project will help serve the educational, human service, and community development needs
of the community youth. More than half of area population is immigrants, mostly living in under
the poverty line. Their children are in trouble at school such as doing homework, especially
courses of math and science. They need free tutoring of those.

The activities provide youth with opportunities to hone their skills in math, science, and
homework club while opportunities for self-assessment, job and life skills development. The
programs offer youth the options to participate in fields that interest them to gain cross-discipline
exposure.

Our program was established in the year of September 2010 is for non-profit. This agency is
dedicated to expand knowledge and to empower the community members to support high-risk
youth. We strive to work with a divers group of students especially those who are in need of
support to further their education.

The program will be designed to provide useful and transferable skills with the aim of providing
youth with opportunities for reconnections back into the community, upgrade their grades at
school, advocate and counselling to go colleges and universities thereby reducing youth exposure
to crime, violence, drug abuse, and victimization, especially anti-Semitism and xenophobia of
Muslim. The project will employ a multidisciplinary professional history, math, science, and
Homework club who‘s able to instruct the participants in many activities.
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2. Organizational Credibility

2.1 History

Our organization came together in the fall of 2010 as a result of group of people sharing a desire
to see some good done in the Clairlea-Birchmount neighbourhood area for the teen and youth of
this trouble plagued are of Toronto. The group of people that started this organization were Faruk
Arslan, M.Fatih Yegul, Varol Soyler, Harun Kalayci, Anar Mehraliyev and Saadettin Ozcan.
Working Group has been coming together every week four hours to work on After School
Project for the Clairlea-Birchmount Community. Group met with Scarborough West Ward
Counsellor Adrian Heap and NDP area MP candidate Alam Husein to understand and analyze
community needs. After many meetings with community members, group has decided to start
project.

3.1 Vision, Mission and Goal Statement

a) Vision: To create community that is vibrant, thriving, peaceful and safe, free from crime and a
better place for all to live in for Social Justice.

b) Mission: Oneness helps our struggle to harvest our dreams.

c) Goal: To establish an after school programs and consulting service, which provide youth with
an opportunity to develop their interest and talent, to channel their energy toward constructive
activities, and to build positive relationship with others.

2.3 Incorporation

Canadian Turkish Friendship Community (CTFC) is a non-profit and charitable organization. Its
objective is to support educational and cultural activities open to the public. Within this
framework, the aforementioned enhancements will serve to strengthen intercultural bridges by
reaching out to a greater community within Ontario and beyond its borders. Reaching out to a
greater public will help us attract greater number of sponsors, which will be very helpful for the
future organization of cultural and educational activities by CTFC. HYC will be working under
the CTFC with charitable and not – profit status.

2.4 Significant Accomplishment

CTFC is established Nil Academy in 2005 to meet the needs for a better education and a brighter
future for our children. NA is a private school with experienced staff determined to maximize
students' opportunities for success. The school has built its reputation on catering for individual
needs and diversity. CTFC and Nil Academy has proved itself last three years, and ability to
undertake the projects with Community support and with its sponsors.

HYC activity goes under the CTFC that has been a non-profit and charitable organization since
2005. HYC is targeting students outside of Nil Academy and its students in the Clairlea-
Birchmount Community from low-income families and immigrant population.

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2.5 Future Developments

HYC starts to work with an average of 20 young people per program. Math, Science and
Homework Club classes have 20 students each, together serve 60 students each day. This allows
us to provide each student with individualized attention and allows each student to explore
independently. HYC will double up class size and student numbers in second year. Key factor of
succeeding this project is free TTC tickets. Free tutoring after school program offers free of
transportation for each poor student to bring them in class every day.

2.6 Board of Directors

President – Varol Soyler


Vice President- Faruk Arslan
Chair Person – Saadettin Ozcan
Secretary –Adem Erisek
Treasurer – Emir Karapinar
Member- Ahmet Basoglu
Member- Mehmet Gul
Member- Erdal Dag
Member- Mehmet Daglar
Member- Anar Mehraliyev

2.7 Needs, Client Group, Program/Services

This community is in need of more facilities and activities for youth between the ages 12-14 and
15-19 up to 24 years of age. In the past ten years The Clairlea-Birchmount Community,
especially Teesdale community has experienced an increase in youth related deviant behavior
and misdemeanor crimes. This rise can be attributed to lack of parental supervision, a decreasing
commercial district to provide employment opportunities, and lack of safe, supervised social
gathering places. The youth of this community are in great need of constructive way to spend
after school time.

This project will help serve the educational, human service, and community development needs
of the community youth. More than half of area population is immigrants, mostly living in under
the poverty line. Their children are in trouble at school such as doing homework, especially
courses of math and science. They need free tutoring of those. The activities provide youth with
opportunities to hone their skills in math, science, and homework club while opportunities for
self-assessment, job and life skills development. The programs offer youth the options to
participate in fields that interest them to gain cross-discipline exposure.

3. Defining Needs

3.1 Problem Identification and Area Description


Clairlea-Birchmount is a neighbourhood in the city of Toronto, but more specifically
Scarborough. The neighbourhood is bounded by Eglinton to the North, Birchmount to the East
(although it follows St. Clair to the railway tracks), Mack Ave to the South and Victoria Park
Ave to the West.

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Clairlea-Birchmount is low-income and a middle income neighbourhood that features less
affordable homes and mature streets. The Tisdale Community is a so-called ― marginalized‖
community; they face ‗extra‘ barriers because they are labelled as a bad area in the Clairlea-
Birchmount community. The Warden Woods ravine is a the landmark of the neighbourhood,
offering some downtown nature. There is a large Filipino contingency in this neighbourhood, at
least compared to the rest of the city (8%) and a correspondingly large number of residents who
speak Tagalog. The neighbourhood is quite diverse from languages spoken to religions practiced
which is typical in the city of Toronto.
There are 19.855 individuals who live within a 5.0 kilometers radius around the area. The
population has decreased –0.7 % since the last census completed in 2006. There has been 6.9 %
increase in the number of youths between the ages of 15-24 years, 3.3% the ages of 10-14, and
huge increase on female youth 13.2 % the ages of 15-24 from 2001 to 2006. The majority of
people who live in the area are immigrants with low to mid-range incomes. Economically, the
area is somewhat poor with the incidence of low-income being 30 %, with the average household
with children under making $30,000 per year.

3.2 Statement of Need

This area is under serviced and there is a need for more facilities to be available for the youth.
There is only one recreation center and one community center. The schools that previously open
for after school programs have been stopped unless you pay a fee. Young people cannot afford to
pay high fees for the extra-curricular activities. Immigrant kids suffered in their schools, and
their grades need to be improved to get in colleges and universities for their future.

Some organizations including Warden Wood Community Center and Teesdale Centre offer after
school programs only for children 7-13; however, they do not have after school program for the
age of 14-19 and the facilities to accommodate everyone in the area.

They have been trying to get more programs running for teenagers but they do not have enough
space. The above figures show that there is a need for more programs offered to youth. It is due
to these statistics Hope Youth Centre was formed. It is due the lack of programs and need for
young people to be mentored especially those in low income and/or single-family homes.

3.3 Project Importance and Community Strengthening

Due to dwindling commercial district the opportunities for youth employment in the community
is very low. There are few safe and supervised gathering places for youth to meet and socialize.
This lack of space forces them to congregate in less appropriate areas, such as parking lots, store
fronts, and apartment building lobbies. There exist programs for children, adults and seniors, but
very few specifically for youth and pre-teenagers.
After school programs in the city have been always successful in keeping youth off the street in
safe, stimulating and supervised environment. These programs offer youth the chance to express
them creatively therefore preventing them from seeking out more destructive outlets.

3.4 Geographic Analysis

The Clairlea-Birchmount community is a mixed residential and commercial area. Residentially,


this neighbourhood is a mixture of small bungalows and high-rise apartment buildings, built
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between 1946 and 1960. Straddling Birchmount Road just south of St. Clair Avenue East is
Birchmount Park. One of the first working-class suburbs to emerge after the Second World War,
BP was conceived when eager developers and a permissive local government first made low-cost
mass accommodations on raw land a possibility. Housing consists mostly of detached homes and
a mix of low- and high-rise apartment complexes.

There are very few parks with then exception of school yards and park, located at the southern
most tip of the community and difficult to access without a vehicle. Warden and Eglinton
intersection offer the primary place for people to gather and socialize, and community activities.
After Wall-Mart moved from Mall in 2007, many businesses slowed down, and social activities
are disappeared. When the area first started to be built it was compromised mainly of single-
family dwellings such as freehold townhouses and townhouses. However as the community has
expanded there has been a big increase in apartments buildings and social housing. The increase
of apartments means that they can have more people living in a smaller piece of land. Very little
development has been done in this area both residentially and commercially in over 30 years, and
there are very limited planned developments in the near future.
3.5 Community Participation
These programs will offer youth the chance to improve their grades therefore preventing them
from seeking out more destructive outlets. These programs will build caring, compassionate and
supporting children in intellectual endeavours; bringing children, youth, service providers,
community leaders, police and family members together. Our program is with aim of providing
youth with encouragement with going to high school, colleges and universities thereby reducing
pre-youth exposure to crime, violence, drug abuse, and victimization.
Currently, Warden Woods Community Centre began as a Mennonite Church response to the
needs of residents in a new government housing project in southwest Scarborough. Built in the
early 1960s to accommodate 347 families and 392 senior citizens, Warden Woods had no
recreational facilities and few public amenities. The Community Centre at 74 Fir Valley Court
was built in 1970 with leadership and capital funding supplied by Mennonite Church Eastern
Canada. It has governed by a local board of directors since 1985. Centre added after-school
programs and family support program in the Birchmount and St. Clair area in 2003, but victim
target population are still vulnerable, because after schools has limited space and target only
certain age of group. Youth population grew last five years, and this Center doesn‘t meet needs
now. New community center will be built up as scheduled by Scarborough West City
Community Developer, but populations suffer everyday, and pre-teenagers, teens and youth
don‘t know where to go.

4. Project Description

4.1 a) Goals: The program will be designed to provide useful and transferable skills with the
aim of providing youth with opportunities for reconnections back into the community, upgrade
their grades at school, advocate and counselling to go colleges and universities thereby reducing
youth exposure to crime, violence, drug abuse, and victimization, especially anti-Semitism and
xenophobia of Muslim. The project will employ a multidisciplinary professional math, science,
and Homework club who‘s able to instruct the participants in many activities.

4.1 b) Objectives

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To provide youth with a safe and stimulating environment where they can be engaged in History,
Math, Science and Homework club activities, and socialize with peers in an appropriate manner.
Free tutoring to youth with after school program to improve their grade in their school.
Provide opportunities for the youth to spend their time pursuing more productive activities to
become confident and successful individuals.

4.2 Project Activities and Strategies


The target groups for CTFC- HYC project are those living in the area of the Clairlea-Birchmount
Community that neighbourhood is bounded by Eglinton to the North, Birchmount to the East
(although it follows St. Clair to the railway tracks), Mack Ave to the South and Victoria Park
Ave to the West.
The CTFC- HYC program will run after school hours 4.00 pm to 7.00 pm weekdays Monday,
Tuesday to Thursday at Nil Academy classes located at 25 Civic Road, Scarborough, Ontario
L5N 4V9.

4.2 Activities
The program hours will be weekdays and discipline explored each day:
Monday – History, Math, Science and Homework club.
Tuesday - History, Math, Science and Homework club.
Thursday- History, Math, Science and Homework club.

Teachers will be hired based on their professional portfolios, proven ability in various form of
their field, their experience working with youth, and knowledge of youth related issues. We will
be also relying upon the support of local volunteers to aid in setting up classes, inventorying
supplies, monitoring attendance, and assisting during the session with some artistic know-how.
The project will be administered through paid staff who will be accountable to it financial and
administratively. We are determined to target that the youth of community.

4.2 Strategies

We have developed an approach that incorporated the following strategy elements:

* Low participant to instructor in ratio- we work with an average of 20 young people per
program. History, Math, Science and Homework Club classes have 20 students each, together
serve 60 students each day. This allows us to provide each student with individualized attention
and allows each student to explore independently.

* Key factor of succeeding this project is free TTC tickets. Free tutoring after school program
offers free of transportation for each low-income family student to bring them in class every day.
Through counseling and interviewing with trained social service worker, we will know low
income family student who in need for TTC ticket.

* Self-determination approach- each session is open to participants to explore math, science and
homework in their own creative way. Participants are nor restricted to one program to another,
and are encouraged to participate in other programs. We believe that this self-determination
approach will make the project more inviting for youth by allowing them to follow their own
creative paths and perhaps discover new ones.

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* Flexibility: because we are community-based organization, we have the opportunity to explore
issues that may not be part of the standard school curriculum.

* History, Math, science and homework as a tool – we believe that solving problems with math
and science can be powerful enabling toll that can support critical thinking and other
developmental skills.

* Youth Service as an advocacy - we will do informal counseling, advocacy, information,


referrals, crisis intervention and life skills training for youth and their families.
4.3 Clientele

The main target group for HYC program is pre-teenagers to young adolescents between the ages
of 12 to 19 years up 24 years of age who are:

At risk for problem behaviours;


Unemployed
Unoccupied (not participating in anything meaningful) and
Interested or trouble in expression in math, science and homework.
Belong to low-income families and newcomers.
Our focus will be the youth who live in neighbourhood is bounded by Eglinton to the North,
Birchmount to the East (although it follows St. Clair to the railway tracks), Mack Ave to the
South and Victoria Park Ave to the West. The attached pie chart shows 30% of households
within our catchment area have incomes less than $ 30,000 per year. 22% are lone-parents and
48% couple with children. With 70% of our catchment area occupied by low socio-economic
families, immigrants we believe out HYC program will be beneficial.
HYC feels strongly that our program targeting pre-teenagers and adolescent youths, will give
youths a meaningful and productive after-school and weekend school activities and opportunity
to express their creativity. HYC will operate from Nil Academy, 25 Civic Road, Scarborough,
which is located Warden and Eglinton intersection across the stress from Rona and McDonalds.
HYC anticipates forming a healthy collaboration of programs and uses bright environments of
Nil Academy to ensure that all needs of the community are met.

4.4 Project Outcomes and lasting benefits to the community

The main outcome for our project is to basically have created a interaction effect where the
program stays consistence. We want it so that those that come into the program are able to stay
for as long as possible, compare to most programs when after a certain age you can no longer
participate. The point is for the youth that are part of the programs are able to give to self-esteem
to complete their education, and be a positive role model to others.

HYC does not discriminate race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnic and socio-economic
background or situation. Our project‘s long-term goal is to give youth the opportunity to make
positive choices in life through mentoring and training. It is geared specifically to pre-teenagers
to youth aged 12 to 19 years who are from single parents families and/or low-income families.

These programs will build caring, compassionate, and encouraging and supporting children and
youth in academic and employment endeavors; bringing children, youth, service providers,
community leaders, police and family members together; helping children and youth take
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ownership and responsibility and be accountable for their actions; improving the
cultural/spiritual awareness of children and youth; providing role-models and mentors for
children, youth and their families.

5. Evaluations and Monitoring

5.1 Anticipated Outputs

The anticipated output from this program would be to reach youth before they begin to get into
trouble, and improve their grades. This program would be self-esteem and character builder.

5.2 Participant Impacts

As the youths go through the program they learn how to upgrade their grade and become better
people; i.e self-value and self worth to learn about personal changes.

5.3 Specific Outcomes

Helping teens and youth (which are kids from 12 to 24) learn how to be better people, teach them
how to be more helpful in their community, but most of all, it will teach them about what they
may expect regarding the changes their bodies and minds.

5.4 Monitoring

Program staffs such as teachers and executive director do monitoring, as well as we would have
one Social Service Worker on staff.

5.5 Reporting

This program would work in cooperation with CTFC and Nil Academy as well as Funder.
Executive Director is responsible for reporting for Monthly, Quarterly and yearly to those places,
and CTFC Accountant supervises accounting.

6. Financial Management

Nil Academy offers physical needs for free tutoring after school program. HYC wont spend
budget for start-up and equipments at all. HYC will use Nil Academy‘s existing facilities after
4.00 pm to 7.00 pm. Nil Academy is established in 2005 to meet the needs for a better education
and a brighter future for our children.

6.1 Budget

BUDGET - START-UP COST Personnel (Part-Time for 10 Months) Hourly Rate


Monthly Rate Annual Salary Executive Director 28.00 (3) 1008.00 12,096.00 Science teacher
20.00 (3) 720.00 8640.00 Math teacher 20.00 (3) 720.00 8640.00 Homework club teacher 20.00
(3) 720.00 8640.00 Social Service Worker 20.00 (3) 720.00 8640.00 Total
3888.00 46,656.00 Real Estate Monthly Annualy Rent ( included utilies) 1500.00
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18,000.00 Total 1,500.00 18,000.00 Inventory items Unit Cost Extended Cost
Reception& Office Modular workstation 1 800 800.00 Samsung-Printer-Copier/Fax 1 499
499 General 2 line speakerphone 5 280 1,400.00 Office computer and instalation 5 500 2500
Manager Tables 4 104 416 Stackable Chairs 50 10 500 Adverstising material 500
Internet/Email 250 Television 1 2000 DVD player 1 150 Display case/flyer rack 1 300
300 Book shelf set 3 100 300 Desk 4 119 476 Office chairs 8 80 640 Low back manager chair
4 104 416 Couch 2 550 1100 Barfridge 1 350 350 Kettle, coffemachine set 1 150 150 Office
stationary supplies 1000 Cleaning material and supplies 150 Renovation and Setup
Lawyer fee- incorporate fee one time 1 1000 1000 Accountant fee( volunteer) 0 0 Rent
deposit 0 0 Signage ( one time fee) 3,500.00 3,500.00 Grand Total 18397.00
Start-up expenses Personnel Total 3888.00 Space Rental Total 1500.00 Inventory
Total 18397.00 Start-up Total 23,785.00 OPERATING BUDGET
Personnel (Part-Time) Hourly Rate Monthly Rate Annual Salary Executive Director 28.00
(3) 1008.00 12,096.00 Science teacher 20.00 (3) 720.00 8640.00 Math teacher 20.00 (3) 720.00
8640.00 Homework club teacher 20.00 (3) 720.00 8640.00 Social Service Worker 20.00 (3)
720.00 8640.00 Total 3888.00 46,656.00 Real Estate Monthly Annualy Rent (
included utilies) 1500.00 18,000.00 Total 1,500.00 18,000.00 Inventory- Ongoing
expenses Unit Monthly Annualy Reception& Office Telephone bill 60.00 680.00 TTC
tickets for students 1300.00 13,000.00 Office Supplies 250.00 2500.00 Advertising material
200.00 2000.00 Internet high speed business 80.00 860.00 Misc.( stamps, cleaning supplies)
200.00 2400.00 Grand Total 2090.00 21,440.00 ANNUAL OPERATIONAL TOTAL
Salary Total 46,656.00 Space Rental Total 18,000.00 Inventory Total ,21,440.00 TOTAL
86,096.00 MONTHLY OPERATIONAL TOTAL Salary Total 3888.00 Space Rental Total
1500.00 Inventory Total 2090.00 TOTAL 7478.00

6.2 Advertising and Promotion

HYC intends on putting out flyers and brochures amongst the community of Eglinton to the
North, Birchmount to the East (although it follows St. Clair to the railway tracks), Mack Ave to
the South and Victoria Park Ave to the West, and its boundaries.
Flyers will be placed in bus shelters, especially since many youth (participants who we are trying
to attract to the program/agency) take the bus home to from school and work. The flyers and
posters will be placed in the high schools of the area so students will be aware of the
program/agency and what we are about.

HYC will also look into local grocery stores to post flyers. HYC must seek permission form the
manager of the store; it should be not a problem. HYC will raise awareness for our program
through morning announcements at both high schools for students who may not see the flyers or
brochures around the community.

We will also be placing them in libraries and Malls where people can pick them up. We will use
local newspaper to get attraction.

Other advertisement promotions will consider further by our Finances and


Advertising/Fundraising Manager.

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Third Project

The Toronto Turkish Festival Project


The Toronto Turkish Festival celebrates Turkish culture through music, exhibitions, arts,
crafts, dance, shows and delicious food. Since August 2006, over the weekend at Toronto's
Yonge and Dundas Square, the festival bringsing both Canadians and Turkish expats together in
a friendly atmosphere filled with fun activities. Organized by the Canadian Turkish Friendship
Community (CTFC), the festival is held every first weekend of August from 10 am to 10 pm in
the heart of downtown Toronto The Turkish Festival is supported and encouraged by City of
Toronto, local counselors, and appreciated by the mayor of Toronto, the local police chiefs,
businessmen and Yonge & Dundas Square management (1). The festival is sponsored by both
Turkish and international companies such as North America Energy Star (NAES) and Turkish
Airlines (THY), as well as Turkish municipalities such as Fatih and the Çorum (2).
The first one was successfully held, as over 40,000 people participated in the festivities
on August 5, 2006. David Miller, Mayor of Toronto, visited the Turkish community during the
Festival and congratulated everyone for joining the City‘s ―Live with Culture‖ project. ― It is
fabulous to have Turkish community now visible and supporting our multi cultural city and
country for better future‖ Miller said (3). Miller congregated all Nil Academy Turkish students
and their teachers who are among organizers of Toronto Turkish Festival to support their school.
Turkish festival also saves city from Caribana troublemaker. ― I‘ve never ever seen
Festival like that busy but secure. Festival was safely rocked to Square in two days because of
their sympatric, gentle and humble organizers. Importantly, their existing is protected, rescued
and saved city from Caribana festival troublemaker‖ said Police Duty officer surprisingly in his
respond card. Toronto Turkish Festival hit the super level, climbed to top and gained respect
from everybody else. (3).
CTFC was in a way forced to extend it to a two-days festival by Miller. And in 4-5
August 2007 and in 2-3 August 2008, and 1-2 August 2009 and 1-2 August 2010 CTFC once
more successfully organized the Turkish Festival. Almost hundred thousand people from
Canadian-Turkish community and from many other communities and cultures around GTA and
neighbouring cities, provinces and U.S states, have visited the festival.
On Saturday and Sunday, August 7th and 8th, 2010, will be celebrated the fifth time a Turkish
festival in Canada‘s history, and an important contribution to the celebration of multiculturalism
in Toronto (4).
The festival is open to the public, entrance is free. Ever year, the Festival is alive with the sights,
sounds and aromas of Türkiye. All funds raised from the festival hashave been donated to Nil
Academy- Turkish School in Toronto which wais opened by Canadian Turkish Friendship
Community in 2005 (5).
CTFC is devoted to the promotion of Turkish Culture and Language in Toronto and
Canada as a non-profit and charitable organization since its beginning in the year of 2005. One
of its objectives is to contribute to Ontario‘s society in terms of promoting intercultural events,
and another is to support educational and cultural activities open to the public. Within this
framework, the Toronto Turkish Festival serves to instil and strengthen intercultural bridges by
reaching out towards a greater community within Ontario, and even beyond its borders. It is also
very unique, unparalleled, and especially important for the Turkish community living in Toronto
(6).

315
Canada's first Turks arrived as early as the 1880s. However, it wasn't until the mid-1950s
that Toronto's Turkish community was established in earnest, after students and visitors applied
to stay in the country permanently. Successive waves of immigration followed, first in the late
1960s and again at the start of this decade. The current boom has yet to let up (76). The festival
has feature unique and fascinating demonstrations of distinctive traditional Turkish crafts, such
as paper water marbling (Ebru), and carpet weaving. There are will be live Turkish musical
performances and folk dancing, including Sufi music and dancing, with some specialty Turkish
tea or coffee in our re-created traditional family room (Sark Kosesi-―Eastern Türkiye Corner‖),
as you sit on beautiful Turkish carpets and cushions in our tiny oasis in the heart of the city, and
taken a picture with traditional Ottoman costumes, . The festival will also includinge dazzling
displays of handcrafted linens, clothing, and carpets, decorative accessories, hand-painted
ceramic plates and tiles, copper crafts, pottery, silk scarves, pillowcases, books on Turkish life,
culture, cooking and travel, and CDs of traditional and other popular, rock and jazz Turkish
music (7).
This wonderful event effectively brings Türkiye to Toronto, showcasing a rich cultural
heritage while allowing visitors to sample fine Turkish cuisine from sumptuous kebabs to mouth-
watering pastries. Visitors Come and sample authentic Turkish food and pastries while enjoying
original Turkish-style doner-kebabs, tantuni kebabs, shish kebabs and famous pita style
sandwiches, along with gozleme and bazlama, featuring tasty, lightly spiced chicken or beef.
Side dishes arewill be made right before your eyes using traditional baking methods, and will
include specialty pastries such as baklava, dolma and sarma stuffed with vegetables, meat, or
cheese delicacies fit for even the most discerning palate! Visitors Taste the most delectable
delights, along with authentic Turkish salads and a wide variety of other meals and baked goods
(8).
Ottoman Military Band came for the first time in Toronto with 22 team members who
supported by Municipality of Fatih, Istanbul, was entertained the visitors with their unique four
concerts on August 1-2, 2009, the band also walked with Turkish community four times in two
days festival as the Turkish parade first time ever in Toronto at Yonge and Dundas. This Band,
which for centuries accompanied the marching Ottoman army into battles, still echoes in that of
drum and zurna - an oboe-like woodwind instrument - which is a part of folk culture all over
Türkiye. Mehter music was a symbol of sovereignty and independence, and its ardent sounds
instilled the soldiers with strength and courage (9).

References:

1- Canadian Turkish Friendship Community. (201009). Cultural. Toronto Turkish Festival.


Retrieved from http://www.ctfcommunity.com/
2-Today's Zaman, (2008).Canadians, Turks make merry at Toronto Turkish Festival. 04 August
2008. Retrieved from http://www.torontoturkishfestival.org/media.htm_
3- The Toronto Star. (2007). Turkish festival saved city from Caribana troublemaker, Retreived
from http://www.torontoturkishfestival.org/media.htm_

4- Toronto Turkish Festival, (2009). History. Retrieved from


http://www.torontoturkishfestival.org/about.htm_

316
5. Yonge-Dundas Square, Toronto (2006). Turkish Festival 5 August 2006. Retreived
http://www.ydsquare.ca/index.php?option=com_events&task=view_detail&agid=78&year=2006
&month=08&day=05&Itemid=40_
5- Canadian Turkish Friendship Community. (2009). Retrieved from
http://www.torontoturkishfestival.org/about.htm
6- The Toronto Star. (2007). Nick Aveling. Newest Raptor sets city's Turks aglow Toronto
community overjoyed to hear of NBA star's choice to play north of the border. 15 July 2009.
Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/sports/basketball/nba/raptors/article/661091--newest-
raptor-sets-city-s-turks-aglow
7- Toronto Turkish Festival, (201009). Entertainment. Retrieved from
http://www.torontoturkishfestival.org/entertainment.htm
8- Toronto Turkish Festival, (201009). Food. Retrieved from
http://www.torontoturkishfestival.org/food.htm_
9. Toronto Turkish Festival. (2010). Press Info. Retrieved from
http://www.torontoturkishfestival.org/press.htm

POLICY AND ACTIONS ON ANTI-RACISM, ACCESS & EQUITY


CTFC will work towards the goals of anti-discrimination, anti-racism, access and equity within
its organization. CTFC hereby resolves and declares that it shall uphold and promote the
principles of anti-discrimination, anti-racism, access and equity. CTFC affirms the following
principles set out in the Ontario Human Rights Code: To recognize the inherent dignity and
worth of every person and to provide for equal rights and opportunities without discrimination
that is contrary to law. CTFC will ensure that:

(1) Discrimination/racism is prohibited on the grounds of age, ancestry, citizenship,


creed(religion), colour, disability, ethnic origin, family status, gender identity, level of literacy,
marital status, membership in a union or staff association, place of origin, political affiliation,
race, receipt of public assistance, record of offences, sex, sexual orientation, or any other
personal characteristic.

(2) Access to services by members of the community, particularly those facing barriers and
other forms of discrimination and disadvantage, will be ensured through equitable access to
CTFC‘s services, resources and decision-making in order that all communities can fully
participate in all facets of the organization. CTFC is committed to achieving representation of the
diversity of the Toronto community on its Board of Directors by ensuring that it has an equitable
and transparent nominations process; that this process is communicated to all members, and that
members are committed to outreach beyond the current membership if necessary to achieve this
goal. This anti-discrimination, anti-racism, access and equity policy will be implemented in all
places where CTFC‘s operations occur. Disciplinary action taken in response to racial incidents
may take the form of a warning, reprimand, suspension, termination, or refusal to provide
service. Those persons who handle or investigate incidents of racism will respect the
confidentiality of all parties, including the complainant(s), any witness and the alleged
offender(s).

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Chapter 44

Creating the Public Museum was a Revolution

The museum housed specific sort of cultural legacy that connected the present to the past
by creating a genealogy of knowledge. Collecting and displaying those priceless items tell us a
true history and the memory of an entire society. They are ―remembrances of infinite things‖
representing different periods and genres. The museum is more democratic institution what it
was now. Since late seventeen century, there are many donators donated their collections to
museums, it makes them more interesting, more valuable, and more visitors. During the sixteen
century it was belong to only elites and king. By the end of the Renaissance, the museum had
become a cultural itinerary of ordinary learned person, giving collectors high status in Europe.
Collections have been collecting by prince, scholars and merchant the proper targets of cabinet
of the world. Private collectors were gathering, preserving them with philosophical framework.
First museum was open to public in Vienna early 1780‘s that has limited public access.
On the archaeological level, the system of positivist was transformed in a whole sale fashion at
the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century. The mode of being things, and
of the order that divided them up before presenting them to understanding, was profoundly
altered. The understanding of universal museum has been started underlining of the unity of the
world which was completely different perception than twenty century. Art definition was
changing from accepting definition of fine arts. Museum seems to more magical memory to
ordinary citizen and more people interesting to make visit last 30 years. Today, the confused and
disordered cabinet of curiosity can be better understood as cabinet of the world rationality
explains the structure of knowledge. Almost anything may turn out to be museum such as farm,
castle, cottages, warehouse etc., change is very extremely and rapid, many people love and visit
museum. It is hard to give definition and figure out what their role in the community, and their
functions and potentials. Educational role and value is more important the way in which museum
can alter perception, contribute to knowledge, history and culture in 21. century.
The museum housed a specific sort of cultural legacy that connected the present to the
past by creating a genealogy of knowledge. Collecting and displaying these priceless and simple
items tell us the true history and memory of an entire society. They are ―remembrances of
infinite things‖ which represent different periods and genres. Anything can be a museum item as
long as it defines culture, remembrance of infinite things, cultural identity, heritage, cultural
legacy, itinerary, or produces knowledge, which is why an education role is very important today
for creating museums. The museum makes its objects visible by fixing them on the basis of
analogy between two objects finding similarities, which are a kind of knowledge and the
scientific accumulation to our system. The museum doesn‘t only produce knowledge, but also is
a great place to socialize and awaken the nation (Mclsaac, 2008). This paper will examine the
revolutionary process on how the public museum transmits cultural value that positively
affirmatives the function in cultural things, in which connect the past to the present, and
socializes the relationship when ownership is transferred, and the role of education as the perfect
way of creating historical heritage into a nation.
First of all, since the creation of the Renaissance period, people have been picking up
antiquates from the past, and bringing them to the present. The 18th-century Enlightenment was
one of the great revolutionary moments in human history that was claimed to be a parent for the
museum. It was the time when the European culture had subjected its deepest beliefs to irony and

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critique. The results of such radical thinking were mind-bogglingly disruptive. By the end of the
18th century, a European state wouldn‘t just execute its monarch, but would abolish Christianity
which is why religious arts have become art since then. On 1793, in the most extreme phase of
the French revolution, the Bishop of Paris was forced to confess himself as "a charlatan" and to
declare that from now on "there should be no other public cult than liberty and holy equality"
(Jonathan, 2003). This movement now is a permanent display dedicating itself to be at the heart
of the museum, which can honestly claim the Enlightenment as its parent.
Since the late seventeenth century, there were many donators that had given their
collections to museums, which then makes these museums more interesting, more valuable, and
more inviting towards visitors. When you look upon how people have organized museums today,
images and arts act as a passage that go through many collections collected privately from
collectors who have had individual desires or extent family instincts, and which have donated
their belongings to public museums (Mclsaac, 2008). People have started talking about mortality,
and how we could be remembered at the Renaissance period towards the future. The collectors
have now found and understood that the creation of heritage has to have value. In the past, the
large private collection has had limited visitors, and back then donation had first began with a
prince who had donated his belongings to public museums in which was a prestige for wealthy
families. The relationship between legacy and heritage is what humanism has driven to capture a
world that fits many intellectual projects. Many religious arts have become art as first a process
of secularization that had begun, but then ownership had transferred to the government before
the public museum had become more of a ―democratic institution‖ (Nochlin, 1972).
Secondly, the social relationship and socialization in museums have always been
important for interaction between people because of their function with the museum. Also, with
particular artwork taking up museum space, you‘ll usually meet something you know is at its
perfect position. The museum just as well tells us how the world has changed throughout
history. For example, the British museum had collected items from different cultures, which
shows us many different civilizations. Before this process, particular collections had only been
divined to royal families, which had used to work in prestige, and had also used diplomatic
purposes showing the collection, or connecting whoever would see the collection that had
hierarchy and power. The collectors have interacted their collections as diplomatic tools, and as
terms of exchanging knowledge and giving each other artifacts. Many collections are shared and
are used for networking towards each other. ―The museum has propaganda value‖ (Mclsaac,
2008). One of the legacies of the Renaissance and other cultures make museums have an
ideological perspective.
Preserving is very simple in the museum. Far from being static, restoration calls for items
as well as for decoration and shipping around distribution ordering. The Renaissance has
established and emerged science as the use for preserved collections. During the French
revolution, collectors have secularized churches that had been full of art, while then private
collectors had stepped in to play significant roles of keeping them. The place of memory during
that critical shift had then happened around that period of time. Memory was a crucial point that
had motivated the collectors. These collections have brought up the potential of making up ―the
immortality of culture‖ (Findlen, 2000, p. 173). The memory of art had been used for more than
just remembering things. Memory is a sort of weakness, and it also takes on divine power,
providing the sense of true knowledge. Memory is not history, although museums make history
more visible. Susan Crane stated, ―Top down, individual system, open up public theory, to elite
than the street‖ (Findlen, 2000). This is a gesture, in which is more radical than French.
Hierarchy is involved in whatever kind of knowledge is contained, and some museums give this

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more sense. A French writer, Darbel Bourdeieu, had written a book named ―The Love of Art‖
that provided information as a fresh hole describing the museum (Mclsaac, 2008).
Thirdly, the public museum is an educational institution in which had belonged to the
French culture and was first redefined within the French civilization. The French Revolution
crises had happened once the French stole Italian and especially German art collections as a
symbol of victory from the European countries. This conflict had caused a strong German and
Italian nationalism in the 19th and 20th centuries, and had reshaped the German art museum
culture. The task of collecting historical objects had awaked the history of Germany, such as the
―ruins or archival materials that were suddenly more valuable‖ (Crane, p. 7). Germans were
reaching out through publicities and had wanted the public education project to have an idea of
what German people would look like, as well as their national community, their most likely
moral basis, beauty and ethical context, self improvement as individuals through museums.
The French wanted to create a citizenship, and the public education was a moral issue,
just as same as with the Germans who wanted to do the same. Kant, a famous philosopher, thinks
that the capacity of imagination initially expresses art, so that a sense of an odd overwhelming
supply would make productivity in constructive order in some sense (Mclsaac, 2008). Under the
French occupation, Germany had lost its historical heritage, and couldn‘t find the unity of
Germany and of the German identity. The deep emotional impact on them is that there are
reasons that separate the category of art. The German means were hard to explain in the 18th
century. They were a cultural nation, but they weren‘t politically established then. The historical
artifacts and objects were going along with the desire towards the German identity as a cultural
greatness. The converted items from the Greek and the Roman Empire were to adapt and
integrate towards the German heritage that would prove the idea of harmony and freedom
because the Greeks were supposed to represent the ideal of society. Refining museums were the
very first museums in Germany, such as the Altes Museum in Berlin and the Glyptothek in
Munich. These were created after many classical readings for making up the German recovery,
and were built as very clear national achievements as pride (Mclsaac, 2008). Firstly, German
museums didn‘t politicize democratically compared to some French museums. The
representation function is quite obvious that using museums give a larger, more patronizing, and
educational result towards the public, which also shows a more rational exposure towards them.
The museum can a create sense of values that is called a social sphere quotation. People come
together and discuss their cultural values and institutions, in which they can also share their
identities and desires.
The museum chooses the displays that benefit from whichever decisions an old, yet dead,
master had made. Science museums and a number of art museums have been making educational
models that had then educated the public. Museums mainly try to reach closer towards
democratic versions. Museums could easily sell out, which is not a huge concern, although it
should still be able to manage an attraction towards the public in many historical ways. The
museum had sometimes stepped back with whichever state wanting either to educate their public
or to lead them away from consciousness. The creator of a museum would also know how to use
ideology and aesthetics; for example, Schinkel preserved ―the world of classical perfection in his
rotunda‖ (Crimp, 1995- p. 301). The museum was trained to educate, but being bias is something
the makers of a museum normally lead away. There‘s also some political sense that explains and
claims that the creator of a museum would be superior. The French set up museums with bias,
and they are just as well inherited as the history of the Europeans. They compete history with
arts, and would even convert a religious painting to art. Collecting art is also imperial to the
French, in which was the revolution and was forwarded as a project. The western culture claimed
that it was universal, and had also assumed that their culture was great enough to instantly
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explain. Some would work ahead to explain their items in new ways, such as the change of
Louvre, ―an artist in the role of education of the Republicans,‖ wanting to convey the idea that
museums hadn‘t existed before (McClellan, p. 107). ―Museums are indeed very powerful though,
and also make something invisible.‖ If you aren‘t an expert in a particular field, you won‘t be
able to completely understand what this means (Mclsaac, 2008).
In conclusion, many museum scholars now say that the museum is also an exclusory
institution, in which exists a name, or title, for everybody, although small and elite. The question
of perception asks: something may be going on, but how would we know the idea of this
transformation? The museum fixes objective of the arts rather than killing it or actively engaging
and creating art, now defined as ―the vast liberation of art‖ (Nochlin, 1972, p. 17). One of the
most dynamic items in a collection is when it connects one to the other. Placement of art in a
new context is really critical because it doesn‘t help with the search of a category, and it also
doesn‘t have anything to do with work that uses an old function as much as it is possible, unless
it is fixed and transformed to a ―unified corpus of knowledge‖ (Greenhill, 1992, p. 17) Most
artifacts come from religious places, such as churches, but are exhibited in many other ways.
Historical and artistic consumptions exist when the implications are made with solid materials,
and these are also much more fragile. The object may have once belonged with religious
purposes, but it hasn‘t longer been useful this way.
More museums now use a technological-finding way of connection. Physical
arrangement of some museums may not even be able to be done. But this isn‘t a resolute
conclusion. It‘s hard to give a straightforward definition and figure out what their roles are in a
community, as well as their functions and potentials. The educational role and value is now more
important, and in which are altered in perception in contribution to knowledge, history and
culture in the 21st century. The museum is highly influenced of awaking and creating a nation,
for instance, it has created and reshaped the German nation. The understanding of a universal
museum had been started and created by underlining the unity of the world, which had used to be
in a completely different and opposed perception than in the 20th century. The definition of art
was changed from the accepting definition of fine arts. The curiosity cabinet has been shifted
throughout history, and collection had started to form what is now a universal story (Mclsaac,
2008). But now, there is disagreement between scholars.
Museums seem to be more of a magical memory to ordinary citizens, and more people
had been interested in visiting them in the last 30 years. Almost anything may have turned out to
be a museum artifact, such as a farm, castle, cottages, warehouses etc. But change is very
extreme and rapid, and now many people love and visit the museum. Creating the museum
supposedly stabilized the French revolution; although later on the outcome was that the museum
helped the society understand the true meaning of a historical object. The world is now a better
place with public museums; so now the assumption of killing art is meaningless.

References:

Crane, Susan A. Collecting and Historical Consciousness in Early Nineteenth- Century


Germany, Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London, pp 7.

Crimp, Douglas. ( 1995). ― The Postmodern Museum.‖ On the Museum‘s Ruins. Cambridge:
MIT, 1995, pp 301.
321
Findlen, Paula. ( 2000). ― The Modern Muses: Collecting and the Cult of Remembrance in
Renissance Italy‖ Museum and Memory ed. Susan A. Crane. Stanford UP. 2000. pp 173.

Greenhill, Elilean Hooper. ( 1992). ― What wis a Museum‖ and ― The ‗ Cabinet of the World‘‖.
Museum and the Shaping of Knowledge. London: Routledge, 1992, pp 17.

Jonathan, John. 2003. The Guardian. Enlightenment: Discovering the World in the 18th Century
is at the British Museum, London WC1. Details: 020-7323 8000.

Mclsaac, Peter. (2008), " Curiosity and Different Orders of Things: Collecting Before the
Museum", Lecture/Class, York University, unpublished. 10 September 2008.
Mclsaac, Peter. (2008), " The Public Museum Takes Form 1", Lecture/Class, York University,
unpublished. 17 September 2008.
Mclsaac, Peter. (2008), " The Public Museum Takes Form 2", Lecture/Class, York University,
unpublished. 24 September 2008.
Mclsaac, Peter. (2008), " Schinkel‘s Museum in Berlin: The Prototeype of the Modern Art
Museum", Lecture/Class, York University, unpublished. 8 October 2008.

McClellan, Andrew. Inventing the Louvre: Art, Politics, and the Origins of the the Modern
Museum. Tufts University. University of California Press, pp 107.

Nochlin, Linda. (1972). ―Museum and Radicals: A History of Emergencies.‖ In: Museum in
Crisis, ed. Brian O‘Doherty. New York: Goerge Braziller, 1972, pp 17.

Footnote

I like Rodin‘s romanticism influenced Rilke‘s poem. Rilke seems to have learned how Rodin's
life has been modest, simple, and, except for a few friends' society, retired, even solitary; his
work has been an ever wider-reaching diffusion of plastic forms of beauty that now radiate, and
will continue to radiate, among men. Rodin was one of the best Renascence artists who worked
with the freedom, and yet with a fidelity to the Nature that give to his productions a permanent
interest. Rilke discovered Rodin's natural genius through his studio museum that ‖there is a cast
of panther, of Greek workmanship, scarcely the size of a hand ( the original is in the medallion
case of the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris).‖ Poetry was highly influenced on Rodin‘s work
after he read Dante‘s Divine Comedy and then he passed to Baudelaire. There is the
subordination of form to the main idea and spiritual meaning in all Rodin's statuary in which
based on this conception of art. This is much of the nude, form,
even so controlled, strives, and strives victoriously for equality. He is a romantic artist, more
agreement with Nature; even he says I am not a Romanticist. Rodin‘s Romanticism influenced
on Rilke‘s ideas and poem writing that‘s why the museum landscape revealed as Nature oriented.

Rodin used his studio-museum, public museums and trips to places such as Chartres cathedral to
teach Rilke what Rilke called ―learning to see‖ and ―how to work constantly.‖ Discuss what
Rilke seems to have learned, considering these and other factors such as how Rilke worked with
fragments and a variety of sites and venues in and around Paris to construct his poems (note, for

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instance, that the poem ―The Panther‖ refers to the Jardin des Plantes, but Rilke wrote that a
statue of a panther in the Bibliotheque nationale also influenced the poem).

Rilke constructs his poem in Paris that maintains the distance between the eye and I. The poet is
isolated from world, a collector of pictures, but separate from them that was a turning outward in
his life. Rilke rejects generality by turning to existing things as an essential. Rilke worked with
many venues that are most of them universal phenomena of sculptural and pictorial
representation around Paris and why he gave to them a poetic description. Rilke constructed his
poem as an existentialist who defend that every interpretation diminishes the sonnet; intelligible
essence is a limit on existence. Rilke argues that essence must be unreal, a defense we construct
against the thing. Meaning for an existentialist is an accident that so poets take words. A poem's
existence is accidental both formally and materially, for both poetic form and matter have to do
with meaning. It means the formal cause and the material cause are in the line of essence. When
we consider a poem's form its shape and sound or consider a poem's matter its ideas and its
images, we take as given that the poem exists. I think, Rilke constructs poem based on the idea
of existence is not really an accident of being, and the being of a poem must involve its
deliberate intention to be understood.

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Chapter 45

Breaking the Wall for Refugees

The South Asian Women‘s Centre is a voluntary non-profit women‘s social service
organization located in Toronto. Founded in 1982, and incorporated in 1985, the South Asian
Women‘s Centre is an organization which provides support for newcomer South Asian women
who are seeking assistance. The organizations primary focus is to increase women‘s awareness
of themselves, and to assist them with developing to their full potential by increasing their
economic, social, cultural and political standing in society. (SAWC, 2008) Through the provision
of programs and services, the South Asian Women‘s center strives to provide an environment
where women can work together to promote their well-being. (SAWC, 2008) The program is
made to ―nurture the economic independence and self esteem of women while breaking the
isolation and alienation of women by providing social and support activities.‖ (SAWC, 2008)
Promoting access to full participation in society by addressing barriers to women‘s equality such
as employment counseling where women can receive help in order to find suitable employment
and training opportunities, the legal clinic where women can gain legal aid advice, the
multicultural women‘s wellness groups, the senior women‘s group, youth groups, food sharing,
and sewing projects. Evidently, the South Asian Women‘s Centre has a history of empowering
women and the larger community through information dissemination and educational activities
(SAWC, 2008).
The Center takes a holistic approach to the services they provide. The goal is to enable
and empower women in developing skills to participate more fully in Canadian Society. The
Center provides services within an anti-discriminatory, anti-oppressive framework as they are
available to most types of women regardless of their age, race, and social standing. The SAWC
represents the diversity of South Asian culture and accordingly serve out unique client and
member needs. They work towards the empowerment of women and the overall development of
the community (SAWC, 2008). The Center has made some program expansion and
organizational development. The SAWC staff are some of the best trained in the city, and have a
unique expertise in the issues related to the South Asian women and their families. This is the
primary reason that the SAWC continues to see a number of returning clients who also refer
additional clients to the center. Based on clients need, services are provided in seventeen south
Asian languages including English, Tamil, Hindi, Gujarati, Bengali, Marathi, Sinhalese, and
Tibetan. In addition, there has been a substantial increase in the number of non-South Asian
women and men accessing the services. They have developed a strong partnership with
organizations such as East Scarborough Storefront, West End agencies Steering Committee,
Skills for Change, Scadding Court Community Center, St. Christopher House, and METRAC.
These partnerships allows the SAWC to further expand and raise awareness amongst
communities. The SAWC also provides services in Malvern and Scarborough via their satellite
offices at the Malvern Family resource center, and Scarborough Storefront both partner agencies.
The future of the South Asian Women‘s Centre is looking bright as they believe that in
the years to come the center will continue to build strongly on its foundation of community
support. They will also continue to serve South Asian women and also serve as a catalyst in
creating a better community for all South Asian Women. (SAWC, 2008) Evidently, the Centre
provides a safe environment, where women have access to resources that help them make
informed decisions, and take control of their lives. This centre receives funding from a settlement

324
program administered by Citizenship Immigration Canada called the Immigration Settlement and
Adaptation Program.
The Immigrant Settlement and Adaptation Program is a program that provides funding to
immigrant settlement programs such as the South Asian Women‘s Centre. It is a federally funded
project through Citizenship and Immigration Canada. ―The objective of ISAP is to help
immigrants settle and integrate into Canadian society so they may become participating members
as soon as possible.‖ (ISAP, 2007) In Canada, many newcomers face numerous dillema‘s upon
their transition icluding employment, health care, and legal matters. (Das Gupta, 2009) The
course readings suggest that immigrant women who are academically skilled workers with
professional experience in their country of their country of origin are "...either unemployed or
pressured into non skilled jobs, which demanded the use of their hands rather than their minds."
(Mojab, 2008, p.97) Most immigrant women enter the labour force as "...the market did not value
their skills as equal to or fitting what is known as the Canadian experience." (Mojab, 2008,
p.100) Evidently, there is a substantial need of assistance within the new comer communities
properly shifting into desired employment. ISAP goes on to fund addition employment services
to make the transition into Canada easier for new comers. In addition the health issues in Canada
have proven to be problematic in regards to new comers as ―…the delivery of appropriate health
care which includes aspects of prevention, education and engagement of patients in the
maintenance of their health and well-being involves extensive communication.‖ (Mojab, 2008,
p.100) This means that the relationship between the health officials and the patient is very crucial
in the healthcare system and is obviously obsolete. ―The cultural and linguistic diversity of many
modern immigration receiving countries can challenge the communication abilities and
capacities of health care providers and institutions.‖ (Giri, 1998, p.127)
In addition issues in the criminal justice system affect the newcomer population such as
racial profiling, language barriers, and cultural differences in terms of adaptation. Many
newcomers face problems adapting to the criminal justice system in Canada as many of them
become victims of racial profiling or some newcomers who do not understand the legal services
in Canada end up having unnecessary encounters with police officials due to the barrier of not
being able to proper adjust and understand Canadian laws and practices. (Fances et al, 2000,
p.130) These issues, along with many other explored in this report are recognized in the ISAP
program as it was developed in order to assists immigrants with their settlement process. The
Immigrant Settlement and Adaptation Program provides direct services to newcomers in Canada,
these services include needs assessment, referrals to community services, information and
orientation, interpretation and translation, solution focused counseling, and employment services.
(ISAP, 2007) New-comers needs are assessed by settling goals and establishing priorities in
order to develop realistic plans in their settlement process. In addition newcomers are referred to
resources in the community to address their immediate settlement needs. (ISAP, 2007) These
services included housing, health care, legal services, job search, and education. The referral
services is the category of which SAWC falls under. The Immigrant Settlement and Adaptation
Program often refers immigrants to programs they fund. Information and guidance is also
provided to the new comers regarding adaption skills which they need every day as an
orientaiton. (ISAP, 2007) English and French translation and interpretation services are made
available to address immediate settlement language needs. (ISAP, 2007) ISAP also assists new
comers by helping them asses their problems and suggesting possible solutions to them such as
family reunification. The employment services ISAP provides is related to job search, resume
writing, and program referrals. (ISAP, 2007) Evidently the service provided by the ISAP is a
program focuses on the new immigrants immediate settlement needs.

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The people that are eligible for the ISAP program are permanent residents of Canada who hold
the Permanent Resident Card, Government Assisted Refugees (GARs) only following the
abasement of the Resettlement assistance Program (RAP). (ISAP, 2007) Also any individuals
who have been allowed to remain in Canada, including temporary resident permit holders, non-
immigrant foreign domestic workers in Canada, such as the live-in caregiver program, other
eligible immigrants, and temporary visa holders. Canadian citizens are not eligible for the
Immigrant Settlement and Adaptation Program. (ISAP, 2007)
The issue being explored in this report is in relation to the Immigrant Settlement and
Adaptation Program and the need to provide additional funding to the South Asian Women‘s
Centre in order to extend their services to all types of claimants including newly registered
citizens, registered and undocumented workers. The methods employed in order to explore this
issue include identifying the agency and its limitations, exploring the problematic issues while
relating it back to the themes of the course. The research has been done primarily through class
lectures, SAWC presentations, course readings, and other academic sources related to the SAWC
and ISAP. The information obtained will address the need for further funding by the Immigrant
Settlement and Adaptation Program to a particular referral programs; the South Asian Women‘s
Centre. Therefore, in this report the limitations in the services provided by the Immigrant
Settlement and Adaptation Program in relation to the South Asian Women‘s Centre will be
assessed as they are not based on needs, but on status.
The current programs offered by the South Asian Women‘s Centre include the
―Settlement Program‖. (Rabindranath, p.8) The purpose of this program is that it is a tool to
better help immigrant women settle and adapt into ―a new country and culture‖. (Rabindranath,
p.8) The method by which this program seeks to help settle immigrant, and refugee women into
Canadian culture is to provide interpretation and translation courses, as well as individual
solution focused counseling support. (Rabindranath, p.8) Moreover, it should also be noted that
the settlement program also offers information and referral, crisis intervention, client support,
advocacy and health education, and violence prevention programs to further help with settlement
issues. (Rabindranath, p.8) According to the South Asian women‘s society from the 2007-2008
year alone the South Asian Women‘s Centre was able to provide this program to 13,285
individuals with 39,855 units of service to said individuals. (Rabindranath, p.8) The importance
of the Settlement Program is that it provides an ―outreach‖ to South Asian women looking for
help within Canadian society. (Rabindranath, p.9) By using an outreach worker as well as events
such as an open house, (Rabindranath, p.9) the SAWC is able to help get the attention of those
who may require the aforementioned services.
Other programs provided by the SAWC include programs for young women
(Rabindranath, p.9). The SAWC notes that women between the ages of thirteen to twenty of
South Asian descent are at ―high risk‖ when it comes to abuse and violence. (Rabindranath, p.9)
To counter act this SAWC uses funding to help young women address their problems by
providing a safe environment, which encourages young women to come together and speak
about, and share their issues. (Rabindranath, p.9) Furthermore, the youth programs at the SAWC
also encourage young women to participate in events such as the ―Masala Mehndi Masti
Festival‖. (Rabindranath, p.9) Events (such as the one aforementioned) are often sponsored by
support groups other than SAWC such as ISAP. (Rabindranath, p.9) Thus, by encouraging young
women to participate in these programs, the SWAC notes that it is better able to help young
women ―build their own support networks, and enhance their self-confidence‖. (Rabindranath,
p.9)
The health and wellness program is yet another program created by the South Asian
Women‘s centre to provide women from a wide rage of cultures help with regard to issues
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related to health and wellness. (Rabindranath, p.9) By using group sessions the SAWC is able to
identify issues that may plague the quality of life for South Asian women living in Toronto.
(Rabindranath, p.9) It should also be noted that sessions for these group meeting are held in
languages that range from Tamil, Hindi, Urdu, and Punjabi. (Rabindranath, p.9)
The Sewing Project is as its name suggests a program under taken by the SAWC in order to
teach the craft of sewing to interested individuals. (Rabindranath, p.10) Though this program
may not seem like much on the surface, its true goal is to ―serve as an economic and self-
empowerment tool towards self-sufficiency‖. (Rabindranath, p.10) What this means is that
though this program the SAWC seeks to teach individuals a skill that can not only be convenient,
but also reassuring, confidence building and money earning as well.
The SAWC notes that this program has in fact been successful, because as many as ―ten
women have been provided the self confidence skills, and sewing training‖. (Rabindranath, p.10)
In addition, the SAWC notes that the aforementioned women have come together to form a
collective group of their own. (Rabindranath, p.10) This demonstration of both training and later
on team building shows that programs such as the sewing project can in fact, be considered
successful to their undertakers.
Finally legal education workshops are yet another program offered by the SAWC, in
order to better help serve South Asian women settle into Toronto. (Rabindranath, p.10) Offered
in five different languages, the SAWC has held ten workshops (preceded over by lawyers from
the community) in order to better help serve South Asian women settle in to life in Toronto.
(Rabindranath, p.10). Now that we have seen the programs offered by the SAWC a method by
which the underlying importance of these programs can been seen would be to compare the
programs being offered by the SAWC to the need of immigrant settlers outlined in the various
course readings. An example can be found in the case of refugees entering Canada seeking help.
Though the terms ―refugees‖ and ―immigrant‖ are different, it should be noted that the SAWC
renders its services to everyone and anyone who needs them, and that this organization (the
SAWC) turns no one away. (Das Gupta, 2009) In Soojin Yu‘s, Estelle Ouellet‘s, and Angelyn
Warmington‘s article Refugee Integration in Canada: A Survey of Empirical Evidence and
Existing Services, the plight and problem of refugees who come to Canada are both
demonstrated and explained in detail. For example this article notes that refugees who come to
Canada face issues such as language barriers. (Yu et al, 2007, p.24) The articles notes that the
problem can be accurately described as 69 percent of government sponsored refugees, and
privately sponsored refugees being unable to speak either English or French upon their arrival to
Canada. (Yu et al, 2007, p.24) The article also goes on to note that this handicap can be directly
related to discrimination and difficulty in finding work as well as contributing to settlement
issues. (Yu et al, 2007, p.24) Furthermore, the article list metal health issues as yet another issue
that may plague refugees who enter Canada. (Yu et al, 2007, p.25) In the case of mental health
issues, reason for these problems among refugees have been described as steaming from issues
such as torture, and trauma suffered before the move to Canada, as well as issues steaming from
―difficult migration experiences‖. (Yu et al, 2007, p.25) In terms of resolving the issues that face
refuges that come to Canada, the Canadian government has put forward solutions that do not
always solve problems. In the case of language issues, there are federal government language
instruction programs in place. However, these programs are not available to refugee claimants.
(Yu et al, 2007, p.24) Likewise, in the case of refugees with health issues there is an Interim
Federal Health Program available. (Yu et al, 2007, p.25) However, this program does not cover
any type of mental health issues that may be faced by refugees. (Yu et al, 2007, p.25) Therefore,
in order to help solve their problems, refugees with no where else to turn are then forced to look
locally for help and assistance with their issues (be they language or health). (Yu et al, 2007,
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p.25) It is for this reason that the programs offered by the SAWC are so important. Though the
SAWC may be only a local organization within the city of Toronto, it is evident that this
organization can easily become a hope for people other than South Asian Women, people who
have little to nowhere else to turn for assistance. (Yu et al, 2007, p.25)
With these handicaps in mind we can now reflect back and see the impact that SAWC
programs such as the settlement program and the Health and Wellness Program can have on the
lives of refugees in Canada. (Rabindranath, p.9) It is here that we should also remember that
though the SAWC may deal with South Asian immigrant women they also do not refuse service
to claimants other than South Asian immigrants women as well (Das Gupta, 2009), thus we can
consider the effects of these examples to be valid.
In conclusion it is easy to see that the programs offered by the South Asian Women‘s
Society are in fact numerous and far reaching. One of the primary reasons that it is possible to
describe the effect of a local organization as far reaching is because, of the SAWC‘s own noted
(seemingly creed like motto) to turn no one away and provide service to all who require it (Das
Gupta, 2009). Due to this motto the South Asian Women‘s Centre is able to go beyond its own
name and help not just immigrant women in Toronto, but also refugees and others in the
community. Therefore, it would be a vital asset for ISAP to provide additional funding to
programs like the South Asian Women‘s Centre in order to extend their services to all types of
new comers in order to provide an efficient and effective transition program for them.
Although the SAWC provides many excellent services to South Asian women who seek
help, there are limitations to their services which make it difficult for the SAWC to provide them
to those in need. These limitations include personal shortage, funding shortage, service
restrictions for citizens, refugee claimants, healthcare eligibility and much more. These
limitations are outlined by ISAP and the Canadian government for legal and structural purposes
(Das Gupta, 2009). Other agencies have been constructed and setup for certain restricted groups -
-such as citizens-- who are not supposed to continue to use the SAWC once they become
citizens. Even with such restrictions the SAWC still attempts help in any way they can due to
their program values. However, by providing assistance to non-financially supported groups,
monetary flexibility becomes less elastic. The SAWC still insists funding is not a major issue as
they go out of their way to provide service for those in need –eligible or not (Das Gupta, 2008).
Moreover, to accommodate the financial liability which the extended assistance creates, a
donation program has been implemented. Nonetheless, more funding would help the SAWC
immensely as they already are taking on more responsibility without any further funding
provided by ISAP.
Refugee claimants are the most vulnerable of the restricted groups; as mentioned before,
many communities do not have services to accommodate and assist these people as there is an
extreme lack of support due to their legal status. (Das Gupta, 2009) These people tend to be
isolated when they arrive to Canada due to the lack of family support, available services, and
language barriers. Evidently, they naturally seek assistance and when agencies such as the
SAWC assist newcomers but are not officially able to support refugee claimants there is an issue
of a marginalized society.(Das Gupta, 2008). These people are often denied refugee claimant
status due to a pending application, a rejected application from the past, if they came to Canada
from a designated safe country, or if they are deemed inadmissible due to serious criminal
activity or human rights violations. Several other possibilities do exist for the rejection of refugee
claimant status, these people are thus denied stay and asylum in Canada, and are lower than
refugee claimants in status. These people much like the refugee claimants are denied service
while they are in Canada, like the refugee claimants. Only until these two groups (refugee

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claimants and ―illegal aliens‖) are deemed official refugees by the Canadian Federal Court in a
"judicial review", will they become eligible for the SAWC.
Many South Asian women tend to turn to the SAWC as they have either been referred or
have done their research to find such agency which perfectly suits their needs. However, the
SAWC has been prohibited by ISAP to provide any sort of assistance to people who do not have
an official refugee status, or permanent status. (Das Gupta, 2009) Nonetheless, regardless of
status or lack of funding, the SAWC does not turn any individual down. Such aptitude to provide
assistance is excellent and a rare commodity in this day and age. However, it does not go without
penalty, by servicing non-eligible people, resources which would be used for regular operations
become shortened. (Das Gupta, 2009) This creates a monetary and servicing conflict throughout
the entire agency. Naturally, you might think why doesn‘t SAWC just apply for more funding?
Although it is not that simple, ISAP determines funding amounts based on monthly audits on the
serviceable clients, refugee claimants are not the responsibility of the SAWC neither are citizens.
These two groups are the biggest non-funded groups which the SAWC still services whenever
they have an opportunity out of goodwill.
Immigrants, refugees and permanent status branded people are eligible for help from the
SAWC for up to three years before they officially become citizens and are forced to integrate to
society. Funding for these clients is halted, as they should be now comfortable enough to join
society on their own (Das Gupta, 2008). This is not the case for many who become citizens after
utilizing the services of the SAWC. Many return back to the SAWC because, they are still not
comfortable dealing with life in Canada as an immigrant. Thus, the services of the SAWC are
still required by many. This puts both a financial strain on the SAWC, and physical strain on
staff of the agency that loves to help those in need. There are other services and agencies who
provide community services for these women however, the trust and relationship which has been
established with the SAWC is very hard to let go of. Thus no matter how many other agencies or
services they try, many women/clients still come back to the SAWC simply due to the
relationship and comfort level developed with the SAWC when they first came to Canada.
One other key limitation to the SAWC is assisting those with mental health issues. They
work side by side with CAMH (Centre for Addiction and Mental Health) to provide the best
possible assistance. However, as previously mentioned it is very hard for these clients to switch
agencies as they feel even more alienated and, in some cases this can even worsen the condition
of a client. The most common type of mental health issues come as a direct result of depression
(80% of mental health cases in the SAWC), inability resettle, and isolation. (Das Gupta, 2009)
Some of these cases can also lead to suicide. SAWC does not have the funding or staff to assists
clients with mental health, however, they still manage to squeeze time out of their busy schedule
to assists these clients. When deemed necessary, SAWC complete an assessment on the client
and an attempt to refer the client to professional‘s for better assistance is made. Though mental
health issues are recognized by ISAP (a key sponsor of SAWC) (Das Gupta, 2009), funding is
still not provided which creates an appalling situation for SAWC since they try not to turn down
any client under any circumstance, even if it means to personally help the clients outside the
center.
Legal matters are another key concern and limitation for SAWC as many of their clients
are relatively new to the country and are not aware of many of the laws and regulations. Some
clients find themselves in legal dilemmas which need to be solved, however, without knowledge
of the Canadian legal system, the English/French language, and procedures; it becomes a very
frustrating ordeal to manage. These people turn to the SAWC for assistance; which intern –
without funding— arrange for a lawyer to come visit the center twice a month for general

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assistance. (Das Gupta, 2008) A few popular cases which the volunteering SAWC lawyer assists
clients at the center with include; housing, traffic tickets, and legal abusive matters.
Thus, the major limitations the SAWC is facing in regards to servicing its clients.
Funding for the sake of profit is not the issue, this is not a business. Funding is relevant to
provide the appropriate services, not for revenue as this is a non-profit organization. (Das Gupta,
2009) The SAWC wants recognition from its government for the hard work and extra effort that
they are contributing to the community as a whole. Currently the government‘s program
structure seems to be causing a lot of the limitations to the SAWC in regarding to funding and
limitations. Acknowledgement and flexibility on the government‘s behalf would solve many of
the SAWC limitations and provide better assistances to those new to one of the most diverse
countries in the world.
In addition, there are crucial limitation problems existing in the Immigrant Settlement
and Adaptation Program because it is only assisting immigrants in settling and integrating, and
expects them to integrate into Canadian society three years before becoming citizens. ISAP
ignores the vast majority of the newcomer population, such as refugee claimants, undocumented
workers, and naturalized new citizens, that is not eligible to serve ISAP clients and is thought to
be either landing the immigrant or conventional refugee status, or becoming legal temporarily
workers. The ISAP serving area is also problematic, by assuming that newcomers are only in
need of ―reception, orientation, interpretation, counseling and help with job hunting.‖ (ISAP,
2008; Sekhar, 2009). Moreover, health and mental health issues have not yet been mentioned in
the program, even though ―80% of ISAP users are struggling with issues such as depression,
resettlement, and isolation‖ (ISAP, 2008; Sekhar, 2009). Therefore, even though settlement
workers attempt to refer (aforementioned) individuals to professionals in a timely manner
without funding, they are also ineligible to prepare an assessment for services rendered (ISAP,
2008; Sekhar, 2009). The ISAP policy contains racism, sexism, discrimination, and encourages
inequality that amounts to cheap labour exploitation.
ISAP‘s eligibility criteria clearly mention that ISAP‘s funded agencies should serve only
limited newcomers (ISAP, 2008). According to many surveys, 35 % of Toronto‘s new
population is non-white, an ―outsider‖ yet refugee claimants and undocumented workers are the
most vulnerable of the population among newcomers. Many ethnic communities don‘t have
services for the refugee community, or undocumented or legal migrant workers. Refuge
claimants and undocumented workers, also categorized as Live in Caregivers, have been isolated
for many years and are unable to connect to society because, of the lack of community help,
family support, and issues pertaining to the language barrier. Before the legal policy had
changed, the 1985 Charters of Refuge Convention had declared the welcome of any others, but
after the 11th of September, the Refugee Claimants weren‘t covered in law. Every newcomer had
once come as refugees to Canada in different periods of time, but once they begin to establish,
the real-born Canadians shut their doors in their faces with their backs turned (Das Gupta, 2009).
Family reunification is the key to successful integration and ―has become a pillar of Canada‘s
immigration program‖ (Telegdi, 2008-p94). Parents and extended family members are very
important and provide financial help to struggling relatives. Many immigrants, refugees, and
migrant workers bring their elderly relatives with the visitor visa who became undocumented
workers or refugee claimants needing to take care of their children. Many elderly newcomers do
not have the official status to get services from ISAP, especially women who need more ESL
classes, with having limited job opportunities available. Many immigrants and refugees have
been struggling for a long period of time to pass the language barrier; employers make up
excuses such as the Canadian work experience and the occasional problem of another‘s accent
even after becoming a Canadian citizen. They struggle much whether being migrant workers or
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citizens, and most of them being women (Mojab, 2008). Employers simply reject newcomers
without even reviewing their resumes. Newcomers have therefore ended up working for
temporary job agencies that provide labour jobs, though these jobs were thought to give the
Canadian experience by the newcomers while they do not (Mojab, 2008). Most employers
assume that newcomers do not have the Canadian experience, meaning that they aren‘t qualified
enough. But of course they cannot have the experience unless they are hired in a real and skilled
job.
Immigrants and newly naturalized citizens past education and experiences are
disregarded for in Canada. Systemic discrimination still exists, which then places barriers for
controlling all immigrations and segregations by the government. Immigrants are forced to live
in certain social locations, and ―the space- ghetto is socially constructed‖ (Das Gupta, 2008).
Credentials are not always the issue; the lack of the language barrier can be huge, and many
other barriers such as age, race, colour, and gender exist. Even if immigrants have an English
education and are fluent in English, often the language barrier is used as an excuse. The gender
issue is especially important, with most of the sponsored population being women who are
unfairly threatened. ―Women in colour have the toughest time finding work‖ (Taylor, 2008)
whether they‘re citizens or migrant workers. A woman is not seen as a breadwinner according to
many immigrants‘ family cultures. ―The lack of Canadian experience is a technical problem; it
has, at the same time, racial, ethnic, and class dimension‖ (Mojab, 2008). ―They say that accent
is a problem but in reality that is discrimination‖ (Das Gupta, 2009). Many employers have
blamed the immigrants‘ languages, accents, or the Canadian experience as lame excuses rather
than saying just the word of discrimination. ISAP‘s limitations refuse to serve new citizens but
their struggle never ends shortly just in three years.
ISAP does not cover undocumented workers, even though 35% of laborers are
undocumented workers in construction and agricultural industries. Canada does have third world
country citizens who are subsidizing the country‘s economy with working lower wages in jobs.
Their lives are vulnerable because if they are sick or have their work permits expired, they can be
easily deported. There is an argument on employment situations and bargaining rights because
―Canadian citizen employers have common structural conditions that promote systemic
exploitation and racialization comes into play‖ (K. Stasiulis; B. Bakan, 2005). The Canadian
system including ISAP is not equally treating domestic workers and favors the gate keeping
structure. Since the human trafficking problem has been raised when some temporary worker
agencies have been tried to exploit more of these vulnerable despaired people in need for a
decent job, it uses the oppression of inequality, discrimination, and sexism within the Canadian
policies. Migrant workers are spending almost 25% of their earnings to employment insurances,
pension plans, and taxes which never are brought back to them. Furthermore, many
undocumented workers can not meet requirements to apply for the immigrant status to become
eligible for ISAP. There are two-hundred-thousand undocumented workers in Canada (Das
Gupta, 2009). Most domestic worker women do not break the silence of what they have been
through in order to bring their family to Canada. Even though many women have been sexually
assaulted by employers who do domestic work in Canada, they ―already had children whom they
were supporting‖ and sent money or barrels of food to feed them (Jakubowski, 2002-p 62). They
could apply to the landed immigrant status with conditions such as the ability to manage
finances, pass medical and security exams, as well as support their families. For example, a
living arrangement requirement allows cutting off for accommodation costs from some earnings,
and forces Live in Caregivers to live in bad conditions to do extra work such as to ―not only look
after children but as well as polishing shoes and looking after animals‖ (Das Gupta, 2009). In
addition, domestic workers can not be unionized and go to advocacy to seek their rights, such as
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strikes, etc. When they finish their jobs they can be deported; for example, ten-thousand workers
were unfortunately deported in 2004. They have no access to social services and no political
rights to vote in elections; basically, they don‘t have any rights at all (Das Gupta, 2009). The
importance of status is evident to ISAP, but the numerous limitations of status evidently suggest
further funding to referral programs such as the SAWC.
Moreover, there are eligible criteria to receive funding through contribution agreements
for the purpose of delivering ISAP; the recipient must be a business, a non-profit corporation, a
non-governmental organization, a community group, an educational institution (including school
boards, districts and divisions), an individual, a provincial/territorial government, or a municipal
government. Mainstream agencies get a lot, while multi communities earn far less from ISAP.
This funding is more likely segregated and is limited in access. Mainstream agencies are swiftly
then taking over all. Ethno communities are also very discouraging. Mainstream is a stately
funded, large established agency and institution. Some discrepancies also happen, for instance,
settlement service workers may give services to refugee claimants without getting funded.
Provincial funding is serving refugee claimants, but according to ISAP, the federal level is not
supported. What the ration of this kind of decision is unknown. ISAP is much larger than
provincial funding. Ethno communities and mainstream agencies are making partnership
problematic, including education institutions. For example, only mainstream agencies have
gotten ISAP funds and are working on multicultural communities in Alberta. SAWC is a small
grass-root organization, so it is not a mainstream. Many agencies are moving towards the
mainstream agency type and establish hierarchy in these bureaucratic based programs.
Funds are limited; sometimes providing funding means that the agencies receiving
become part of the government (Das Gupta, 2009). ISAP applicants also must qualify under the
―Pre-Qualification Process‖ prior to their funding being approved by the Federal Department.
Many agencies have the option to cancel multi-year funding agreements where there is evidence
of failure to meet objectives, targets, and/or non-compliance agreed upon terms and conditions.
Therefore, if the SAWC does receive additional funding, the program does have the option to
cancel it if failure occurs. (ISAP, 2008).
In conclusion, ISAP contains direct and indirect systemic discrimination and racism that
are highly critical regarding the lack of services to newcomers just because ―its history of racism
is often ignored‖ in Canada (McLaren, 2004). There are still incompetence, bias behaviour, and
abuse in the Canadian immigration and the refugee settlement services that are not based on
needs, but on status. Canadians should remember that ―they themselves or their ancestors came
to Canada as refugees‖ (Dench, 2006-p 12). Refugee Claimants are then excluded from many
federal funded integration services, despite being ―eligible only to some services in certain
provinces, for example, Ontario‘s Newcomer Settlement Program‖ (Yu, 2007). Even some
citizens could not access and obtain ISAP services because ―Canadian born children whose
refuge claimants and undocumented workers parents have uncertain status‖ (Bernhard, 2007).
ISAP does not fund ethno specific communities because they are not mainstream agencies and
serve broad wide of the population. ISAP also does not take care of undocumented workers,
refugee claimants, and citizens with its limitations and leave this population to vulnerable
conditions. ISAP‘s regulations even contain sexism because the vast majority of the migrant or
undocumented migrant workers selected are men and ISAP does not yet desire to serve them.
The temporary work authorization does not allow family members or dependents to accompany
the workers to Canada. Most of them have been suffering as a single bachelor society while
living in troubled conditions, yet sometimes working undocumented (Das Gupta, 2009). Some
Mexican workers have been coming to Canada through ten seasons, although never hope to settle
down permanently. Sometimes international students become undocumented but ISAP does not
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provide them services. Undocumented people can not access the shelters nor subsidize access
housing, are ineligible to welfare, and do not have child tax benefits and OHIP. Even if one
person is undocumented, all family members are no longer eligible as well because government
institutes are then sharing information (Das Gupta, 2009). After the Bill of 130 passed recently,
the temporarily workers have working conditions and employee agencies have regulated, but
there are still the unfair placement fees as bogus offers for Live in Caregivers accepting new
protected regulations that may only stop the use of this poor practice that forced work illegally or
under minimum wage. After paying up to ten-thousand placement fees, or abusing with financial
charges, most of them suffer in debt, bankruptcy, or end up in suicidal condition and even are
mentally sick, but ISAP funding doesn‘t offer mental health services to funded agencies. Fairly
large organizations become defunded, with their funding pulled out for several reasons such as
financial reporting, some of which are political such as the Arab federation fund cut off. One
person must look after the money and documents because it all is fairly complicated.
Organizations grow much more then and work in hierarchy settings. There are also competitions
between different groups to get ISAP. A lot of funders, such as ISAP, look at an agency
hierarchy set up and legal liability. This is ironic because grass root agencies can not stay tiny,
also while working hard with many limitations. ISAP should accept that ―no one is illegal‖.
Regardless of the status, ISAP should provide additional funding in order to cover refugee
claimants, undocumented workers and citizens, providing opportunities to agencies such as the
SAWC, and serving the broader population more flexible in order to serve better and have real
funding for those services (Das Gupta, 2009).

Works Cited:
Bernhard, Judith K. 2007. ―Living with precarious legal status in Canada: Implication for the
Well-Being of Children and Families‖ from Refugee: Canada Periodical on Refugees, Vol.24,
No.2, York University, pp 101.
Das Gupta, Tania. 2009. Class Lecture, February 10, 2009. York University.
Das Gupta, Tania. 2008. Class Lecture, October 7, 2008. York University.
Das Gupta, Tania. 2009. Class Lecture, March 24, 2009. York University.
Das Gupta, Tania. 2009. Class Lecture, March 31, 2009. York University.
Das Gupta, Tania. 2009. Class Lecture, April 28, 2009. York University.
Das Gupta, Tania. 2009. Class Lecture, May 5, 2009. York University.
Dench, Janet. 2006. ―Ending the Nightmare: Speeding Up Refugee Family Reunification‖ from
Canadian Issues/Themes Canadiens, Association for Canadian Studies, Spring 2006, York
University, pp.95

"Eligibility for Immigrant Settlement and Adaptation Program (ISAP)." Association for
Newcomers to Canada. 2008. 12 May 2009
<http://www.peianc.com/content/page/settlement_isap>.

"Immigrant Settlement and Adaptation Program (ISAP)." Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat.
19 June 2007. 12 May 2009 <http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/rma/eppi-ibdrp/hrdb-rhbd/dep-
min/cic/isap-peai/description_e.asp>.
ISAP. 2008. CIC CFP: ISAP, JSW and Host in Cornwall.. Eligibility to be funded for the
Delivery of ISAP, JSW and Host. 27 July 2008.

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Jakubowski, Lisa Marie. 2002. Immigration and the Legalization of Racism, Amending the
Canadian Immigration Act: The Live-in caregiver Program, Halifax: Fernwood Publishing. pp
62.
Mojab, Shahrzad. 2008 . ― De-skilling Immigrant Women‖ Canadian Women Studies Journal.
Volume 19, Number 3, Inanna Publication and Education Inc, York University Bookstore
Publication, pp 125.

McLaren, Kristin. 2004. We had no desire to be set apart: Forced Segregation of Black Students
in Canada West Public School and Myths of British Egalitarianism. Social History 37,73 (2004),
The History of Immigration and Racism in Canada, pp 78.

K. Stasiulis, Daiva; B. Bakan, Abigail. 2005. ―Marginalized and Dissident Non-Citizens: Foreign
Domestic Workers. Negotiating Citizenship: Migrant Workers in Canada and the Global System.
University of Toronto Press 2005, The History of Immigration and Racism in Canada, pp 265.

Sekhar, Kripa. 2009. SAWC Executive Director lecture notes, York University. March 31, 2009.
Taylor, Lesley Clarula. 2008. ―Czechs warned Over Refugees‖ Toronto Star, July 19, 2008.
Degrees don‘t ensure jobs for female immigrants. York University Publication, pp 103.

Telegdi P.C., Andrew. 2008. Family Reunification: The key to successful integration. Canadian
Issues/ Themes Canadien, Association for Canadian Studies, Spring 2006, York University, pp
95.

Yu, et all, Soojin. 2007. ―Refugee integration in Canada: A Survey of Empirical Evidence and
Existing Services‖ from Refugee: Canada‘s Periodical on Refugees, Vol 24, No.2, York
University, Fall 2007, pp 23.

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Chapter 46

Advertisings: Brain Washing System

Corporations pay millions of dollars to our government to be allowed to display their


images throughout our cities. The cities are being paid but the influence these corporations then
have on society are far to hazardous, they control our information flow throughout society, the
average citizen can no longer display their concerns in certain areas. The same corporations have
so much invested in the city it seems as though it can be impossible to challenge their images
they produce. I agree with Klein when she states that we need to seize back public spaces that
only allow commercial messages to be permitted. Our society has become far to influenced by
major corporations and their marketing tactics. The average citizen cannot display their concerns
in spaces that have been designated to allow commercial messages. Images are a very powerful
thing. Theorists such as Stuart Hall talk about how images are able to produce meaning in our
society, they define what is normal, deviant, even how a certain class,race, sex, should act
because the mass media has such a great influence in our society. There needs to be more
restrictions put on advertising, many socialists countries such as Norway, and Sweden have very
restrictive advertising laws that limit the influence of mass media on society. For instance now in
Sweden and Norway images of models that have been graphically enhanced now have on them
label stating to the viewers that these images are enhanced, emphasizing that this is an altered
representation of the true beauty of the model.
These restrictions to advertising only is one step, ―culture jamming‖ is very effective.
The gorilla tactics in itself receive a lot of attention from not only those who pass by but from the
media. This brings a lot of attention when altering a company‘s image, and using it to display a
new image that is totally detrimental to the company. It is a risky, efficient, and cheap way to
challenge corporate rule and send a message out to the rest of society. When you bring attention
to corporations wrong doings that will not waste time on filing lawsuits and suing you, they will
have to focus up on cleaning up their image not only literally cleaning up the image. It obvious
that corporations are corrupt and self interested for profit. They increase profit in ways that are
not environmentally cautious and alienating toward their workers. These large corporations are
very powerful and with the help of the government are able to mask their unethical ways.
In 1994, 15,000-20,000 pro-logging protesters assembled on the lawn of the B.C
Legislature. This crowd included union workers, their families, and supporters from forestry-
dependent communities in B.C. They wore yellow ribbons to signify their affinity for something
called the Wise Use movement. What was interesting to me was that it was corporate sponsored.
When I critically analysis this it is obvious to me that there must have been a large influence by
the corporations, and whatever these protesters believed in or voiced was largely framed by these
corporations. Could it then be said that these beliefs and opinions of these protesters were truly
of their individualistic views? I highly doubt it. These corporations essentially feed their families
and support their lifestyle, so it seems that they were almost brainwashed and forced into a
certain mindset and belief. How could you then credit their protests?
There are the critics of Megalli and Freidman of front groups. ―...if Burger King were to
report the Whopper were nutritious, informed consumers would probably shrug in disbelief...and
if the Nutrasweet Company were to insist that the artificial sweetener aspartame has no side
effects, consumers might not be inclined to believe them either...But if ―American Council on
Science and Health‖ and its panel of 200 ‗experts‘ scientists reported that the Whopper were not
so bad, consumers might actually listen...And if the ―Calorie Control Council‖ reported that
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aspartame is not really dangerous, weight-conscious consumers might continue dumping the
artificial sweetener in their coffee every morning without concern‖ I found this quote so
insightful and intriguing. Society is blinded by these so called councils and researchers who
claim to have science to back their findings. It is critically that society understand in this case
and in a lot of other cases, that most of these councils and researchers are dependent on corporate
funding for their research. This inevitably gives control and power to the corporation for what
information is published and made public. When reading this what comes to mind is when I did
research on pharmaceutical companies, in a sociological course on health and health care, and
found that majority of research that is done on certain health conditions or disease is funded by
large pharmaceutical companies. When doing research on diseases or certain health issues,
funding is a major factor in conducting a valid and successful research. Without money, research
is next to impossible. Pharmaceutical companies make large amount of profits on cancer
medication, and other antibiotics that people are taking everyday. Pharmaceutical companies
fund research so that they have control over what information is given out to the public. Lets say
that over the past 20-30 years that research has been done on cancer a cure has been found. This
would save many lives, but it would also decrease profits of pharmaceutical companies
enormously. They would lose billions of dollars, considering how much money they profit yearly
through chemo pills, and other cancer medication. It is sad to think that someone would withhold
a cure for cancer, but to most corporations money is a motive, not saving lives. The power of
these corporations is frightening. This brings me to my next point: Knowledge is power.
Knowledge being power seems to be a common theme these days in society. With
knowledge comes the power to change. There are concerns about environmental issues that
society is facing currently. The problem is we lack knowledge on how serious these issues are.
The growing concerns on our environment are crucial and very serious. Many people do not
realize that our oil is reaching its peak. This is a serious problem because once it is gone it is
gone. Society lacks the knowledge of this issue because oil companies along with the
government specifically the U.S. government withhold this information for their own selfish,
profit-driven reasons. We may be told that there is a growing concern with oil depletion but the
severity of it is held back. Without knowledge of the severity of oil depletion, society will not
take it seriously and people will not truly try and change their ways to help the situation. The
people who may know what issue society face with the peak oil situation may withhold the
information because these corporations have created jobs for them, feed their families, and
support their lifestyle. Society is based around a discourse where money is everything, and when
people become money hungry anything they can do to get it, whether hurting people or the
environment along the way, they will. It is hard to fight against powerful corporations because
they have the networks and resources to back themselves up in situations that may make them
look responsible for harmful and unethical practices.

I think that the notion of parodying ads and hijacking the billboards of companies in
order to get a message across is a great way to make an impact by using the current cultural
paradigm. Media is a very dominant part of our culture right now and the impact that
advertisements have on people within society is highly influential. Companies use cleaver
marketing skills to give products status and make consumers feel that they have to have those
items, and the reality is that they have the resources (more specifically, the money) to be able to
bombard us with images, slogans etc. Naomi Klein‘s article illustrates how it is possible to turn
these tools against companies; to claim billboards, ads and other spaces as our own and use them
to broadcast through the façade that corporations are projecting. I particularly like the way that
culture jammer, Rodriguez de Gerada does his work during the day. I think that that in itself
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carries a big part of the statement; that we don‘t need to hide when trying to fight for social
justice because we are not the ones doing something wrong. The fact that people are made to feel
like they are the ones in the wrong when they are speaking up against exploitation and abuse is
kind of ironic and really shows the kind of system we live in where corporations are more
protected than people.

We should really highlight the power of how you represent yourself and your mandate.
Everything ultimately seems to come down to who can find the best way to sell their idea,
regardless of what the idea itself entails. Corporations who advocate for themselves by stating
that their products are good or not damaging (to the environment or people, depending on the
product), do not gain credibility but the same statement carried by a third party can. Ch. 9 shows
us how corporations can invest in front groups to carry their voices. People in our society are so
used to being spoon fed ideas that they don‘t look into things for themselves and as I stated
above, are easily swayed by presentation rather than content. We‘ve already talked about
corporate greenwashing, but in the same way that corporations present ―green‖ fronts, they also
present fronts created to show they care about their consumers. They don‘t just spend more
money on their advertising than they do on their actual products, they also spend more on market
research and data collecting to find out the best way to manipulate people into buying their
products. Sometimes the things they use as selling points happen to be true, such as a company
telling an entire neighbourhood of people that putting a waste incinerator in their backyard is a
good thing because it will increase employment and bring in tax revenue for them. The thing is
that it highlights the selling points without letting them know the magnitude of the risks of these
decisions.

Are there no regulations against this or are they simply overlooked? I think that the risks
are made to seem minimal because of the flashy, alluring presentation of the selling points. This
makes me think of medicine and how even Tylenol has a warning of ―…this medicine could
cause…‖ and a list of all the horrible things that could go wrong, even if the risk is incredibly
low. Medicine is regulated and companies are legally required to disclose all of this information,
it is their responsibility to consumers. But for some reason, levels of toxicity are not properly
disclosed. Is it different simply because we are not directly buying and consuming toxic waste?
The reality is that it most often has a far greater impact on people‘s health than the minimal risk
induced by taking medications that have gone through very strict testing procedures before being
mass distributed. Anyway, the point is that corporations invest money into market research
where they learn about their target ―audience‖ and then approach things based on what would
speak most to that community. Bantjes gives us the example of how letters were tailored to fit
specific groups of people, ie; using cute letterhead with kittens on it when directing it to an
elderly lady. When you are approaching a community of people living in poverty or struggling to
make ends meet and you focus on appealing to this need and telling them that putting waste in
their backyard will give them the opportunity to bring in an income by giving them jobs for
example, that is what they will focus on.

Capitalism is a deadly chameleon. It is as versatile as water as it molds its shape into


whatever container it is in. Like a disease, capitalism is infinitely evolving to get past
advancements in the resistance methods of society‘s immune system. When it comes to the
environment, humankind is on an extremely destructive path. Yet, somehow there is still debate
as to the severity of the problem. It is hard enough to get two academics to agree on anything, yet
when hundreds of the top scientists in the world came to a unanimous consensus on a subject,
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somehow it continues to be a controversial matter. The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change) released a document in 2007 where hundreds of environmental experts agreed
that climate change is a serious issue. Some of them disagreed on the amount of time humankind
could continue living on the earth at this rate; however, none of them said that climate change
was not happening or that it was not a major issue.

I really think Karl Marx was on to something when he wrote about the ideology of class.
In a system where knowledge is power, it follows that the people with the power should try to
control the knowledge. The thesis of Naomi Klein‘s work on culture jamming is that in the
capitalist system, money can buy knowledge space. Without our explicit consent, corporations
are allowed to communicate messages and disseminate knowledge to us. I made the point of
saying ―explicit consent‖ because I feel that we implicitly agree to this barrage of images by
rewarding the system with our consumer participation. If it ain‘t broke, don‘t fix it. If advertising
still produces the same result, why stop?

The question arises then: are there any viable alternatives or are we stuck to parodying and satire
as a means to ease the pain?

Ok, so coming back to the environmental question. Because knowledge is power, and the people
with the power produce the knowledge, the majority of society is spoon-fed whatever the people
with the money wants it to eat. I am fascinated by the fact that capitalist thought can infiltrate a
subject as uncontroversial as the environment. Climate change is happening and it is serious.
Unfortunately, interest groups with enough capital can pay a few no-name scientists to produce
knowledge that contradicts the facts and it keeps the masses at bay long enough to sell more
products.

In the mean time, corporations shift their marketing strategies to accommodate climate concerns.
In a grocery store, I saw a Kraft Dinner box that had some patches of green on it. Nothing had
changed about the content of the box but the color green is associated with earth-friendly so I am
sure this was simply a marketing tool. In a branded world where symbols have replaced reality,
movements can easily get engulfed by capitalist ideology and marketing.

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Chapter 47

My Journal Writings

I have started writing journals long time ago. I took notes in class and remember every
single debate because of my journal writings. For example, I debated in Energy course and took
some position. Always I do. Almost all energy production and use involves some form of
pollution of our environment. Each different source of energy, from fossil fuels to nuclear,
pollutes in a different way and to a different degree. Petrol is important source of pollution.
Driving a car is the most polluting act an average citizen commits. Emissions from passenger
vehicles are increasing in Canada and the US despite attempts to make engines more fuel-
efficient and despite the addition of antipollution devices.
Today, we are exposed to environmental pollution caused by petrol. Just stand at the side
of a busy road and watch you being covered in fumes from a motorbike, car, bus or truck. Do
you cough when this happens? You would because of the release of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen
dioxide and suspended particles. If you ride a two-wheeler, you inhale this polluted air
containing trigger particles. These noxious particles are what bring on asthma in you in a very
severe form. If you live around a busy traffic road, you will suffer from asthma in a severe form.
Through our activities, we increase air pollution-for example, combustion of fuel. We burn
almost 15 kg air while burning one litre fuel in our cars. In the process, our cars emit carbon
monoxide, lead and hydrocarbons in great proportions in petrol combustion. This can lead to a
loss of accuracy of vision and mental alertness.
On the other hand, diesel combustion emits significantly higher amounts of nitrogen
dioxide, particulate matter and sulphur dioxide and cause bronchial asthma and a lung disease
called chronic bronchitis in healthy persons. When particulate and nitrogen dioxide combine,
they cause cough and upper respiratory symptoms in us. When the Japanese conducted a survey,
they found that the farther people moved away from a traffic junction, the less likely they were to
cough and wheeze. Children are particularly susceptible to these pollutants and develop a cough
and respiratory problems, particularly if they lived within a 20-meter radius from the road of
high traffic. Chronic bronchitis is said to be due to a high level of nitrogen dioxide.
Pollution affects the body, cause chest infection, brings on asthma and can also cause cancer, and
lead to headache, drowsiness, red eyes and cough. Carbon Monoxide is thrown into the air by
petrol vehicles; chiefly two-and-three wheelers and can bring on heart disease and affects
stamina. Lead is emitted from petrol vehicles and can affect the central nervous system and
damage the kidneys and cause hypertension. All those who live near busy traffic junctions are at
high risk for these diseases.
Both local and global pollution would be reduced if car-driving people pledged to use
their car 30% less starting immediately. Long-term solutions require that vehicles use less
polluting energy sources such bio-fuels, propane, natural gas and hydrogen. Cities can reduce
vehicular traffic by 30% over the next 3 to 5 years. This is a responsible, individual contribution
to a global problem. The rising cost of crude oil in 2008 has quickly altered driving habits and
big auto companies are closing plants that produced SUVs and pickup trucks. If you are
interested in longer-term human survival, then the high cost of oil is a real benefit.

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Journal# 1 June 22, 2010
I‘ve been watching the 2010 World Cup games in South Africa for the last ten days. The French
national soccer team needed a lesson, and they got strong one; shame on them! Why was I happy
to see their failure? The French are disgusted with the results of its team, so this is the time to
make fun of France now. Coach Domenech kicked out Anelka from camp before the last match,
and as he is one of the best players he became a top target of fans who have felt betrayed. The
French players protested their coach. I was feeling that this was coming 2 year ago when Zidane
left the national team without a reason. As I had understood earlier in 2006, without Zinedine
Zidane, the French team was nothing. I wasn‘t surprised when Zidane stated, ―Coach Domenech
is not a coach,‖ so the French deserved to be booed. I was interested in his comment, and I
wondered, ‗What did Zidane really mean?‘

Everybody was blamed for Domenech's act at the last match, and one of his last acts was to
refuse the traditional handshake with his counterpart for South Africa, Carlos Alberto Parreira.
He was in a six year coaching career for the French team and learned nothing about fairness.
Domenech refused to explain his act. I believed that there existed a poisonous atmosphere in the
French camp, and that‘s why they deserved to come to failure.

By the way, I wasn‘t surprised with Maradona‘s comment about Platini and French people‘s
behavior. Michel Platini is another famous former number 10 and is President of UEFA.
Maradona explained why he had a very distant relationship with Platini, such as his words that
he used with him were only hello and goodbye. Why is this so? Maradona opened up his mouth,
which filled with anti-diplomatic words. He was funny and right with saying that ―we know how
the French are and Platini is French and he thinks of himself as being more than the rest of the
world. I've never paid him any attention and I won't do it now."

Another controversial event was Maradona‘s comment about Pele, "Pele has to go back to the
museum.‖ He has reason to be angry at him because the Brazilian soccer legend Pele made an
absurd comment about the job that Maradona had taken as coach. He mentioned that he had only
taken the Argentina manager's job because he ―needed the money;‖ what a pity.

I support Argentina and Maradona, even though Platini pointed out that: "[Maradona] has very
little experience, and Argentina's qualifying campaign was not good." I disagree with him.
Maradona was able to cope with his drug problems and coached the best team on the world,
while he is still the best player on earth who is a coach, and not a retired player like Pele.

Pele got jealous of him. Somehow he didn‘t consider that at least he had the world's best player,
Lionel Messi. None of the 2010 World Cup players can compare to Messi‘s performance and his
team, except for maybe Germany, Brazil and Portugal which are good teams too, but I am with
the fans of Argentina and Maradona for old time‘s sake.

Argentina is a good team built on strong, collective and hard work but with all due respect,
without Messi, it is nothing. One player can change the team atmosphere and game result.

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Journal# 2 June 24, 2010
I made an interview with one of our classmates today in this class. Her name is Khank Nguyen,
and she is from Vietnam and is studying Finance major in the 4th year as an international student.
Her mom lives with her as an immigrant who is a victim of the Canadian system. Canada invites
too many immigrants every year, and although it does have a national immigration strategy, it
doesn't have a national employment strategy. She wants to work at a bank, get some Canadian
experience and go back to Vietnam. I felt disappointment again that there is a communication
gap between the Federal and Provincial governments. Ottawa brings immigrants in but the
provinces regulate labour markets.
The capitalist market needs cheap labour rather than skilled and well-educated immigrants.
Regularity bodies and corporates, both the government and the business world are not willing to
remove barriers voluntarily. The past educations of immigrants are wasted because professional
organizations are locking up the system and locking out newcomers. They are likely to resist
reforms in the system, and they are not voluntarily willing to change their unreasonable rules.
Access to some position shouldn‘t condition any more by membership. The existing government
funds must be used for a professional integration of immigrants in Ontario, and the funds should
also be used in acquisition of reference material for these professional candidates, their
registration fees in the Professional association, and training programs of immigrants in their
fields of competency. Qualified contact information should be collected by the government and
be referred to Professional bodies and this be made mandatory.
Reform is very urgent because the majority of immigrants are falling as victims of the present
system. Therefore, our petitioners request that the parliament must put pressure on regulatory
bodies in order to remove systemic discrimination against newcomers. The parliament should
pass a new Bill to create a new evaluation and diploma equivalence system regarding additional
licensing tests, degrees and years of experience, and practicing and registration requirements
must be simple, include fairness and be less expensive. Never again should an immigrant have to
hide his credentials when applying for a job.
In Ontario, Premier Dalton McGuinty stated that his government is committed to removing
barriers before elections and forging about it after they elect. The problem is that there's no
follow-through from the government. Immigrants have given up after trying over a period of
years and can‘t cross the stone-walls alone. Many newcomers ended up driving cabs, working for
minimum wage, such as especially in factory jobs, live in low income areas and work as
unskilled laborers. There is a tangle of 38 regulatory bodies for professions and trades in Ontario.
Slowly, things are changing. Me too… I have adapted to the Canadian society. The government
doesn‘t put pressure on regulatory bodies. Regulatory bodies need to recognize foreign
credentials more quickly, but apparently not. Federal and provincial funds are not good enough
to remove the barriers. The public is not aware of the neglect in the system.

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Journal#3 June 28, 2010
After my first presentation in this class, I had discovered in myself whatever was missing in the
first place. I completely sucked at the level of eye contact with the audience, and I was supposed
to have stood up more confidently like what truly I am. My accent is what scared me the most,
but I was not ashamed of most of it. Of course, I am an immigrant, and not a native speaker. I
have a strong self-esteem and I am much better experienced than many of my classmates. I have
always been jealous and inspired of Naomi Klein‘s writing and in the way that she is able to talk
straight forward. My presentation was about her life.

She is one year younger than me. She was born on May 8, 1970 in Montreal and is still living in
Toronto with her husband. Her father, Michael Klein, is a physician and war resister against the
Vietnam war. Her mother, Bonnie Sherr, is a documentary film maker against pornography. Her
grandparents were communists who later turned against the Soviet Union. Her parents are both
left-wing activists, and she was raised in this Jewish family. Her parents moved to Montreal from
the U.S. in 1967 as war protesters. Her husband, Avi Lewis, is a leftist TV journalist and
documentary filmmaker. She is best known as a Canadian author, an award-winning journalist,
syndicated columnist and activist rather than a Sociologist, but her books talk themselves
extensively and are full of Sociology. Her two political analyses have crucial consumerism and
her own critics of corporate globalization.

Her education and career background looks similar to Nietchze‘s. She doesn‘t have an amazing
education career, and she is just a writer like Nietchze and me. Her mother had a stroke and
became severely disabled right before she was planning to attend for the University of Toronto,
while she was 17. She sacrificed her education for one year. Isn‘t that amazing? She joined a
female engineering student feminist movement in 1989 and couldn‘t study again. In her third
year, she dropped out of the UOFT and took a job at the Toronto Globe and Mail. In 1995, she
returned to the UOFT to finish her degree but left the University for a Journalism job. She
couldn‘t acquire the final credit required to complete her degree. She loves journalism more than
anything and that‘s why she sacrificed her degree over a journalistic career. As editor-in chief,
her writing career started at The Varsity, a student newspaper. She wrote for Toronto Globe and
Mail, This Magazine, an editorship, The Nation-the Canadian equivalent of the American
magazine-and The Guardian. She also contributes in These Times and is editor for Harper‘s and
a reporter for the Rolling Stone, and writes a regular column for The Nation and The Guardian
that is syndicated internationally, called The New York Times Syndicate. In 2004, her reporting
from Iraq for Harper’s Magazine won the James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism.

Her books are a few but have influenced on a big population. Her first book was No Logo: No
Space, No Choice, No Jobs (2000) which became a manifesto for anti-globalization movements,
as it is also an international bestseller and is translated into over 28 languages. Her second book
was The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. It translated into over 25 languages.
The third book of hers was Fences and Windows (2002), a collection of her articles and speeches
about anti-globalization. What do I like most in her books? In them, she is rejecting from a
brand oriented consumerism which operates by large corporations at a global level. She is
looking at the dark side of capitalism, neo-liberalism, privatization and hegemonic power, and
she is achieving control of Others by imposing economic, political and cultural shock therapies.
Her theory will be lasting forever in Sociology.

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Journal# 4 June 30, 2010
I had been talking with my wife tonight about how romance, love and sexuality have been
shifted as new dating practices that have become established today in society. It is very scary for
our family because we have raised two kids in the Canadian society, where one-on-one dating is
becoming less popular among young people. Since the 1980s, the Hollywood culture hit us with
a new generation that is choosing their potential partners through crazy activities such as fast
food, speed dating and Internet dating.
My wife claimed that one in every two marriages fail today; where nearly 1/3 of women have
been cheating or are cheated on by their spouses. Even worse, nearly 70% of men in Canada
have cheated or are being cheated on. Either she reads from a book or hears these things from her
friends somewhere. I added more scary information to hers: that the average marriage lasts 2-4
years, whereas the longest of marriages last 7 years in Canada as our society has become
disposable and recyclable. It is hard to understand young people and how they date and cheat,
like with eating fast food, for instance, as if you dislike McDonalds, try Big Mac. If their
marriage doesn‘t work out, the number two option awaits you behind the door. Fast Food dating
gives you a limitless mate menu to select: from Asian to Russian mates. Internet dating and
mate-matching networks have become an international food festival for meeting mates and
seeking the love or lust of your life.
I had been reading Orhan Pamuk‘s pure love story. One of the winners of the Nobel Prize of
Literature, Orhan Pamuk is a Turkish writer who captures how the arranged marriage tradition
has changed since the 1970s in Turkey, and his book, named The Museum of Innocence, is a
great love story that takes place in Istanbul and concentrates on sexual freedom, liberation and
the replacement of sexual expression. The Turkish hero of the story, Kemal, visited 5,723
museums around the world, and then came up of the idea of making a ‗Museum of Innocence‘
where his girlfriend would gather together items associated with their courtship, and as a result,
Kemal had collected 4,213 of Füsun‘s cigarette butts and visited her family‘s home for supper
for more than 2,864 days, in which he was building a pure and dreamer relationship and in which
he was also building a monument of love and hopefulness. My wife replied that this type of pure
love is long gone…
The romantic love relationship, motherhood and equal gender relationship ideas always surround
the immigrant families and their children come to act appropriately in their gender roles and
behave in the context of heterosexuality because homosexuality, transgender relationships, and
gay and lesbian families are still problematic. Patriarchy and the man-dominant world may still
exist in the immigrant population that is not willing to integrate or assimilate into Western family
values. Blind Fast-food or Internet speed dating may be a kind of arranged or trial marriage type,
but individuals should choose their partners rather than them being chosen by somebody else.
These intimacy relationships can be dangerous, very quick, disposable, recycled and dishonest.
Arranged married couples seem happier and develop pure love for a long-term than plastic
sexuality or romantic love couples and fast-food, blind and Internet-dating naughty, short-term
relationships.

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Journal# 5 July 2, 2010
I have started to think of what communication method I enjoyed. I found that it is the film,
especially action and comedy movies. My family and I have enjoyed watching movies together
at home but we never went to the theatre and watched new released movies before. What a
shame! I remember that during the year of 2009, I was watching with my children an American
animated cartoon series called ―Avatar: The Last Airbender‖ on Nicktoons Network and
Nickledeon through our satellite. The three of us enjoyed watching the series of 61 episodes,
each being a half-hour long. Then I decided to go to the new released movie of ―The Last
Airbender‖ on July 2, 2010 with my family members at the Cineplex Odeon Cinema Theatre.

It was first time that I was paying 49.48 CAD to watch a 3D movie with my family. I went to
many movies alone or with my friends but I never went with my kids and my wife in Canada. It
was exciting and funny when we were lost and misplaced in a different auditorium. My son, Ali
Alperen, 13, had gone mad because he wanted to sit in a front chair to watch it clearly. Our
tickets indicated the wrong Auditorium of 9 instead of 16, though it was fixed after a little chat
with some person who worked at the cinema.

This movie was playing in near five thousand different theatres at the same time and scored the
fifth highest big opening among other films with an estimated $16.35 million. I wasn‘t surprised
why Paramount invested $150 million into the production and put another $130 million into the
marketing campaign. If my family has been fans of this cartoon and movie version, everybody
should be! This is a new family franchise even better than the series of ―Harry Potter‖.

The live-action feature film is based on the hugely successful animated TV series and the first
book (the first third of the series) which was the opening chapter in Aang‘s struggle to accept
himself as the Avatar and where he was to learn water bending skills to fight against the Fire
Nation. My daughter, Meryem, 15, told me last summer that the three-year series was completed
in the summer of 2009, just in time for us to finish watching it. I had watched every single
episode with my son and daughter together as it as a series of cartoon on the Nicktoons Network,
so we knew what would happen in the Water chapter. We didn‘t know at first that the film maker
divided the movie into three parts as the books Water (for the first movie), Earth and Fire
separately. My daughter‘s favorite character of Tofh will appear in next chapter, Earth.

I liked the performance of Zuku‘s character as we have known him from the movie of ―Slum
Dog Millionaire.‖ Rather than with Zuko, none of the playfulness of the cartoon and the
characters was there. The look of every character is completely wrong, because those are overly-
stylized, I guess with contact lenses, but thoroughly disregarded with skin color. All the bad guys
are dark coloured and the good guys are white coloured. It was pointless and completely uncalled
for the accusations of racism that were levelled in the movie as I didn‘t enjoy it, but I enjoyed the
overall action after all.

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Journal# 6 July 5, 2010
I was very comfortable in my presentation today because it was a small group and there was no
teacher. I did many eye contacts, used my body language, and my physical appearance was very
natural. My topic was well studied and known before this presentation.
I started with a question: Have you ever tried Turkish coffee? A few of my classmates did try it
before. There is a Turkish idiom saying that one cup of Turkish coffee promotes 40 years of a
lasting friendship. The term "coffee" comes from the Turkish word "kahve." In this form, coffee
roughly translates to mean "a drink made from the berries of plants," just like wine.
The women of Turkey begin at a young age to learn to properly prepare Turkish coffee. Potential
husbands would judge whether a woman was a good match for marriage based upon her ability
to make coffee. What a criteria for a marriage! Everybody had laughed at it in our class.
In Turkey, coffee has played an important part in the lifestyle of the Turkish people. Even though
many of the rituals of drinking coffee are not prevalent in modern Turkish customs, coffee still
remains a major part of Turkish culture.
The Coffee story began with two Syrian traders who brought the first coffee beans to Istanbul in
1555. It was first used in ceremonies by the mystic Sufi religions in Yemen. The drink helped the
Sufi mystics stay up later to recite their nightly prayers.
Coffee berries were eaten whole at first, or they were crushed, mixed with fat, and then eaten.
Later on, a drink was made from the fermented pulp of the coffee berries. This new drink was
given the name "the milk of chess players and thinkers."
This drink became very popular with the Muslim dervishes. Elaborate Turkish coffee ceremonies
were performed by royal coffee makers called "kahveciusta," and forty assistants were needed to
properly serve coffee to the sultans of Turkey.

Coffee drinking became a major part of Turkish social interaction. Wealthy families had special
rooms built that were used only for coffee drinking. Coffee houses in Turkey became
commonplace. However, there was a downside to the popularity of these coffee houses. The
more people socialized within the coffee house, the less they spent time praying in the mosques.

In modern Turkey, the coffee houses continue to be a place to meet with friends and to socialize
over a nice hot cup of coffee. However, a few hundred years ago there was an old Turkish law
that made it legal for a woman to divorce her husband, if he did not provide her with a daily
quota of coffee. This was my zinger, an ice-breaking point and a strong ending sentence that had
I made. Everybody had started to smile and was surprised because it was an unexpected
conclusion.
So remember, don't forget the coffee. This is friendly Turkish coffee for the ultimate friendship,
offering one cup of coffee for a lasting 40 years, and it is not like Tim Hortons coffee for the
short term.

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Journal# 7 July 12, 2010
I did my demonstration presentation today which was my real legend of Dracula. I think it was
an interesting story that everybody was amazed of because he has been a well-known character
for the last 100 years in movies. Thank you to our teacher, Chris, who reminded us last week
about what secret or treasure would be hidden in our basement. I found a hidden treasure for this
presentation, a handcraft picture of Dracula. Guess what! There was an amazing story behind it.
I thought half of my audience didn‘t buy my Dracula story or believe it but my fiction is not bad
at all. I made a joke before starting my presentation. I was very nervous and my hands were
shaking. ―I have kept this Dracula thing for ten years, since 2000,‖ I began, ―I put it on my wall
for over six years until suddenly when my wife was sick of seeing a vampire guy on our wall and
pulled it off.‖
I had still remembered how I went to Romania to discovery my non-fictional Dracula story. I
followed Dracula‘s legends, which are still told, of course, to Bran Castle where he lived. I found
that he was a Romanian national hero and that his name is everywhere.
His father‘s name is Vlad Dracul. The Holy Roman Imperator named him this, which in the
Romanian language means "Devil;" Dracula means ―the son of the Devil.‖ Dracula‘s mother had
skin cancer and took baths with virgin girl blood to cure her sickness. Dracul sent his son, Vlad,
and his younger brother, Radu, to Constantinople (today Istanbul) for better education. Ottoman
Sultan Murat II welcomed Vlad and put him in an Enderun school in his palace right next to his
son, Fatih Sultan Mehmet, who became the conqueror of Istanbul later on. This information was
interesting and new to my classmates but may have also been a boring lecture and caused a time
conflict in my presentation that took longer than I expected.
What truly happened to Dracula? Some Romanian legends say that he is immortal, while others
say he was assassinated by his own brother, Radu. This is not the fate he faced in real history, as
a Romanian history teller and professor denied it. Sultan Mehmet wanted to judge him according
to law in Istanbul and put him in a jail named The Seven Towers. He stayed there for more than
6 months. Of course, after a fair trial, the court made a decision to hang him in At Meydani
which is in the center of Istanbul. Before hanging him, Sultan Mehmet put him in a wooden cage
and showed him to all people of Istanbul, and taught that justice cannot be brought with horror
methods. This was morality in this story.
I told his less known secrets because none of them are in movies or books. When the British army
took over his castle of Bran in 1916, they discovered a secret passage between downstairs and
upstairs. He pretended showing up in two places at the same time. He placed a person who
resembled him to another one of his castles, 10 km away from Bran, to trick everyone that he can fly
between the two castles. I checked my audience eyes, including Mr. Chris‘s eyes and wondered how
they responded. I felt that they were all surprised with the facts that I presented. I hoped that
everybody had enjoyed my Dracula story. I saw happy and smiling faces after my presentation.

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Journal# 8 July 14, 2010
Today, I was upset about a racist law that was finally accepted in the French parliament yesterday
which is against human rights, freedom of dress and personal beliefs. I wrote several columns and
news about this issue in March to our Turkish Community newspaper, Canadaturk, and so I became
vigorous and an expert of this topic. The new law bans the full facial veils anywhere in the public
realm. I am sure that the prejudice virus will soon be spread out all over the western countries.
Within the policy of the separation of religion and state, this French top-down secularism has more
likely produced a racist environment among the majority of French citizens who wrongly
understand that wearing ethno-religious symbols like the Hijab is a sign that threatens their national
identity, and this idea is confusing the belonging and freedom values in both private and public
spheres.
The new French law initiative is definitely the secularization of dichotomy, which leads to trigger
racist images everywhere. American or Canadian–style multiculturalism is a threat to the model of
French citizenship, and that is why the French politicians use the headscarf as a ―conspicuous
religious sign‖ that deconstructs their race and ethnicity, and exercises their power opposition
between freedom and belonging.
Racist ideas have been triggered by right-wing political mobilizations in France since the 1990s, and
they have shifted from being openly xenophobic and belonging to a white superiority approach to
becoming the start of an incompatibility of cultures argument in the mainstream political life in the
2000s. The French government has already banned and enforced to remove headscarves and other
signs of religious affiliation since 2004 from public schools, passport photos, airline securities and
banks which symbolizes France‘s tradition of strict secularism amid fears of growing
fundamentalism among France‘s five million Muslims.
Since the beginning of 2010, it is sad to see that a broad French alliance from across the country has
come together to discuss and extend a racist, discriminatory and oppressive law preparation. In fact,
the people of Islam among the French population are a minority of a religious group and have no
political domination or influence on the majority of the population to go with the Hijab or go
without it. Covering full face or halfway does not indicate whether a person is a bad or good type of
Muslim, but it is their duty to belong to a community and religion that is not against the creation of
national identity or competing citizenship, though the difference in veils may only be increasing the
visibility of the diversity in modernity.
The Hijab is linked to Islam, and the French interpret the Muslims incorrectly, and with their
prejudice it is as if they are saying to them that ―If you do not think like us, you do not belong to
us.‖ There shouldn‘t be a distinction between freedom and belonging, which have become more
apparent and interconnected since the start of globalization. The discriminatory law initiative
symbolizes cultural and political hegemony, where superiority beliefs are against marginalized
foreigners‘ cultures and religious practices, and in this case, they disrespect multiculturalism.

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Journal# 9 July 17, 2010

Our teacher, Ginger Chris, explained how we are going to make our final presentations and
showed us a video clip which was very impressive and inspired me as well.

What is so important in my life to introduce in my presentation if I am going to die in a month?


This can be a life secret or life target that I have been trying to accomplish. Shortly, I found that
my childhood dream is still alive where I discovered my peace and happiness, which is in my
writing career.

My mentor is Orhan Pamuk who is one of the winners of the Nobel Prize of Literature in 2006
and made a powerful speech about ―My Father Suitcase‖ before receive his prize in the Swedish
Academy. When I get bored with writing or have given up, I am reading it again, again, and
again…

This is what he said, ―I write because I have an innate need to write! I write because I can't do
normal work like other people. I write because I want to read books like the ones I write. I write
because I am angry at all of you, angry at everyone. I write because I love sitting in a room all
day writing. I write because I can only partake in real life by changing it. I write because I want
others, all of us, the whole world, to know what sort of life we lived, and continue to live in.

―I write because I love the smell of paper, pen, and ink. I write because I believe in literature, in
the art of the novel, more than I believe in anything else. I write because it is a habit, a passion. I
write because I am afraid of being forgotten. I write because I like the glory and interest that
writing brings. I write to be alone. Perhaps I write because I hope to understand why I am so
very, very angry at all of you, so very, very angry at everyone. I write because I like to be read. I
write because once I have begun a novel, an essay, a page, I want to finish it. I write because
everyone expects me to write.

―I write because I have a childish belief in the immortality of libraries, and in the way my books
sit on the shelf. I write because it is exciting to turn all of life's beauties and riches into words. I
write not to tell a story, but to compose a story. I write because I wish to escape from the
foreboding that there is a place I must go but – just as in a dream – I can't quite get there. I write
because I have never managed to be happy. I write to be happy.‖

Pamuk has deserved his Nobel Prize because he has never, ever given up in his writing. He is my
role model. So I said to myself, ―I must tell to our class my own writing story which is very
important to me.

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Journal# 10 July 21, 2010
We have to make a group presentation. I always hate group work because you are ending up
doing all work yourself. Most of young Canadian students are in don`t care mood. Our group
name is ―Faruk‘s Angels,‖ which was named by my female group members because I am the
only male in this group. I have three angels: Lisa, Neneh and Daniella. From now on, I say to
my group members ―Hi, my angels‖ and then they smile. This gesture allows me an open
communication among my members and establishes a warm, friendly and relaxed environment. I
know that group work is important. We met five times before our presentation.
Though I‘ve had bad experience with group work before, our group work, however, started very
smoothly in the beginning. In this group, it only takes you five minutes to realize that the group
is going to work. With only one week to complete a 5-6-minute presentation, you need to get to
work quickly. The group spends ten minutes coming up with a topic in the second meeting and in
the third meeting trying to accomplish the thesis, supporting ideas, zinger and conclusion. Who
does what was arranged too. The group agreed on everything in a short period of time because
no one wanted to spend an extra second in the classroom. You get everyone‘s email address,
know your parts in the sections of the presentation and go on your way. You do your research
and whip up your part before the next class. It was noticeable that our group didn‘t work
properly in the end. Something was missing rather than our group member. Our presentation
wasn‘t excellent, but not bad at all.
Lisa is our project manager and we trust her to organize our project. She did communicate
through emails. I responded to her in a timely manner. She edited my write up and I accepted
80% of her comments. Lisa did a hard job, took leadership, and coped with conflict. Lisa took
Neneh‘s role in the emergency situation and did a good job in that as well. We choose the robber
story together last minute, right before the presentation to replace Neneh‘s part. She deserves an
A +. Her grade is 92.
Daniella was missing in our third group meeting, in which we decided on the main task. We sent
to her an email of what we had accomplished. Daniella submitted her write up in the last day that
Lisa and I worried about her and Neneh‘s speech. In her (Daniella) email, she argued about why
we hadn‘t chosen a topic related to history, her major. I was expecting some conflict from her in
the last meeting but she avoided conflict and was able to manage her anxiety. Her grade is 78.
Neneh was involved in three of our group works and enjoyed them. She said in our third meeting
that ―I‘ve never joined an easy going group like this before.‖ After all her participations, we
didn‘t understand why she didn‘t come up at presentation time. She never replied to our emails
either. Her grade is 50.
Lisa and I (Faruk) attended all five meetings, whereas Daniella was absent one time, and Neneh
was absent one time and she didn‘t show up at presentation time, surprisingly. We coped with
the Neneh and Daniella crisis‘s calmly. I played my role in my group positively and tried my
best to present my part. My grade (Faruk) is 80.
My part is well-known to me. I am doing my major in Sociology. Ideas of justice have not only
one face, as there are multiple truths and justices which are constantly changing from culture to
culture, country to country, socially and politically. I am going to talk about a repeated
disappointment of justice in post-modernity and the current G20 summit. I was involved in a
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protest condemning a police action during the G20 summit in Toronto. I saw a rally of hundreds
seeking the release of peaceful protesters in front of police headquarters on June 28, 2010. The
real crime was inside of the G20 summit, and arresting over a thousand protesters wasn‘t solving
the problem. Over a billion dollars was spent for security, in which our tax dollars were wasted.
There was more than one truth. There are discourses here. We don‘t have leaders and heroes
right now as we have celebrities. We have no reason to believe in the G20 leaders and their
truths and knowledge that have driven us into an economic recession recently; we are not sure of
progress and development perfectly like the protestors; and we are not all on an agreement that
science is working for justice. Who is playing and benefiting in this power game? Mass media
lies, and mistaken information is everywhere and messes our lives.
There is a social construction of our minds and media controls our minds to mask injustice. The
world of humanity is not involved in truth or justice but discourse, which is an assumption of
talking something in different ways. Finally, there is no more big truth or justice as in their
places there is little truth and justice. There is virtual justice and imagination. There is always
better justice than the current justice. Socially and culturally, I believe that neither the police nor
the protesters are right about their actions in the G20. Justice has multiple faces.

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Journal# 11 July 20, 2011
When I was a 10 year old child, my childhood dream was becoming a famous writer. I loved
reading books a lot. My mother had opposed my wish to become a writer because she was
always sick and she wanted me to study in the medical field and become a doctor. My father
was against me too; he thought that writers are poor people, barely making money to survive. He
was an officer in the Turkish Air Force who pushed me to do the same job. He sent me to a
boarding military medical school in Ankara, the capital city of Turkey, when I was 14. Actually,
I was angry at my father because he had not led a life like mine.

I have non-stop been writing novels, poems, researching and writing memory books since the
age of 15. I have been a journalist since 1992 and a writer since 2004. Why am I writing? This is
a typical question we writers are asked most often, and my favorite question that follows this is:
By how and what do you write?

My father thinks that only a good paying job brings happiness and he still does think this. I was
not sure that a comfortable life is leading to happiness in society. I observed everyone else
believing in the same things or acting that money is very important, more than happiness. I was
kicked out from military medical school when I was 18 because I was a rebellious leader of a
student group and I was a political activist.

Do you know how hard the military boarding school was? I couldn‘t find happiness there as only
unhappiness could survive there. I decided to write my military school secret life but my father
thought I was out of my mind. It was illegal to write the military‘s secrets. I spent two years
patiently trying to discover the second human being inside me, and I saw the world as an
imaginary piece of garbage. I shut myself up in my room and first went on a journey inside
myself. I said to myself that I must narrate my own story and my other classmate‘s stories, and
tell other people's stories as if they were my own.

I must first travel through other people's stories and books. I knew that I had to explore
knowledge and hunt it down in order to get the reader‘s attention. I completed my boarding
school story when I was 21 as a novel but the publish houses were scared to publish it.

One Turkish famous writer told me that I was very young to go to jail for my writing, and he
offered to keep my book for a time and publish it when it was felt as the right time. It never
published for the last 20 years. The right time never came. I didn‘t find my happiness; I had to
search for it. My writing story didn‘t end here, and it was just the beginning.

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Journal # 12 July 25, 2010
I have followed my childhood dream all my life. I studied international relations and the
international law in my university years. I found my first job as a reporter in the Zaman
newspaper in Istanbul, but suddenly they sent me over to Azerbaijan, a former Communist
country, as a war reporter when the Soviet Union had collapsed.

I wrote more than three thousand pieces of news and articles on energy resources of the Caspian
Sea, and on Karabakh, Abkhazia and Chechnya conflicts that were published in both Turkish and
foreign press in the 1990s and I became a sort of famous journalist. Also, I wrote in a column
called ―Letter From Baku" for two years. I was one of the first publishers of Tomurcuk, which is
the first magazine for children published in Azerbaijan. I still couldn‘t imagine how I managed
this many things. Until the end of 2000, I was a reporter for diplomacy, foreign policy and
energy for the second biggest daily Turkish Zaman (Time) newspaper in Ankara, Turkey. While
preparing special investigation documents for the Zaman newspaper which were published in 14
different countries, I worked as a travelling reporter for the Turkish World. I have travelled to
more than 35 countries since 1992. I came to Canada in 2000 and worked as a Toronto reporter,
and I published for the ―Sunrise‖ newsletter and Canadaturk newspaper, which is the free
monthly journal in Canada that makes around 5 thousand copies per edition. I have never
stopped writing, making research and exploring knowledge.

In 2004, my first book was published, and it was a Turkish edition called ―Matrix‘in 11 Eylul
Kurgusu‖ which sold 5 thousand copies in Turkey. This book was translated into English, and
was entitled ―September 11 Fiction of Matrix‖. 2005 was my great publication year. My second
book published in Turkey was entitled ―Wolves Valley of Caspian‖ (Hazarın Kurtlar Vadisi) and
it speaks of a petrol war in the Caspian Sea area, was 447 pages, and already made a third
edition. It is my greatest book that I have written since 1995. My third book is about Iraq and
Afghanistan wars and is called ―Net Breaking,‖ (Net Kırılma) which is 400 pages and was
published last month in Turkey. My fourth book is about the connections of the Turkish mafia-
deep government and a world secret organization that placed effect on the Turkish economy and
policy, called ―The Valley‘s Code Will Be Solved‖ (―Vadi‘nin Şifresi Çözülür‖). I have just sent
my last book to my Turkish publisher and it is called ―How to Come to Canada- Rescue Us
Canada.‖ I am happy to introduce Canadian to Turkish reader attention from all aspects, such as
in history, economy, politics, education, immigration, etc. I will write more books about Canada.

I find my happiness and peace while I am writing. My childhood dream became true after some
long years. I am an author of 13 books now, and 2 more of them will publish this year. The
writer's secret is not inspiration –for it is never clear where it comes from– it is his stubbornness,
and his patience. A lovely Turkish saying – to dig a well with a needle – seems to me to have
been said with writers in mind and I agree that happiness comes after patience, compassion and
hard work.

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Chapter 48

Reflections on Immigration Issues and Migrants

What is reason for immigration?


Where is the migration safe house?
What is plan sur?
Are they dangerous?

1- People forced to immigrate because they have jobs, living in poverty. Every day, 3000 Latin
Americans are trying to immigrate to North America, only 300 of them made it. They scared of
being thief or burglar and decide to go USA to find work and better life. Many travelers lost
because they don‘t carry identification when they illegal immigrated. Even hopeless and their
life in danger, they never give up trying to escape to find out better life. Al Salvador immigrants
are crossing the borders without papers.

2- Safe house is helping people it is institution of the Catholic Church that they offer shelter,
food, cloth, three time meals. Lately they see more women and children. The American demand
to stop immigration from Mexico by using force and refuse to provide basic aim.

3- Mexico becomes the cemetery. Plan Sur is the USA plan that pushes them back to their
country. The expansion of the USA border is from the North to the South. About 75% abuse is
coming from police. They are trying to give bribe to escape. 80% of immigrants robbed in
Mexico. Police even doing that threat like animals. The cell where polices keep the inhuman
condition. Undocumented migrants are nothing to offer to police. They will back to Safehouse
after robbed. There is train of death in Honduras and the mine field in Mexico. They are hanging
to trains when it moves. Many injuries happen when they ran after the train of death. Many lives
end.

Gangs group member also immigrated to USA. Crime is out of control in their country. Human
smugglers are asking too much money to cross border. Crossing the river is also dangerous.

What about Canada!

Immigrant and Refugee = Crime= terrorism= threat to the national security.

How does liberal democratic Canada state deal with this shift post September 11 era?

Jacobosky had used of equivocation of language- talking word and phrases for controlling
immigration. – Minister used word of manage- so on. Other one example, that she used unlimited
family unification. It is nuclear family not extended family not included grand etc. Restricted
definition of family to put limit that come to Canada with family unification. Most of
immigrants are belong to racial minority. Safe third countries for refugees, Canada send back to
safe counter where they come from. I will answer these questions in my reflections.

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Reflection#1 The Feminization of Migration
A phenomenon known as ―the feminization of migration‖ refers to women travels
worldwide individually are considered new type of migrants who are employed the service work,
the domestic work and the sex work under the Temporary Employment Authorizing. This
movement relates to new pattern of transnational because their daily
lives around more than one nation-state and dispute a sense of belonging. Since the adult
entertainment industry emerged in the Western countries, many capitalist employers, agents,
governments have been targeted to have cheap Latino women labour as exotic dancer. Mexican
female workers are also hired under the SWAP program mostly in Canadian agriculture sector
that extent and emerging forms of inequalities. Both Latino and Mexican women human rights
are violated because they are classed, gendered, racialized and sexualized where they live and
work.
First of all, the movement of people, culture, technology and capital across border
because of transnational process expanded under the globalization. They have to get work visa
outside of Canada in subject to a potential job offer confirmed by Human Resources and Skills
Development of Canada (HRSDC). Hiring process is very problematic because they are hired
under the unskilled worker status even they have an experience and their occupation is not on the
National Occupational List. The Sex worker is listed under the social category, so their
professional is not recognized as well.
Secondly, women temporary workers are more stigmatize and isolate than men, employer
or agent are abusing them physically and psychologically. The economic condition and
exploitation are controlled by employer, agents and government. They threat them according to
their status, so temporary work permit women worker are more at risk, it declines when they get
immigrant status based on conducted research. Many of them are single mother, sending money
back home regularly, highly degree of connection to home countries.
Thirdly, the rights of unionize and collective bargain denied for domestic workers even
though prohibited to organize wildcat strike. Since 2001, there has been several resistances
occurred in which were health, worse work condition, housing and abusing by employer
considered. They fear to deportation or punish by not being granted work again. A few can
extent their contracts to transfer another employer. They feel worthless, do not have any rights,
and only their seasonal work needed.
In conclusion, both class and cultural struggle interplay role as class, culture and power, a
strict, gender, ethnic and racial division of labour involves discrimination. Domestic workers are
doing dangerous, hardest and dirties jobs, mean while men and women are competing each other.
There is no doubt that women are living and working in the host spaces, worsen conditions than
men counterpart. Their social existence and social relation cannot be denied according to their
non-immigrant status. Those transnational circuits cause cultural struggle in terms of trans-local
and transnational social process.

Reflection#2 Diaspora Remittances


Diaspora communities continue to remake and reshape their homeland through
remittances, investments, property ownership, and cultural influences. Diaspora activities and
their relationships to the development in the Third World are very significance. They are
challenging on ideological and political projects. These Diasporas have often strong economic
and political ties to their place of origin and distinct cultural identities. In the Chapter 11 and the

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Chapter 12 are given India and Al Salvador experiences of interrelations between homeland and
the host country which explore Diasporas socially, ecologically or economically, and
transnational practices and settlements.
First of all, Diaspora communities have different forms of participations to process of
homeland development. This support could be in-kind labour support, moral support and
provision of goods and services. Ideological support is very significance, for instance
Salvadorian bloody social movement of FLMN changed El Salvador regime, economy and social
environment radically after signed peace agreement with the government in 1992. This external
shock is a sample of net positive development and successful one.
Secondly, there is a relation between transnational practices and immigrants‘ settlement
dynamics. Diasporas try to keep their collective identity while the host country seeks distinct
pattern of transnational and in a way of incorporation political practice. A migration either can be
forced or voluntary, Diaspora has always been trying balance between sending country politics
and response of the host country who use dynamic of immigrant incorporation whether
assimilation or integration. Newcomers should enter the structure and order of the city‘s social,
economic, political and cultural landscape. For example, Salvadorian community continually
engaged and interact state and non-state factors such as social movement of FLMN in Los
Angles and religious organizations in Toronto differently. Ecological environment shapes their
development activities.
On the other hand, it is not surprising that 25-40 million Indian origins Diaspora plays
very crucial development of the Gucerat and the Kolkata in India with their economical supports.
There has been series of social movement emerged to contest issues of gender, religion, caste,
and social and ecological justice in the Gucerat. Diaspora‘s Kolkata investments are employed
working poor while 25-75 % of ownership of luxury houses belongs to the overseas Indian. Only
problem is dislocation of certain population who has to adapt the host country though working
and living conditions are worse.
In conclusion, there are many divisions of groups and variation in Diasporas culture and
developmental assistance based on gender, class , ethnicity and culture in which are identified
trade, labour, imperial and postcolonial Diaspora. Both Salvadorian population in Toronto and
Los Angeles are characterized low wages, poor working condition and uncertainty socially. After
the post war role in Salvador is politically a success story that Diaspora forced to redefine and
reshape society in the homeland; in the meantime, their local and transnational economical and
political alliances and agendas have shifted and forge relationship to more stable, successful and
gross-root project at the host country. Overseas Indian transform and sustain their society
economically through direct investment, in-kind support and use their foreign experiences on
projects but the Third World is radicalized and marginalized yet while refugees are alienated
within the society.

Reflection#3 The Peruvian Diaspora of Canada


The increasing of the remittances is very important for Peru because over 10% of its
native-born population lives outside of the country, with this population making US money of 1
billion, 300 million a year, transferring some back home. During the late 1980‘s and 1990‘s,
migrant sending countries have started to implement their own policies to access their
populations abroad. As another example, the Peruvian government has reorganized consular
services to provide better services for the country‘s Diaspora population living in hosting
societies through cultural, educational and community development. Many Peruvians came to
Canada as refugees. Since the 1960s and the 1970s, economic and political situations have gotten
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worse that led to Peruvian immigration in the first place. The Advisory Council was established
in Toronto after the Peruvian government tried to reach out to the Peruvian community, but
many cultural, sport and other organizations were barely represented there. It was supposed to
bring together its community for dialogue and provide better consular services to the Peruvian
community. It then created social space between diplomats and this community‘s members.
In early years, several Peruvian consulars had difficulty to communicate with their own
people for what kinds of services they should have provided between the Peruvians living in
Peru and those living abroad. Autocracies, centralizing power and discrimination have continued
within the community even when the community had acted in union. This Advisory Council was
promoting several programs, with the top down order rather than supporting community-based
projects, to recognize such programs as the Inca cultural program and the official language of
Spanish. The Peruvian government was interested to work with those who were well integrated
to Canada rather than with refugees. The government benefits from the money made by
remittances, in which are the main reasons and more important issues for the government to
increase them among community members.
However, later on, the Advisory Council transformed itself, and communicated with
community members using more efficient methods. All parts of the community and the
government sat together to solve their problems, and offered real follow-up programs, bringing
the feeling of more responsibility for the design suitable in the implantation exercise that is the
so-called participation of Peruvians at abroad. The Peruvians participated in mandatory elections
and increased their remittances as a result.
In conclusion, the Peruvian Diaspora is the victim of injustice and inequality in the
transnationalism practice. The Peruvians and Mexicans living in the US, and Canada, have faced
systemic racism and discrimination because of Canadian laws and regulations, in which
apparently have shown disrespect towards a migrant‘s human rights and labour rights,
criminalizing migrants. The Peruvian government spoke with its community after a lot of
struggle. There is still an accountability issue about democracy, though voting is still a
mandatory duty for Peruvians living abroad, in which it is the best mechanism to keep the
community united in the Diaspora. Through democratic institutions, relationships between the
country‘s government and its citizens will be stronger. Peruvians also want more participation in
a civil society while they are living abroad.

Reflection#4 Why do Neo-liberalists Support Transnationalism?


Globalization has led to the increase of transnationalism, in which produces
interconnectedness, and constitutes a variety of ways by a mechanism of social, political and
cultural affiliation among migrants, and creates a Diaspora culture. The movement of people,
cultures, technologies and capitals across borders is because of the transnational process
expanded under globalization. Transnational people are experienced in the global North and
South through migration and live and work in multiple locations where the Diaspora culture had
emerged. Transnationalism increases the movement of people, knowledge and ideas across the
national boundaries among the world population. Transnationalism challenges to change the
state‘s policies, regulations, and laws, and also affects the global market economy, changing the
nature of capital and international politics.
Neo-liberalists support and promote transnationalism with development, democracy,
personal empowerment, and international or non-governmental agency actors. The economic
condition and exploitation are still controlled by employers, agents and the government. These
three groups of people threat and violate the rights of migrants because of their low status, which
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declines when domestic or temporary workers gain the permanent immigrant status. Many of
these cheap laborers are single mothers, sending money back home regularly with a high degree
of connection to their home countries.
Many Diaspora community members are the victims of injustice and inequality in the
transnationalism practice because of current systemic racism, social exclusion and
discrimination. All host countries‘ laws and regulations apparently have shown disrespect
towards a migrant‘s human rights and labour rights, criminalizing migrants. Researchers need to
focus more on the violations of Diaspora member‘s human rights. Diasporas try to keep their
collective identities while the host country seeks distinct patterns of transnationalism and ways
of incorporating political practices and producing new cultures. A migrant can either be forced or
voluntary. The Diaspora has always been trying to balance the relationship between the sending
country‘s politics and its responses of the host country that dynamically take use of the
immigrant incorporation, whether concerning assimilation or integration.
In conclusion, Diasporas have been forced to redefine and be reshaped in society even in
their homelands; in the meantime, their local, transnational, economical and political alliances
and agendas have shifted and been forged into relationships to become more stable, successful
and gross-rooted projects in the hosting country. Diaspora communities have become more
cosmopolite towards their engagement for more rights because large numbers of people have still
been suffering from racist policies, state repressions, and the denial of basic human rights. These
are linked to the transnational practice of actions and polices enacted by states and supranational
institutions, and also by people and by communities.

Reflection#5 Immigrants‟ past educations and experiences are wasted

Immigrants‘ past educations and experiences are wasted in Canada because professional
organizations are locking up the system and locking out newcomers. Professional associations
are likely to resist reforms in the system, and are not willing to change their unreasonable rules
voluntarily. The systemic discrimination still exists, which put barriers for controlling
immigration and segregation by the government. Immigrants are forced to live in certain social
locations, and develop depending on social relations that are called the racialization of space.
The space- ghetto becomes more racialized and isolated space is socially constructed. My
opinion is that removing foreign credential barriers that newcomers face in Canada is an urgent
issue that related to racialization of space and spatialization space issues.
A poll, carried out by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business in 2006, found
that 50 percent of businesses are worried about labour shortages. However, thousands of skilled
and well-educated immigrants still struggle in finding professional jobs because their foreign
credentials have not been recognized. The Primer Minister of Canada, Stephan Harper, promised
before the latest October 14th election that the Conservative Party is going to recognize foreign
credential if they choose to elect it. He knew that Ontario‘s comprehensive plan of Breaking
Down Barriers was not working. Status quo hasn‘t changed for a long time for newcomers.
White Canadians are pure-blooded people, other than the coloured immigrants, and are still taken
in superior positions in workplaces, making the biggest salaries.
The Ottawa and Ontario government should work together to remove systemic
discrimination against newcomers. They must make a new Bill that is to create new evaluations
and diploma equivalence systems regarding additional licensing tests, degrees year of
experience, and practicing and registration requirements, which must be simple, fair, and less
expensive. Access to some positions shouldn‘t be conditioned any more by membership. Never

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again shall an immigrant have to hide his/her credentials when apply for a job. The Eugenie
movement and IQ test loses their ground, but there is still systemic bias exist to the people in
color. For example, seasonally, temporarily workers, living care givers, and migrant farm
workers can come and work, but cannot access health care and apply to get immigrant statuses.
Most Immigrants and Refugees, especially women, lack of knowledge about legal rights,
potential opportunities, and community resources, which are needed for their survival. A
language barrier prevents the new immigrant from seeking assistance that is available in the
community. Immigrant women have segregated for fear of deportation if their husbands were
sponsors. Social economic and cultural statuses are problems because the idea that men are
inherently superior to women shows that what a man decides, wants, needs, and believes is more
important than what a woman decides, wants, needs, or believes. The first generation of
immigrants find themselves isolated from the support and counsel of family and friends that were
left behind. Due to geographical isolation and financial constraints, women immigrant victims
are trapped in their homes, as there is nowhere else to turn, since the social environment is
oppressing and impacting on them negatively.
In Conclusion, the majority of immigrants are falling as victims of the present system,
racial stigma, disqualified, deskilled, and stereotype assumption of how they are based on colour,
age, gender, race etc. The new liberal point of view and equality of opportunity and anti-
discriminations can remove systemic discriminations against newcomers by putting pressure on
the Ontario and Ottawa governments to pass a new Bill. The government can be referred to as
professional associations, and newly qualified immigrants as mandatory. The professional
association should have the responsibility to arrange practical immersion of new immigrants into
the Ontario professional environment and administer an entry test to the association. This
readjustment process would have to be completed within one year and half or two at the most.
Canada must stop using the Immigrants as cheap labor, and should only product consumers who
fill up the needed population, and put them in a vulnerable position and situation.

Reflection# 6 The Borderless


Before the CUPE strike in the Fall 2008 at York University ( It took 4 months, university
closed down), we watched a movie about poor Latin Americans that were forced to immigrate
because they had no secure jobs; most of them were living in poverty. Each day, 3000 Latin
Americans are trying to immigrate or seek refugee status with North America, and according to
the movie, only 300 of them made it. Hunger, malnutrition, sickness, and lack of education
continue to exist, and undocumented immigration is unstoppable. The reason for immigration is
economic; so, illegal aliens cannot seek asylum or can be categorized in terms of the refugee as a
matter of international law and criteria.
Apparently, most of the Latin Americans in the movie feel that they have no other choice
but to enter the U.S. A. illegally and, therefore, are literally risking their lives. They have died
when trying to cross the borders; some of them have asphyxiated in shipping containers, or were
wounded by chasing train, drowned on rivers, or have died of thirst after becoming lost in the
desert. Several interviews have indicated that they are scared of being thieves or burglars under
the influence of poverty, and have decided to go to the USA in search for work and a better life.
Many travelers have become lost because they hadn‘t had carried any identification when they
had illegally immigrated. Even this hopeless condition and their lives are in danger, but yet they
never gave up trying to escape and find a better life. In the movie, Al Salvador immigrants had
crossed the borders without papers while many of them died, or were forced to back up, but they
would still try this over again, no matter what the consequences were.
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Therefore, an institution of the Catholic Church has helped the Safe House that has
offered shelters, food, clothes, and meals three times a day to those who are in need. Lately, they
have seen larger numbers of women and children. The Americans have demanded the halt of
immigration from Mexico by using force and by refusing to provide their basic aims. Mexico has
now become the cemetery. Plan Sur is the USA‘s plan that has pushed these immigrants back to
their countries. The expansion of the USA border is from the North to the South.
Most importantly, about 75% of the abuse came from police. They have tried to give
bribes to escape. 80% of immigrants have robbed many in Mexico. The police have threatened
them as if they were animals. The cells where the police have kept the immigrants were in
inhuman condition. Undocumented migrants have nothing to offer the police. They will have to
go back to the Safe House after robbing. There was a train of death in Honduras, and as well as
the minefield in Mexico, which had happened to be very sad. They have hung on trains while
they move. Many injuries have happened when they have run after the trains of death. Many
lives have ended during their escape. Gangs of group members had also immigrated to the USA.
Crime had been out of control in their country. Human smugglers had been asking too much
money, and have crossed their borders. Crossing the river is also very dangerous.
In conclusion, a refugee is defined as ―someone who has had a well-founded fear of
persecution because of his or her race, religion, nationality, or membership in a particular social
group, or political opinion, and when they are outside of his or her country of nationality, they
are unable to avail themselves of the protection of their country of nationality or habitual
residence, or to return there, for fear of persecution.‖ The Latin Americans don‘t fit the refugee
criteria, despite their undocumented workers. Businesses know that undocumented workers have
relatively few options for employment and could be hired less than minimum wage. When
unscrupulous employers hire undocumented workers in order to take advantage of their
marginalized status this drives down wages for everyone. Finding solutions to the question of
undocumented immigration will not be easy neither in the USA, nor the Latin America and
Canada.

Reflection #7 A Social Virus: Racially Superiority


Though the Anglo Saxon has been racially superior, and had duty of gate keeping from
defective aliens for keeping Canada as a safe haven home. Classism, racism and sexism have
always continued to be topical issues in contemporary Canadian Society as a colony and a
colonizing nation. Major Canadian social, cultural and economic institutions have been suffering
from the racist and the sexist laws, policies and practices since the creation of Canada. My focus
is on three main roots of discrimination in which are affected to our believe system. The
systemic discrimination creates classes and shapes immigrant and Canadian identities deeply
political throughout the history of immigration. Class, race, and gender contour and texture the
Canadian public imagination and, more specifically, racial purity, sexual purity, and pure blood
elite class historically as roots of immigration, and they inform the lives of immigrant and
Canadian in every day life.
The Anglo Saxon ―race‖ has been controlling the other races in many ways, for instance,
―rule a regulation and control of instinct‖ which inherited from British was ― crucial for gender
formation, for class order and for racial and other organization (Walker, 2008: 176). Almost all
along the 20th century, Canada's immigration policies were restricted to many nations, colours,
religions, genders, ―explicitly racist, and seeking to establish a "white settler" society‖ (Gupta,
2008). Restrict and Regulate Chinese Immigration Act of 1885and later on -Canada's
Immigration Act of the 1910- to specifically provided for the prohibition of "any race deemed
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unsuited to the climate or requirements of Canada" (Walker, 2008: 97). For example, since mid
19.th century white British settlers have discriminated Chinese race, and produced hatred as a
natural antipathy engendered conflict between races such as non-white, barbarian, slave etc., and
supported to strategies to get rid of city of Chinese.
The Immigration Act of 1952 reaffirmed that immigrants could be barred from Canada
because of their "ethnic group" identity, their "geographic area of origin", or their "probable
inability to become readily assimilated" (Walker, 2008). Strangely, these guidelines were used to
exclude blacks whose had been living in Canada since the 1700s. Indeed, blacks faced more
prejudice and institutionalized forms of discrimination in the first half of the 20th century, than
during the 19th century. On the immigration front, until the 1960s, blacks were allowed into
Canada only as a "last-resort" supply of cheap labour or skilled workers. This applied
particularly to two periods when special programs were established to bring in Caribbean women
as domestic, household workers. In 1962, colour-blind act accepted and non- white population
began to welcome with very small number as matter of fact ―Canadian did not change
generations of racial attitudes overnight‖ (Walker, 2008: 237).
Secondly, ―Women in Colour‖ are most discriminated population in order to keep sexual
purity. ―Immigrant women were the silent and neglected minorities within many minority groups
(Gupta, 2008). During the early periods of immigration, with perhaps the exception of domestic
workers from the Caribbean, many communities were so-called "bachelor societies," in that only
men were permitted to enter Canada to fill gaps in the labour market. This applies especially to
racial minority groups such as the Chinese (Walker, 2008: 92 ). Gupta has given an example
from her life experience that in everyday discourse, with the phrase ―women of colour‖ by most
Canadians interested in, whether they are ―of colour‖ or ―White‖. Anybody who deviates from
this stereotype someone who is a person of colour, has a non-dominant accent, wears a
―different‖ dress or headgear, coupled with a working class occupation would be referred to as
―immigrant‖ or non-Canadian, even though they may be holding Canadian citizenship as well as
taken very good position in society (Gupta, 2008). European settlers believed that they have to
control one‘s sexual needs and want (Walker, 2008: 175).
On the other hand, as a specific gender racism and sexism ―black men were portrayed as
oversexed and hence as probable rapist‖ because of Ku Klux Klan activity in Saskatchewan and
Alberta (Walker, 2008: 180). Other example, construction male workers were recruited from
Italy after the post-war period, when the economy began to improve, but they were not allowed
to bring their families. Since 1967, men brought their wives and other family members over after
the liberalization of immigration policy. However, since the liberalization of immigration laws in
1976, the number of women of colour who have immigrated has increased. (Gupta, 2008).
Thirdly, immigration policies are constructed by economy and current market conditions,
power and privilege distribution haven‘t been fairly and equally shared if you are naturalized
Canadian or immigrant, thought of 3% of white population of elite must be controlled others.
Ironically, century ago the majority of European immigrants were peasant origin, but still they
have been threatening newcomers unwelcome and unwanted. A lot of frictions had happened at
the past when unionizes and garment workers fought over taken control of` market as well as
tension arose between non-Jewish and Jewish workers while mixing with people on Spadina
because ―Jews were considered to be foreigner by definition‖ (Walker, 2008: 147). ―The ideal
type of Immigrant and Canadian had formatted by the medias notions such as common sense, the
reasonable person, and normative values are repeatedly picked apart and revealed for what they
are arbitrary standards set by the dominant culture to reinforce that culture‘s sense of superiority
and position of power in society‖ (Jiwani, 2006).

360
Gupta and Jiwani talk about this irony as follow: ... a reasonable person, especially within
the context of law, the ideal typical Canadian is the law-abiding, rational, White, middle-class
person who speaks the dominant language and embodies national mythologies that are then
performed accordingly. The notion of a reasonable person, especially as derived from the
national mythology of Canada as a peaceful kingdom, rests on the assumption that such a person
makes few demands, pays her/his taxes, and lives out her/his life in a linear trajectory that begins
from humble origins and rises to the pinnacle of economic and social success. The preferred
immigrant fits the mould of the reasonable person. But, unlike the reasonable person, who is
most likely to be born in the country and who is White, the preferred immigrant tends to be a
person of colour. This person does not bring conflicts over from her/his ancestral lands of origin.
In other words, such a person shows patriotic loyalty to Canada, a land that has provided many
opportunities and for which she/he is grateful. At the same time, the preferred immigrant also
believes in the system, adhering to the same liberal beliefs as those of the reasonable person
(Gupta, Jiwan; 2008, 2006).
In conclusion, the existence of racism, sexism and classsim as well as intolerant of
religious, ethno cultural and racial minorities have been a long-standing undercurrent of attitude
and practice as roots of systemic and individual discrimination throughout Canadian history in
order to preserve Canada as a white Christian nation. Jews, Catholic, Muslim and ethnic and
racial minorities experienced overt discrimination and were effectively excluded from
participation in the city's economic and political mainstream. ―Up until the 1940's there was no
redress for persons who were subjected to racial discrimination. In the view of Canadian courts,
racist practices were neither immoral nor illegal‖(Siemiatycki, 2001). The media are structured
and controlled by the elite, who maintain the status quo. Media is given perception to the public
and racialized groups in the symbolic landscape of the nation. Indeed, in the Canadian popular
imagination, most women of colour are defined as immigrants, and as immigrants, they occupy a
particular range of representations. Success is seen in economic terms for immigrants. Failure
immigrants mean whose haven‘t try hard yet. The preferred immigrants are also law-abiding and
polite, assimilates into the dominant society who leaves her/his culture behind, and racialized
groups are wittingly and unwittingly compared with those who are considered normal, where
normalcy is defined according to dominant criteria of the good, law-abiding citizen or the
reasonable person.
The existence of racism, sexism and classsim as well as intolerant of religious, ethno
cultural and racial minorities have been a long-standing undercurrent of attitude and practice as
roots of systemic and individual discrimination throughout Canadian history in order to preserve
Canada as a white Christian nation. Jews, Catholic, Muslim and ethnic and racial minorities
experienced overt discrimination and were effectively excluded from participation in the city's
economic and political mainstream. ―Up until the 1940's there was no redress for persons who
were subjected to racial discrimination. In the view of Canadian courts, racist practices were
neither immoral nor illegal‖(Siemiatycki, 2001). The media are structured and controlled by the
elite, who maintain the status quo. Media is given perception to the public and racialized groups
in the symbolic landscape of the nation. Indeed, in the Canadian popular imagination, most
women of colour are defined as immigrants, and as immigrants, they occupy a particular range of
representations. Success is seen in economic terms for immigrants. Failure immigrants mean
whose haven‘t try hard yet. The preferred immigrants are law-abiding and polite, assimilates into
the dominant society who leaves her/his culture behind, and racialized groups are wittingly and
unwittingly compared with those who are considered normal, where normalcy is defined
according to dominant criteria of the good, law-abiding citizen or the reasonable person.
―Anglo-Saxon could see themselves as a specific race only in contrast to others‖ as a
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classification system (Walker, 2008: 178) that it is against basic human rights. Government has
to stop protect native Canadian from the competitions of immigrants by creating barriers and
threat newcomers defective an aliens or likened to a ―Social Virus‖ (Walker, 2008: 196).
Everybody has to be equal.

References:
Gupta, Tania Das. 2008. Class Lecture, October 7, 2008. Unpublished.
Gupta, Tania Das. 2008. Class Lecture, October 21, 2008. Unpublished.
Gupta, Tania Das. 2008. Class Lecture, October 28, 2008. Unpublished.
Gupta, Tania Das. 2008. Class Lecture, February 3, 2009. Unpublished.
Gupta, Tania Das. 2008. Class Lecture, February 10, 2009. Unpublished.
Gupta, Tania Das. 2009. Class Lecture, February 17, 2009. Unpublished.
Jiwani, Jasmin. 2006. Discourses of Denial Mediations of Race, Gender, and Violence. UBC
Press. 2006.
Jakubowski, Lisa Marie. 2002. Immigration and the Legalization of Racism, Amending the
Canadian Immigration Act: The Live-in caregiver Program, pp 54 and 61 Halifax: Fernwood
Publishing.
Kazimi, Ali. 2004. Continuous Journey. "http://www.cbc.ca/asithappens/index.html" _CBC
Radio One's As It Happens "http://www.cbc.ca/asianheritage/media/20080515asithappens.ram"
_interview with filmmaker Ali Kazimi on May 13, 2008. _ Retrieved on February 24, 2009 from
web site http://www.cbc.ca/asianheritage/2008/04/cbc_vancouver_community_film_s.html
Siemiatycki, Myer, Rees, Tim, Ng, Roxana, Khan Rahi. March 2001. CERIS Working Paper No.
14.

Orr, Bob. 2008. Resettlement: A Durable Solution, pp. 51-52. Canadian Immigration Policy and
Settlement. Clearance Centre of the York University Bookstore.

Orr, Bob. 2008. Resettlement: A Durable Solution, pp. 52-53. York Publication.

Walker, Barrington. 2008. The History of Immigration and Racism in Canada: Essential
Reading, Marginalized and Dissident Non- Citizens: Foreign Domestic Workers, Toronto:
Canadian Scholars‘ Press.

Reflection# 8 Migrant Workers Exploitation


The Canadian horticultural economy has been in need for seasonal temporarily workers
to fill labour shortages on Canadian farms during the peak periods of planting, cultivating, and
harvesting of specified farm commodities. Canadians aren‘t willing to accept the low wages and
heavy physical working conditions found in agriculture. Canada has been hiring temporary
workers from Caribbean countries and, since 1974, from Mexico under the Canadian Seasonal
Agricultural Workers Program (CSAWP). Since the human trafficking problem has been raised
when some temporary worker agencies have been tried to exploit more of these vulnerable
despaired people in need for a decent job, it uses the oppression of inequality, discrimination,
and sexism within our policies.
First of` all, the seasonal workers never have the opportunity to earn Canadian wages
with this unwelcome strategy. Horticultural employers are not treated as human beings, while
being forced to do labour, even because of their reliable supply of the low income given to
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workers to meet seasonal needs, in which may easily be sent back once they become useless.
Migrants‘ workers are spending almost 25% of their earnings to employment insurances, pension
plans, and taxes which never are brought back to them. Furthermore, they can not meet
requirements to apply for immigrant status or defend their labour rights such as creating a union.
Secondly, the program is run jointly with the governments of Mexico and the
participating Caribbean states, which recruit the workers and appoint representatives as
councilors to assist the program‘s operations. The ambassador of Mexico and it‘s councilors act
favorable towards Canadian employers, but not for Mexican employees once a conflict occurs.
These workers try to feed their families, sending their limited earnings back to home countries,
although their embassy is not helping them in any case, even with helping human traffickers,
because of the ―sending back money beneficial to Mexico‖ (Das Gupta, 2009).
Thirdly, our laws and regulations contain sexism. The vast majority of the migrant
workers selected are men. The temporary work authorization does not allow family members or
dependents to accompany the workers to Canada. Most of them have been suffered as thought as
a ―single bachelor society‖ (Walker, 2008), while living in troubled conditions, sometimes
working under the table as an ―undocumented worker‖ (Das Gupta, 2009). Some Mexican
workers have been coming to Canada through ten seasons, although never hope to settle down
permanently.
In conclusion, it is a known fact that our migrants‘ worker policy contains racism,
sexism, and discrimination because of a capitalism based approach in terms of exploitation. It
contains encouraging inequality and human trafficking. The sending country representatives
consider employers‘ needs in certain circumstances and their home government‘s interest in
securing as many work positions as possible in labour disputes. None of one side is interested in
farm workers‘ needs that are not eligible for overtime pay, regardless of the numbers of hours
worked, or having been paid vacation benefits nor unionizes. Migrant workers are afraid of
losing their jobs and living in harsh, helpless conditions where there is nowhere turn because of
our existing root of inequalities that exist in our exploit sexist and racist policies.

References:
Das Gupta, Tania. 2009. Class Lecture, March 24, 2009. York University.
Walker, Barrington. 2008. The History of Immigration and Racism in Canada: Essential
Reading, Marginalized and Dissident Non- Citizens: Foreign Domestic Workers, Toronto:
Canadian Scholars‘ Press.

Reflection# 9 Chinese Head Tax and other discriminations


15,000 Chinese came to Canada from China and about 6,500 of them were employed by
CFR for the railway construction between 1881 and 1884. Right after the CPR was completed,
the Federal Government moved to restrict the immigration of Chinese to Canada. The first
federal anti-Chinese bill was passed in 1885 that the form of a Head tax of $50 imposed, with
few exceptions, upon every person of Chinese origin entering the country. None of other group
was targeted in this way. The Head Tax was increased to $100 in 1900 and to $500 in 1903.
$500 was equivalent to two years wages of a Chinese labour at the time. Meanwhile, Chinese
were denied Canadian citizenship. In all, the Federal Government collected $23 million from the
Chinese through the Head Tax. Despite the Head Tax, Chinese immigrants continued to come to
Canada. In 1923, the Canadian Parliament passed the Chinese Immigration Act excluding all but
a few Chinese immigrants from entering Canada. Between 1923 and 1947 when the Chinese

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Exclusion Act was repealed, less than 50 Chinese were allowed to come to Canada. Many years
of racist, anti-Chinese immigration legislation, many Chinese families did not reunite until years
after the initial marriage, and in some cases they were never reunited, and on the other hand their
wives and children suffered because they were not allowed to bring their family, including their
wives during the exclusion era (Gupta, Walker, 2008).

Continuous Journey Regulation:


It was an immigration policy called the Continuous Journey Regulation of 1908 in which
had came to effect a temporary event become one of the most infamous incidents in Canadian
history, and ―raised critical questions about how the past shapes the present‖( Gupta, 2008).
Continuous Journey was an inquiry into the largely ignored history of Canada's exclusion of the
South Asians by law. A Japanese ship, the Komagata Maru, to carry Indian immigrants to
Canada on May 23, 1914, the ship arrived with the 340 Sikhs, 24 Muslims and 12 Hindus who
held on the boat a half- mile from Canadian port of Vancouver shores without provisions for
more than two months. During virtual prisoners on the ship, Canadian-British authorities had
driven the passengers to the brink of thirst and starvation, even thought fired on the passengers,
suspecting them to be seditious. Over forty people went missing or were killed, some of the
passengers escaped. This tragedy showed Canadian restrictive immigration policy and fears as a
fact, as well as the root of systemic discrimination in the history of Canadian Immigration. Ali
Kazimi is a documentary filmmaker, who told the story in a film called "Continuous Journey",
and explained as a result ―Unlike the Chinese and the Japanese, people from British India were
excluded by a regulation that appeared fair, but in reality, was an effective way of keeping
people from India out of Canada until 1948‖ as unwanted and unwelcome population (Kazimi,
2004).

Live-in Caregiver Program:


LCP is modified from existing the Foreign Domestic Movement Program on January 30,
1992 and came into effect on April 27, 1992 until present. Domestic workers are temporarily
migrant worker. According to new amendment on law, two major and controversial criteria have
made for entry into the program. Domestic workers have required to complete the equivalent of a
Canadian grade 12 education and to have taken at least six months of training in a field related to
care giving for the care of children, the elderly and the disabled. (LEI 20:3). Those personal
ability measurements are unrealistic. So, in 1993, program requirement has been changed to
applicants need either six months of training or 12 months of actual experience (Jakubowski,
2002). This program still contains and imposes to put barriers, for example against Caribbean
women, raise a lot of human rights questions regarding personal privacy and live freely, for
instance, de-racialization of certain race such as Philippines better caregiver, and produced
systemic discrimination against women. This law has provided several exploitations of their
domestic workers work such as cut off wages for accommodation by employer because law ―de-
institunalized of privatization of care giving‖ (Walker, Gupta, 2008, 2009).

Government Sponsored Refugees:


They have been referred to Canada through the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees. Government-sponsored refugees are placed in the Refugee Assistance Program
(RAP)(Gupta, 2008). There are two types of government-sponsored refugees. First: Convention
Refugees Abroad Class includes people who are living outside their country of citizenship or
habitual residence, usually in refugee camps. The United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees keeps records of people in their camps and refers them to Canada based on how
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desperate their situation is. Second: Source Country Class includes people who would meet the
definition of a Convention Refugee but who are still in their country of citizenship or habitual
residence. It also includes people who have been detained or imprisoned and are suffering
serious deprivations of the right of freedom of expression; the right of dissent; or the right to
engage in trade union activity. Once Refugee has been selected, travel arrangements are made
through IOM (Orr, Gupta 2008).

Privately Sponsored Refugees:


Some refugees could be privately- sponsored by churches or other organizations and
groups. The organization signs a Sponsorship Agreement with Citizenship and Immigration to
take care of the refugees when they arrive. Therefore, no government money is being used to
house, clothe or feed these people. They are responsible for those they sponsor for the first year
of their arrival, and must ensure that the refugee is both socially and economically supported
(Gupta, 2008). There are three types of refugee sponsorships: A group of five or more Canadian
citizens or permanent residents can sponsor refugees living abroad. Each member of the group
must be at least 18 years of age, live in the community where the refugee will live and personally
provide settlement assistance and support. Community Sponsors: this type of sponsorship is open
to organizations, associations and corporations who have the necessary finances and who can
provide adequate settlement assistance to refugees. Joint Assistance Sponsorships: this is for
special needs persons who would not otherwise be accepted for resettlement to Canada. The
government provides income support and private sponsors provide moral and emotional support.
JASs can last up to three years. Those fitting in this category include: women at risk, victims of
trauma or torture, large families, people who have been in refugee camps for extended periods
and those with medical conditions (Orr, Gupta 2008).
In this course, we have discussed how identities such as ―immigrant‖ and ―Canadian‖ are deeply
political and formed by classism, racism and sexism.

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Chapter 49

Social Movement of Political Economy Reflections


Social Movements are intrinsic to societies characterized by unequal access to property,
political power, and cultural resources. These reflections are intended to be a hands-on
exploration of the current moment of environmental, economic and political crisis – and the
response by social movements to these three crises. We‘ll consider how environmental,
community, anti-poverty, and labour movements and movements around immigration are
responding to these crises, their strengths, limitations and possibilities of success.

Reflection#1 The Manifesto of Communist and Unite of Workers


The opening passage of the Manifesto speaks of European powers entering into an
alliance against the communists. A century and a half later, we find ourselves dealing with
similar conditions. The post-war era saw the rise in anti-communist sentiment in the Western
world, which has not fully died down yet. The communist witch hunt that was started by Senator
McCarthy is an excellent example of the fear that the very name of communism installs in people
of power. The witch-hunt was not restricted to the U.S. alone, Canada had it's own versions of it
as well. Tommy Douglas, the father of Canadian universal healthcare, was apparently under
surveillance by the RCMP throughout his life. They feared that the Premier might have
harboured communist sympathies. The fear of communism continues today, despite the fall of
the old Soviet Republic and the profound change in the Chinese economy. The proof can be
found in the cries of "communist" that are hurled by politicians of various stripes at one another.
Barack Obama is often "accused" of being a socialist or a communist by his opponents. Prime
Minister Harper downplays any progressive motions tabled by the opposition NDP party, as
socialist agenda. He also accuses the Liberal party of making deals with the "socialist." Marx
saw the positive side of this situation as the acknowledgement of communism as a force in
politics.

Marx sees the long history of humanity as the history of class struggle. All class societies
have existed based on one operating principle: exploitation. Classes emerge because the
dominant class exploits the labouring class. The exploited classes always struggle against their
oppressors. Sometimes these class struggles take violent forms, but are generally non-violent.
Marx and Engels theorized and expected that the model of class formation and conflict would
provide a solution to the problem of how the powerless can gain power, and they offered the
culture of mutualism and decentralized democracy to unify workers, which then built up working
class communities for changes in working conditions as capitalism was lurching from crises to
crises toward its final end (Bantjes, 2007). I am in favour of neo-Marxist ideas and
interpretations because Marxist ideas have been shifted under post modernity and converted by
neo-Marxists such as Naomi Klein, who has claimed that capitalism and democracy, free
markets and free people, do not go hand in hand; in contrast, America‘s ―free market‖ policies

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have come to dominate the world through the exploitation of disaster, shocking people and
countries through three stages: swift regime change, changes to the economy, and the repression
of opponents (Klein, 2007).

As matter of fact, Marx‘s and Engels‘s predictions were right about the transnational
character of modern capitalism, but they also miscalculated many issues about modernity and the
regime change formula, although the ―capitalistic theory of class struggle, democracy, and the
Communism Manifesto‖ have become irrelevant in current society because of over
accumulation, advanced technological herds and egoist, self-centered individuals (Marx, Engels,
1848). Since communism had collapsed beyond the shadow of the Soviet Union in the 1990s,
socialism has become a dead ideology, left out in Marxist‘s idea of a so-called ―Utopian,‖
whereas it is a hegemonic power which causes inequality, poverty and injustice all over the
world, while the global economy and globalization dangerously depend on a ―US based recovery
of consumerism‖ as the US is a hegemonic power that has claimed that the world‘s economic
crisis and recession will be solved only within the Americanization context (Harvey, 2005). On
the contrary, the workplace has become like a prison; workers are slaves in such prisons where
exploitation and alienation have grown much more even though worker hatred and rebellion
have diminished, although this dehumanizing progress is under the control of the reserve army of
cheap labour, which is ready to replace current workers.

Marx‘s and Engels‘s romantic ideas, including Proletariats, are enjoyable and should
create an equal class, opposing force and organization for rebellion. In fact, workers didn‘t
destroy capitalism when they had the chance during the Great Depression years in the 1930s and
the recent economic crisis in 2008; in contrast, workers had fought against employers to improve
their position within the capitalist system, such as gaining in privileges when they had unionized.
The Fall River Case has shown that workers have fewer resources to use for resistance because
their minds, times, skills and jobs have been stolen and robbed (Bantjes, 2007). Immigrants have
integrated and assimilated into the dominant culture and their solidarity has weakened within a
short period of time. Recently, rationalism has been popular again with use of the classical
economic of Adam Smith, who suggested that if one doesn‘t get profit he will be taken out from
the unregulated market. Smith has used economics, behaviourism and biology as sources to
describe the ―individual hand‖ and ―market oriented person,‖ whereby Smith has developed
theories such as the exchange, rational and network theories that work with homo-economics.
Smith indicates that technologies of communication and transport have made distanciated
relationships possible within the so-called market (Bantjes, 2007).

Unfortunately, unionization continues to fail, blue-workers jobs increasingly disappear,


retail and service sectors grow fast although they are designed to hire de-skilled, part-time and
temporary workers (Bantjes, 2007). The capitalist system and capitalists had used the economic
crisis and oppression to exploit potential rebellion workers when they had put forth worse
working conditions. Nonetheless, there is still hope for unifying workers through the means of
educating them, whereas, Klein has indicated that MNCs have been hiring young, uneducated,
scared woman‘s groups. This is why worker-led resistance in the developing world is dim, in
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other words, it is impossible to be achieved. A new model of labour activitism that some are
calling ―community unionism‖ has emerged, and it contains neither a workplace nor is it union-
based (Bantjes, 2007). At the same time, Toronto-based sweatshop workers are paid on a
piecework basis—this method is used by companies to avoid paying for healthcare benefits,
pensions and vacations where organizational sites for workers have some nexus to an ethnic
community for socializing, such as women advocacy networks, while places outside of the
workplace are insufficient to unite workers to seek out their rights.

In conclusion, it is clear that globalization is a part of the Americanization project and


that MNCs are exploiting workers rights through the system of capital and labour mobility
without facing serious rebellion activities. Marxist‘s thesis concerns ―the crisis tendencies of
capitalism‖ which emerge from beneath consumption; however, ―neo-liberalism -or the
restructuring of globalism- is now not offering more than the current capitalist economic mode of
production and political economic system,‖ and it supports a few corporate elites to own and
create monopoly. Globalization is just promoting the ―homogeneity and sameness‖ that is
associated with Westernization and Americanization, or the new face of colonialism (Harvey,
Klein, 2005, 2007). In this case, globalization, capitalism and neo-liberalism are restructuring the
world economy through a financialization that cannot be an escape route for workers; it works
for the elite group‘s interest. Workers have to find their own interest for solidarity and establish
mutual cultures, get help from the international level in their counterparts and fight back against
capitalism in a new way. New labour movements should begin to emerge in this time to
challenge the dying system of capitalism.

References

Bantjes, Rod. (2007). Chapter 1- ― Workers of the World Unite‖ Canadian Scholar Press inc.

Toronto, 11, 13, 14, 18, 19, 31, 33, 35

Harvey, David. (2005). The new Imperialism. Oxford University Press. Paper edition, p 34,

135,137, 227

Klein, Naomi (2007). The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Publisher Metro, 24

Klein, Naomi (2000). No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies. Toronto: Random House, 211

Marx, Karl and Engels, Friedrich. (1848). Edited by Rick Kuhn, based on the 1888 translation by

Samuel Moore. August 20, 2004. The Manifesto of Communist Party, 1, 10, 11, 12

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Reflection#2 China in Crisis

China has a dual economy which has both a capitalistic and socialistic mode of
production, and at the same time this is a reason major determinant of the nature of its political
action and of the limited social movement sector, whereas there is a general ―weakness of
working-class cultural institution‖ because of the lack of emergence of a strong social movement
(Laird: 314). We can expect more social movements and resistance from China in the future,
although it would differ in size, organization and orientation when compared to those of the US
and Italy (Laird, 315). The Chinese government is centralized in Beijing and decentralized in
Hong Kong; in both cases the state action reshapes group boundaries concerning totalitarian,
authoritarian or liberal totalitarian ways.

Apparently, conflict and contradiction appear in the system of production as China‘s dual
economy overlaps regional disparities where the Shenzhen area has a disproportionate share of
the lower working class in the capitalist mode of mass production, where labour is exploited by
foreign companies and rural areas have suffered from under development, for example poor
agriculture workers have been exploited into the Mao‘s communism account. I assume that it is
hard to build unified movements within all subordinate classes and strata in China because the
state has been organized into a defensive state trade union, called the ACFTU, since 2008 which
continues to target to stop poor people uprisings.

In fact, globalization and the neoliberal political economy have been exploited to China
through multinational corporations, or giant companies, such as Wall-Mart, and too much
development has already caused widespread inflation, pollution, and inequity, although China is
addicted to growth as a matter of survival ( Ash-Garner, Zald: 94). Social instability has been the
single greatest threat to modern China and is seen as a more important issue than other factors.
De-globalization had started with the recent economic crises of 2008 where 63 thousand
factories have since closed. Ironically, China needs the US‘s currency assets to stay healthy in
the short term, and it keeps bargain based on globalization alive long enough to remedy its own
domestic troubles (Ash-Garner, Zald: 96).

I am surprised that China has sought out ways to increase wages and improve laws in
order to keep value at home and follow a long-term plan to survive instead of subsidizing
consumers ( Ash-Garner, Zald: 96). The Chinese government had been authored, or dictated, by
the 2008 labour reform, although only one authorized union which participated in dictating it
represented workers (Ash-Garner, Zald: 125). The ACFTU had decided and successfully
unionized all Wall-Mart stores in China, comparing that Wall Mart has never allowed the union
of its American and Canadian stores at home. China wants to build well-paid jobs and increase
consumer power, which will increase consumption instead of favour cheap labouring. China has
decreased its volume of exports and provided workers a fair wage because if workers wages are
low, they cannot be consumers. China wants to stimulate the market to be filled with middle-
class responsive consumers and supports farmers to secure food supplies and keep society more
socially stable.
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In conclusion, mass production is still exploiting Chinese workers and China‘s economy
in a short term, whereby poverty, social dispossession and pollution have dramatically increased.
China threatens a different sort of change which is capable of causing abrupt, disruptive and
violent labour movements to emerge at home, and this internal crisis could sabotage Western
economies well before environmental disasters impact energy costs and trade deficits. In
response to the economic crisis today, Chinese people have shared information on corruption,
human rights abuses, layoffs and unpaid wages and the state union has mediated to seek
adjustment without violence, arrest or job loss, although protest and unrest have increased in
Shenzhen, for example one strike continues to involve over a thousand workers every day in
Pearl River Delta alone (Ash-Garner, Zald: 101).

References

Ash-Garner, R. and M. Zald (1987) ‗The Political Economy of Social Movement Sector,‘ in
Social movements in an organizational society : collected essays edited by Mayer Zald and John
McCarthy (1987): 93–135.

Laird, Gordon. 2009 ―China Crisis: The End of Cheap Labour‖ from The Price of a Bargain,
293–317.

Reflection#3 Solidarity in Action


The recent rebellions and resistances within the Tunisian and Egyptian cases are the best
examples that prove that dictatorships are fallible, and at the same time, these street protests
show how the rising of civil society, the social network and global civil society are playing
important roles. People of Chile, Uruguay and Argentina had faced similar dictator cruelty in the
past and experienced protests differently, which were based on their resources and political
structures. I strongly believe in the realm of civil society, the free press, independent political
parties, unions and NGOs whose existences are needed to organize a powerful social movement.
The Political Opportunity Structure impacts any movement‘s structure based on
collective action, and vice versa. The Resource Mobilization Theory ignores ideology, origin,
structure, and political style and sees the emergence and development of movement as arising
from the availability and use of resources. For example, interestingly, authoritarian and
hierarchical organizations such as Catholic churches and other religious organizations have
changed their positions and offered their spaces for use by organization networks, which were
only available to resisters, and immunity spaces to organize resistance. Unions, political parties,
and NGOs are important civil society initiatives which may play roles depending on conditions.
As matter of fact, without the free press, social movements are unable to succeed or get
enough domestic and international attention. I‘m not surprised that the CIA supports puppet
states which have been manipulated and are used as ―agent provocateurs‖ to legitimate their
repression against New Left Movements in the 1960s and 1970s in Latin American countries
(Bantjes: 103). Under the Nixon and Carter Administrations, the CIA supported military coup
regimes that were common practices in Third World Countries, including Greece, Turkey, Egypt,
etc. while ―the quasi state,‖ an international organization, had assisted to hunt socialists or
communists during the Cold War era. Mass media organs had been publishing news that was
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always one-sided and which collaborated with allies that were either authoritarian or democratic
state regimes. Marxist and Leninist were put under the position of scapegoats.
Resource Mobilization and Political Structure theorists predict that the resources of
political space, the social network, international funding, the healthy juridical system and
legitimacy are crucial to challenge authoritarian regimes, although all social movement
organizations need to have internal and external alliances to eliminate extreme forms of
nationalistic, liberal or socialist types of state repression, terror tactics and power inequalities,
even though they exist within democratic regimes (Bantjes: 125-129). Political parties, unions
and NGOs should be free of state control and organize their activity independently from the
state.
In conclusion, the paranoia of state terror has been shifted from the New Leftist ideology
to the imaginary enemy of Islamic extremism and replaced its fictitious enemy since 9/11,
although assaults continue to target innocents such as Maher Arar. I believe that we need more
social movements that give hopes of social justice in the interest of collective actions and
altruism and preserve the meaning of human behaviour along with the richness of diversity in a
global society. In fact, theorists hadn‘t predicted that people could act with self-sacrificing
behaviour, especially in Chile and Argentine, which Max Weber called ―value rationality‖ rather
than instrumental rationality. Instead of thinking of personal benefits and costs, they act based on
whatever is right no matter what the consequences they will face, including torture as physical
brutality or psychological repressions (Bantjes: 126). The question still remains to encourage
research: how are we going to create a sense of belonging in collective action universally and
cope with internal weaknesses which had caused the decline of the 1960s‘ social movements?
References
Bantjes, Rod. (2007). Chapter 4- ―Resistance to State Terror‖ Canadian Scholar Press inc.
Toronto, 101-133.

Reflection# 4 War on Terror and Human Rights

A rule out of state repressions had been an important factor with causing the decline of 1960s
movements, and it also explains how many states have been helped to manufacture the fake ―terrorist
threat‖ and use public servants as ―agent provocateurs‖ to justify their awkward strategy since the 9/11
event. Labelling terrorists or freedom fighters has become blurry and very political, where terrorism is
understood as ―irrational, criminal rather than political behaviour,‖ such as the case of the FLQ because
of the ideological work of suppressive alternative discourse (Bantjes, 2007: 213). The war on terrorism
has made divisions between the ―us‖ and ―terrorist‖ perspectives and reinforced Islamists‘ own religious
dualism for the causes of which I will blame the Bush administration, mass media and hegemonic neo-
liberalism, which has led to increased radicalism (Bantjes, 2007: 218).
Since the tragic event of September 11, the USA Patriot Act and Canada‘s Bill C-36 have made it worse
for global and domestic securities where the War Measures Act and Public Order Temporary Measures
Act have also been implemented to dismantle civil rights and destroy civil society. With the collapse of
the Soviet Union, the concept of terrorism quite changed during the 1990s. It was inevitable to have
another foe for the USA. Globaliziton has reduced nations‘ ability for social inclusion, while
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neoliberalistic politics have favoured for the minimum of state spending and state regulations, rich and
poor alike. Debtor nations were required to cut their spendings on social welfare, such as education and
health care, which caused further anger and frustation (Bantjes, 2007: 213- 218).
The US acts against human rights, the freedom of religon, thought and conscious for which it has stood
up for many centuries. Bush had acted like a dominant, authorized and responsible leader of the world
who was, however, an undemocratic and annoying leader. Thus, the US and its allies started to
administer the world as a hegemonic power. This new administrative style made the UN functionless
and unncessary. The world was taken back to its previous condition before 1946. It was during this new
condition when the US declared that an international struggle against terrorism had been launched, and
it convinced the whole world to accept a new order that was being established in the term of strategy
of war on terror. New security precautions and restrictions were applied in North America and the EU,
which would increase the terror paranoia. I agree with Sunera Thobani‘s speech that the US
Administration has become the most dangerous threat to global security, and not international terrorists.
After September 11, the broadcasts over American television related with war and terror and were
censored by the US administration. The mass media obeyed the state‘s rules and gave up universal
human right values. Due to this collaboration, the American media did not inquire on the historical
background of September 11, the Bin Laden-CIA relation, business relationship between the families of
Bush and Bin Laden, the US collaboration with old-fashioned, feodal and military dictatorships, or the
fact that globalization produces poverty everywhere. The American media‘s organs are justified in their
rootnedness and greed as the responsibility of media is to not provide free publicity to the terrorist, as is
using censorship not to break up with the administration, although only the CBC, the Independent in the
UK and Le Monde in France provided alternative news coverages (Bantjes, 2007: 207). For example,
the US media has never shown the near-million dead Iraqi civillians, except for terrifying pictures of
Saddam's two sons who were killed for propaganda. Al Jazeera has become really a cultural revolution
in the Arab world as a new social actor. The tv channels in most Arab countries have begun to imitate
Al Jazeera and produce programs similar to those on this channel.
There is no need to say that mostly Muslims were affected by the terror paranoia. Disturbing attitudes,
glances of hatred and attacks have stopped, but once there was this hatred in the hearts of people. TVs
and newspapers are still bombarding and executing their news about Bin Laden, Afghani collaborators,
and Muslims alike. Nobody cares about the misery of Afghanis after the 9 years of NATO intervention
wherefrom the security mission had failed. After September 11, immigrants were treated like terrorists
as well. The governments of developed countries have implemented restrictive precautions in their
immigration and refugee policies. On the international agenda. struggling against terrorism includes
restrictions of the rights of refugees and migrants rather than their protection. The US has become more
terrifying not only for Muslim countries, but also for even the Muslims living in the US. Bush and his
team had claimed they were not fighting against Islam, although are not considered convincing in the
Arab world. Al Qaida has become a symbolic figure, generalizing the marginalized culture as a frame
that continues to exist even though this organization may not exist and instead is used for state
repression (Bantjes, 2007: 208).
In conclusion, people have believed what the media or authorites have said as if propaganda were like
holy verses. Americans don't like to find an alternative discourse, whereas they use policing and
military strategies to invoke the current war on terror. Western audiences prefer to take whatever media
and the state present readily without questioning whether it is true or false. In fact, Islam has banned
certain kinds of religious self sacrifice, the suicidal killing strategy, and the killing of innocents,
particulary children, elders and women, even in war time. Religious and nationalistic framings cannot
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justify violence whatever the conditions or reasons may be (repression, torture, invasion, rape, etc)
because their tactics are not universally accepted. Many Muslims fear that the category of ―Islamist‖
terrorist will be misapplied to legimate Muslims in the West and other Muslim countries and put them
under suspicion, even though 99% of them do not share the views of al Qaida, Hamas, Hizbullah and
other radicalist movements. I have agreed with the author‘s analysis that the discourse of the ―War on
Terror‖ has its ―own dark, anti-englightment element‖ (Bantjes, 2007: 218). The US Administration,
media and neoliberal politics have abandoned civil society and liberal democracy, whereof social
movement‘s identity has become more fractured, self regulated and less prone to bureaucracies and
secularism without holding grounding on the Marxist theory.
Reference
Bantjes, R. 2007. Chapter 7, Terrorism and the ―War on Terror, Social Movements In A Global Context.
Toronto: Canadian Scholars Inc, 2007. Print, 191-227.

Reflection#5 Cultural Jamming and Boycott Culture


Protests culture has reminded me of rebellious and boycotted cultures, and especially
cultural jamming which refers to the disruption or subversion of mainstream cultural institutions
or corporate advertising. I admire Naomi Klein‘s writings, since they have challenged many
social movements to influence corporate policies and provided cultural jamming techniques as
powerful tactics. Social movements should focus on the rejection of brand-oriented
consumerism, which operates by large corporations at a global level. I would like to discuss the
dark side of capitalism and neo-liberalism through consumption choices, rebellion products and
hegemonic brands.
Capitalism itself creates the tools for its opponents (Bantjes: 249). Capitalist societies
have many false needs where neo-liberalism, globalism and the consumer market have created
more unnecessary luxury products on a continual basis. Consumer culture reconstructs our
distorted, unlimited needs that are more than our basic necessities such as food, cloth and shelter.
Bored, alienated people consume more to cheer up and fill their emptiness. Media offers a false
freedom and civil society mobilizes consumers, or citizens, while neoliberals advocate market
governance (Bantjes: 242). Klein argues that the market-based economy has shifted to brand
equity, becoming ―the unique magic of the brand name‖ which creates cultural values and
identities, and even though neoliberals‘ corporate policies don‘t sell products anymore, they now
sell lifestyles and consumption choices (Bantjes, 244-245).
The anti-consumerism (anti-Americanism) movement had been triggered by Situationists,
although their positions were different in the 1960s and had shifted in the 1990s. The old
paradigm of consumerism had been made fun of, but today‘s consumerism is also fun. Today,
corporations make human qualities as brands and brands are cultures which are universally
accepted as powerful tools for practicing marketing strategies (Bantjet: 246). Mocking slick ads
with corporations that use anti-ad tactics and anti-commercial ads is not good enough to
challenge the system as a protesting strategy. Rebellious, or counter, cultures have been selling
their own products and have become a part of the capitalist culture. Counter culture may de-
market many rebellious minds, souls and bodies in a short period of time, while it produces its
own rituals and socializing space. Organizing civil disobedience is still a good tactic, since
people become empowered when they stand up for their beliefs and this empowerment sends
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ripples throughout society (Bantjet: 247). I like how Greenpeace has played out its protests using
Clayquot politics, as this is always the best strategy of trying to protest in special places, and
getting local support is always useful (Bantjes, 242-249).
I prefer to use the term ―hegemonic brand‖, since it assumes that the Americanism
culture has turned into a global monoculture and MNCs have become more powerful than the US
itself. Apple, Nokia, Nike and many hegemonic companies sell only brand name products and
have made the American dream and coolness widespread as if like viruses and narcotics
belonging to an unauthentic culture. The heavy and fancy consumption culture has been widely
distributed and put the whole world into a drug coma, as local communities, cultures and
traditions have become wiped out. Media makes us mental slaves and controls our minds to
convince us to consume more capitalistic goods. The recent Egyptian and Libyan protesters want
to adapt to this lifestyle and have used the word of freedom as a tactic. Liberal democracy and
free enterprise are still magical words for many countries.
In conclusion, if we can minimize our needs and consume less, capitalism will lose and
enter crisis, however, in the case where capitalism is on the rise, all of us sink together because
we are, in the end, on the same ship. This is why our consumption choices may turn into a
powerful weapon against neoliberal corporations to reduce the exploitation of workers, rules and
regulations for human goods within the system as Klein has suggested. If social movements want
to end neo-liberalism, consumer boycotts or Jamming the Jammer may not be good enough to
achieve their ultimate goals, since they must use more powerful tactics. The illusion of freedom
and civil disobedience are a social movement‘s weakness and yet strength at the same time. Big
players, unions, corporations and government departments could afford to send paid or elected
representatives to meetings when they are negotiating with protesters, whereas most of the time
social movements rely on volunteers and strugglers to find time for meetings and sometimes for
sending unelected representatives to them (Bantjes: 235). Despite this, how can social
movements change global brand usage where ordinary citizens like consumer goods, and
massive job losses are at stake if we are to consume less?
Reference
Bantjes, R. 2007. Chapter 8, Consumer-Citizen: the Market as a Social Movement Tool, Social
Movements In A Global Context. Toronto: Canadian Scholars Inc, 2007. Print, 227-257.

Reflection# 6 Seeking Commonalities


I agree that an international social movement network must be created against anti-
neoliberal globalization, also named as the ―counter-globalization‖ or ―alter-globalization‖
movement, one that that looks for alternatives to the neoliberal model of globalization or civil
global governance (Bantjes, 2007: 345). NGOs and civic organizations are crucial for balancing
out and supporting the anti-neoliberal struggle and using the emergence of the middle class that
has a stronger voice than the working class, even though the middle class is against the
transnational and multinational corporations and states. The global civil society can be built
based on human rights, democracy and freedom, which are our shared commonalities for
universal solidarity.
Unlike the claims of many Marxist theories, there are multiple oppressions in modern and
peripheral societies around the world with distinct political, cultural and economical identities,
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which form according to whether hegemonic struggles are cultural, reflexive or interpretative.
This is why social movements cannot rely on nor have faith in working classes, and because of
this class‘s weak leadership position on behalf of introducing new revolutions it is also incapable
of representing the interest of all other oppressed people as a unifying subject for today‘s
societies (Bantjes, 2007: 345). Consumerism is very powerful and inevitable; however, the old
working classes have begun to accept and integrate the capitalist system, unwilling to put an end
to capitalism. It is in this case where the counter-hegemonic struggle must focus on different
tactics, and search for new allies and networks. I have observed that the new middle classes have
remained at the head of the effort to oppose government cutbacks, deregulation, and the
privatization of social services and support human rights values and moralities that we all share
(Bantjes, 2007: 345).
I have a similar concern for Mouffe‘s radical democratic idea that democracy and
freedoms have been used for the ideological justification of the fundamental inequalities that
characterize capitalist society, because there is a lack of the definition of democracy, the
scepticism of freedom, and devalued universal commonalities. Democracy should satisfy our
needs as multiple subject divisions and fill in the gap of the political, cultural and religious
identities that should be divided in the institutional level with popular or majority collaboration.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is really a declaration about popular sovereignty
over corporate rules. The fundamental rights of all people are having food, clothing and shelter,
employment, education and health care, a clean environment, cultural integrity and quality public
services, plus fair wages and a decent working condition (Bantjes, 2007: 336). These rights are
defined as commonalities.
Freedom is an illusion in Third World countries, even in the West. Free trade kills us all.
NAFTA, MAI, the WTO etc. have erased the economic borders between nations and the labour
force by removing tariffs, quotes, and duties. For example, the capitalist system has developed a
system of food production that is in favour of the capitalist, or small elite, group and capital
intensives, which only support large-scale state-control or state-subsidized agribusiness, reduce
the use of labour, and make more people depend on wage labour in Canada, the USA, and
elsewhere, so that countries can consume the food that they cannot produce. There is enough
food production to feed the whole world—there should be no hunger and poverty—but one-sixth
of the world‘s population still faces hunger and lives even beneath the poverty line because the
culture of capitalism is eager to produce and overproduce goods, which are put under the control
of capitalists who have the ability to pay for their own interests and profit, while they don‘t care
of the ones who need to eat or are unable to purchase basic foods. Freedom means modern
slavery and depends on capitalism. Having food is basic human right. This motto can be used as
a universal tactic and has already created international movement networks, such as La
Campesina—a food sovereignty movement.
I have postponed several questions to be viewed here. Do we agree that development
means nothing more than protecting the neoliberal model of society in the rest of the world? In
fact, the growing integration of neoliberalism into the world economy of Third World countries
has resulted in the increase of poverty and the dying of thousands from starvation, instead of the
increase of human rights, democracy and freedom. What is our/your or social movements‘
solution for hunger, famine and poverty in the micro/macro levels? How can we create a real
global civil society, increase NGOs and people organizations‘ voices and increase the solidarity
among NGOs? How can we deal with weaker and stronger partners‘ interests when social
movements fail or succeed?
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Reference
Bantjes, R. 2007. Chapter11, Coalition Politics, Social Movements In A Global Context. Toronto:
Canadian Scholars Inc, 2007. Print, 320-345.

Reflection#7 Stephen Lewis- Race Against Time

Stephen Lewis‘ book and his series‘ lectures contain many heartbroken stories, facts and
realities in Africa. The title of his book, Race Against Time, fits into reality, and is well chosen
based on the experiences and witness of the author. Lewis had faced post-colonialism disasters
and had explained why he was disappointed with the optimistic plan of the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGS), in which had emerged in 2000 prepared by the UN. The goal of
the author‘s lectures was to at least halt and reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS and malaria, ensure
environmental sustainability, develop a global partnership for development, and show how the
Structural Adjustment Program‘s (SAPS) policies were making extraordinary damage on poor
African countries‘ economies, and their health and education sectors.
Lewis‘ purpose of effort proves that the Western contributions to Africa were never
enough, and particularly, its intergovernmental agencies‘ solutions weren‘t solving the serious
problems in both local and global levels. This struggle is especially seen in the case of the AIDS
pandemic, in which Western countries had failed in preventing AIDS in the whole of Africa.
While AIDS has been causing damages in socioeconomic conditions locally and jeopardizing the
multinational companies‘ trade globally, a cure has not yet been found in the spread of AIDS
through the period of 25 years, since the 1980‘s. The MDGS‘ goals are filled with the lack of
financial support and strategy; also, they are ―missing a huge margin in sub-Saharan Africa‖
(Lewis, 2005). For instance, Malavi, an African country, has a medical professional shortage,
though the government could not allow the hiring of more doctors and nurses under the order of
the IMF‘s restrictions. On the other hand, African countries have over 200 billion US- dollar
debts to the developed countries or intergovernmental organizations. Thousands of children have
given their lives to pay their countries‘ debts. This is a big paradox, and though Iraqi debts have
been erased, the debts of African countries have not.
Pandemics, especially AIDS, drain almost every single African country of its population,
even with medical professionals in the country who are also infected. Even in horrible living
conditions, Africans haven‘t asked for drugs to survive, and have instead wanted food as
everyone is hungry, suffers from starvation, and lives in a state where poverty is also inescapable
(Lewis, 2005). Neither the mandate of UNICEF as part of the Convention on the Rights of the
Child nor the MDGS‘ policies are clear enough to know what it is exactly that they are doing
within their practices. African orphan children are infected by AIDS overwhelmingly, and die in
a normalized routine every day as this is usual, and there is no universal primary education for
students or formal education that is given regarding AIDS. The IMF has always favored the
interest of creditors and rich elites rather than the interest of workers, peasants, or other poor
people.
The WTO has recently indicated that there is still a shortage of over one and half million
medical professionals in Africa. The IMF and other intergovernmental organizations are not
willing to finance or support a long terms sustainable health development in Africa.

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International Financial institutions have lost their credibility over the Structural Adjustment
Program. The IMF assumes that the combination of increased interest rates and cutbacks in
government spending will shift resources from domestic consumption to private investment. It is
further assumed that keeping the price of labor down will be an incentive for increasing
employment and production. But this increases unemployment, sweeps corruption, raises the rate
of illiteracy, increases violence, prohibits food costs, dilapidates hospitals, and increases the
disparity between the rich and the poor. The IMF had even asked to close down a school in an
African country, and that is why it ―behaved with unlovely arrogance for UNDP challenged the
Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper.‖ NGOs have also supported the Global Campaign for
Education (Lewis, 2005). Long term developments are not targeted by the IMF and the World
Bank, as for instance, the Global Campaign for Education has a financing gap of $5.5 billion a
year. As a former employee, Lewis sees that the FTI cannot be rehabilitated with current
guidelines; for example, the IMF in Africa and The World Bank still hadn‘t accepted the
mandatory bill for primary education since his last visit in 2005, and so he underlines that ―we‘re
rally in a desperate race against time here‖ (Lewis, 2005).
In conclusion, African countries need an extra $50 billion to fight against severe
pandemics, AIDS, infant and material mortality, and environmental sustainability by 2010,
though G-8 countries only promised $25 billion and the US promised $6 billion instead of $16
billion. This is a shame for all of us, since while the US subsidies $350 billion to American
farmers in a year and the European Union supports its own rangers two dollars for a cow in a
day, both rich states don‘t give enough subsidies to poor African countries in need. Lewis
suggests that African women leaders should start a grass root to ―bring together community
activities from each and every country in Africa and build a mass women‘s movement across the
continent, and rescue women from the cauldron of AIDS‖ (Lewis, 2005). He critics that finally,
UNICEF has spoken up on the topic of unnecessary school fees in Africa, and so it has also
entered the crusade against the pandemic with four-pronged plans and an action called ―Unite for
Children, Unite Against AIDS,‖ though this plan still requires funding for implications. Lewis
challenges that there are countless numbers of people in Africa and the world who are eager to
start collective and mobilized actions against AIDS in Africa, but still the centre of international
leadership is somehow missing (Lewis, 2005). This may be because of the way that leadership
appears to be now, as the former president of the US, Bill Clinton, has started a campaign to help
Africans. The Clinton Foundation‘s project and its initiatives (Doctors Without Border) have
gotten the best of support and responses in the international level. Clinton‘s experts know
structural and systemic problems, and they know who or what may be causing viruses, but time
is still running out against the African race.

Works Cited:
Lewis, Stephen. (2005). Race Against Time. Scarborough, ON: House of Anansi Press Inc.

Reflection#8 A Peasant Movement: La Campesina

The forces of neo-liberal economic globalization offer one global economy, culture and
global governance based on consumerism and the implication of modern technology, knowledge
and science. Peasants and farmers have been mobilizing with powerful resistance to whoever
accepts the neo-liberal model and its organizations, such as the WTO, FAO, IFAP, etc, and since
1993, they have been offering different visions than globalists. The Via Campesina is a peasant
movement and is involved with 140 organizations in 56 countries and has created a new global
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civil society. This unusual community-based grass-root radical social movement differs in the
ideological framework, represents millions of farmers from different nations and ethnics, and
uses different strategies and elaborate ethics. It is also able to get interests based on human rights
values in cooperation with farmers, and it establishes unity within the diversity among different
nations worldwide.
Via Campesina is different from other NGO organizations, being best categorized as a
people organization or popular mass social movement, where the people of this organization are
able to be democratic, involve with directly or indirectly elected representatives and be
responsible for their membership and constituency (Desmarais, p. 23). Their vision is concerned
with social and social justice and includes gender and ethic equality, while mobilization and
public protests remain as the most important strategies in growing horizontal structures
(Desmarais, p. 24). They don‘t reject modernity or its technology and trade, though the
movement has tried to create alternative models based on ethics and values for all of humanity in
order to prevent hunger and protect the population that suffers hunger-related poverty. Via
Campesina has enforced its targets and goals in which maintain the organization‘s control over
land and seeds as alternative models of rural development, which is a model based on small scale
family farms and peasant agriculture (Desmarais, p. 39).
As a matter of fact, whoever controls the seeds controls the farmers. Globalization gives
more power to multinational corporations that control the food system and make huge profits
through the advances in genetic engineering and biotechnology. Since the last three decades,
transitional corporations (TNCs) have become the motorforces of globalization and the
supporters of the creation of the WTO, as well as the dominant actors in trade and business
negotiations worldwide. For example, the majority of food productions and industries belong to
TNCs, and for instance, only five giant agricultural companies control over 75 % of the world
trade in the grain business (Desmarais, p. 55). The modern model of agriculture and genetic
technology has led to the increase in the development of farming and the exportation of food in
the world, but the levels of poverty and hunger have not decreased worldwide because of TNC‘s
monopoly.
Unfortunately, Via Campesina and the WTO don‘t speak the same language, and they are
in opposing sides as well and have different visions for the future because the social movement
of Via Campesina radically builds different models of agriculture on the concept of food
sovereignty all over the world. The key goal and strength is the movement‘s collective identity
that is defined as the ―people of the land‖ who build food sovereignty in unity within diversity.
140 organizations in 56 countries that its members inhabit represent diversity in showing how
farm and peasant organizations have organized themselves in national and international levels
(Desmarais, p. 32). This movement creates a progressive alternative to the IFAP that will create
conflict and violence.
In conclusion, the Via Campesina organization actively resists globalization and its neo-
liberal model of agriculture business, both in national and international levels, using different
strategies with redefining farming communities that have found a global solution for the peasants
of the world. This is while creating alternative ideas, identities, solidarities, social spaces,
political cultures and global responses among farmers for ideal agrarian reforms and land
distribution, as well as for the equal control of resources including water, seeds, credits, training,
and struggle inclusions to access market regulations and fair prices (Desmarais, p. 26). As a
result, farmers and peasants have come together to solve their problems in different parts of the
world. The farmer driven model challenges corporate global industrial models, in which require
the restructuring of agriculture and the rejection of globalization. This new model encourages

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and empowers family farms and recognizes the production of food that remains in local social
relations for our safety (Desmarais, p. 72).

Reference:

Desmarais, Annete Aurelie. 2007. La Via Campesina. Globalization and the Power of Peasants.
Fernwood Publishing: Halifax, 2007.

Reflection#9 Manfred Steger‟s Globalism


Manfred Steger‘s Globalism: the New Market Ideology maintains a great differentiate
between the process of globalization and the current ideology of globalism. Within the
collaboration of neoliberal theory experts, such as Friederich Hayek and Milton Friedman, Steger
clearly distinguishes the ideology of globalism, and globalization. He not only talks about
globalization but also the process of economic success. He describes the expansion of the
unregulated market not only from its economic outcomes but also from it‘s maintenance of
historically expanding and integrating patterns of exchange, which include political, cultural, and
commercial exchange as the meaning of globalization. He argues that neoclassical Laisssez-faire
economic theorists such as Hayek and Friedman return to the general public acceptance because
of recent economic recession as the principle of classical liberalism; additionally, he claims that
―Social Darwinism‖ is the formative basis of new classical liberalism. My reflection focuses on
the main differentiate of Steger‘s claims about the neoliberal approach, his globalism and
globalization perspectives, and his problematic blames.
First of all, Steger accomplishes to identify the central elements of neoliberal globalism,
―the primacy of economic growth; the importance of free trade to stimulate growth; the
unrestricted free market; individual choice; the reduction of government regulation and the
advocacy of an evolutionary model of social development‖. Steger defends the ideology of
market liberalization as the ‗natural‘ and ‗inevitable‘ path of globalization. He argues that market
ideology is inescapable for the general public worldwide because it spreads out all over the globe
as the free market, unregulated and in capitalism. Steger‘s claim is that neo-globalists are
―market fundamentalists‖. Globalism has been directed and staged by neoliberal interest, in
which private interest as a normative good is no longer carried out through the co-option of local
elites, political coercion and the market power.
On the other hand, Steger‘s definition of globalization and globalism is different from
other neoliberals. He identifies globalism as the dominant market ideology that directs the
process of globalization as the spread of unregulated capitalism. The idea of unregulated
capitalism is the inevitable, inescapable fate of successful economic and future developments. At
the meantime, he also argues that globalism can derogate human dignity and security. He argues
that market responses over humans will also. He describes globalization as our historically
expanding and integrating pattern of exchange, which includes political, cultural, and
commercial exchange. It is the expansion of cultural flows of ideas and trades. Steger argues that
economic systems are not constrained in the same way as are biological systems. His natural
perspective challenges neoliberal current claims to historical inevitability by presenting
alternative examples about globalization. Steger‘s critical theory of globalization actually has a
direct link to deliver the economic success theory, though it provides an alternative to neoliberal
views worldwide as a different perspective.

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Moreover, Steger made five claims and gave each one several examples as his central to
the ideology of globalism and globalization. His first one sees globalization as a market
deregulation and integration. His second is that globalization is inevitable and irreversible, while
his third is that nobody is in charge of globalization. (This was also previously stated by
Friedman). His fourth claim suggests that everyone will be benefited from globalization. His
final and most important claim is that globalization will further spread as a democracy in the
world. His five claims suggest that a human‘s will and choice will create the model of the
market, and that nobody will dictate or place the limit of human choice.
Steger‘s claims support that global integration is an ongoing historical process, with
ideology and culture as given subordinate roles for reach of primarily economic success. Steger‘s
claims sometimes are problematic because he blames both the left and right ideological
resistance groups for destroying democracy with violence. There are big confrontations going on
against globalization, even though the establishments of left and right allies collaborate against
the neoliberal ideology that is worldwide. Steger claims that many anti-globalists are
fundamentally undemocratic because they rely on strong leaders and scapegoat others rather than
an involved mainstream of politics and informed electorates. And he suggests that there are
options and lobbies for more democratic and egalitarian orders. Steger‘s argument is our
historical experience that runs counter to the ideological claims of neoliberal globalists. This
historical experience contains racism, imperialism, colonialism, and exploitation as well. Steger
may be right on globalization being inevitable, inescapable and irreversible but also the general
public should accept that social movements are also inevitable, inescapable and irreversible
whether democratic or undemocratic in their ways of protesting against the new market ideology
of capitalism, globalization and neo-liberalism.
Steger talks of political globalization; the increase and expansion in political relations
across the world (56). The world has been divided into ‗domestic‘ and ‗foreign‘ social spaces.
One gains a ‗collective‘ identity from the creation of categories such as ‗us‘ and ‗them‘ and due
to a sense of national pride and loyalty, citizens of a particular nation feel a sense of superiority
against the ‗other‘ nations and its citizens (56). This constant classification and categorization
leads to labels, which further separate people into specific categories for example ‗other‘ and
‗barbaric‘. This idea relates to Columbus‘ diaries where throughout his voyages he would
categorize the natives as the ‗other‘ and sees them as less than, barbaric or uncivilized compared
to the Europeans; showing a sense of national pride and loyalty, considering themselves (the
Europeans) superior to the ‗others‘ in the ‗undiscovered‘ nation. Nationalism has been around for
ages, but a more recent example would be 9/11. The U.S. is very patriarchal and the 9/11 event
tested their patriotism, national pride and loyalty. The Americans‘ collective identity was further
strengthened by measures such as the Patriot Act, which seems to be in place to keep this
‗collective‘ identity under control and not have people question the President or doubt their
nation. National pride and loyalty becomes challenged and tested, especially in times of warfare.
The Modern nation-state system
When separate nation-states started becoming politically interdependent on each other
and the sovereignty of nation-states was challenged, US President George H. W. Bush, in 1990,
stated that the Westphalian model was dead and the ‗new world order‘ emerged where cross-
border wrongful acts did not only concern those affected but also allies (61). This idea can be
seen in examples today where allies of countries get involved in correcting a wrongful cross-
border act, even if they are not directly concerned. Such as the Israel – Palestine event, many
different countries were involved in trying to get the peace process started, for example the
European Union, United Nations, Russia, and the United States proposing a ‗Road Map for

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Peace‘. Sometimes these other nations are prompted to partake through social movements where
groups protest and pressure their governments to get involved in wrongful cross-border acts.
Hyperglobalizers consider political globalization to be driven by economic and technological
forces (61). This gives way to a ‗borderless world‘, where social and political changes are not
tied to boundaries. As borders become less important, the nation-states become vulnerable to the
discipline imposed by economic choices made elsewhere; resulting in less power, and say in the
direction of the social life changes within their borders (61).
In Steger‘s view however, economic and political aspects of globalization are
intertwined; economic decisions are set in place through political decisions, which are made
within an economic context (62). National security is a measure Steger notes as a political
dynamic and a counter point to the hyperglobalizers‘ claim about a ‗borderless world‘ (63). For
example, after 9/11, national securities across the world became strengthened, and international
cooperation measures were put into place.
As well, Steger notes that recent economic developments (for example deregulation) have
made political options of some states very limited. For example, the global South, seen in the
film Life and Debt. Steger notes ―it has become much easier for capital to escape taxation and
other national policy restrictions‖ (62). This relates to Life and Debt since in a lot of countries –
specifically Jamaica shown in the film - there are ‗free-zones‘ which are considered to be
separate entities, and are not liable to control, laws, or taxes governing Jamaica. However, as
Steger points out the governments can decide whether they want to make their economies
attractive to global investors (63).
In conclusion, Steger finishes by looking at whether we are seeing an emergence in
global governance. The structure of global governance is shaped by ‗global civil society‘ with
voluntary, non-governmental associations worldwide (67). For example, Amnesty International
represents millions of people prepared to question and challenge political and economic
decisions made by nation-states and intergovernmental organizations (67). This relates to my
own research about sweatshop workers; movements by groups such as the United Students
against Sweatshops come together with other groups concerned about sweatshop issues, like
human rights activists to represent all of the supporters and sweatshop workers. They challenge
the political and economic decisions that allow the terrible working conditions to continue and
treat the workers in a negative manner. As Steger points out, there is worldwide escalation of
cultural, political and economic interaction, which makes resistance and opposition possible (68).

Reflection #10 The State and the Global City

The global economy concerns the declining sovereignty of states over their economies
because Neo-liberalism uses global governance institutions such as the OECD, IMF, World Bank
and WTO, and grouping of dominant states (G-8 and G-20) as a tool to create a global state.
Transnational corporations and inter-governmental organizations take over the national state and
its natural resources, even invading other cultures without military invasion for exploitation
(Friedman, 1999). Globalization makes people around the world sameness, and global cities
became more alike which supports a few corporate elites to own and create media monopoly.
Remarkably, consumers are being told that the only way to prevent this perpetual state of fear is
to give up all rights, democracy, and freedom, and not to question anything. Capitals are
producing a new techno-culture, a new form of the entertainment and information society, and
everything from education to work to politics and cultures, and everyday life is dramatically
changing. Globalization is just promoting homogeneity and sameness as the Westernization

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associated or even Americanization through media oligarch, consumerism, and decline the
nation-state.
Saskia Sassen describes how the nation-state declines and its local subcultures as noted
aspects of deregulation and in a sense of powerlessness among local actors. As a matter of fact,
global capital leads to decline state owned sectors and create global city its discontents. For
example, local media has destroyed by the global media oligarch who has been easily assimilated
to the masses and conforms to society without a hassle for global governance and corporate
interests, but this poison of politics is causing the derailment of democracy and the dreams of the
free society. After the September 11 event, diversity of opinion and thought hasn‘t been
important any more too publicly because both the corporate and the government are working
together for propaganda to shape the direct opinion to what they want interest in directly. Truly,
media audiences globally are always losing and spend far more than what they really need only
because advertising is a very powerful tool that confuses their minds, in which nobody can
escape or runaway from. The capitalist media owners are producing certain kinds of programs,
stories, or news in which follow the corporate lead and advertising products, and even prevent
reporters from investigating in particular business issues because reports being told of such
stories would be published for owner interests. The world has become a market for fear
mongering and the public is buying it because of propaganda and manipulation.
Living in the consumption culture in the West industrialized countries with standards
increasingly defined by the purchasing of status given had positional goods with which were
through globalization. Capitalist owners have defined consumer‘s needs in brand names, and the
desire for more, and then had created a spiraling of consumption as people strive to maintain
their social standing. The capitalists control media for maximizing profits, as for instance, the US
mass media is responsible for most of the media‘s income, and corporations have become far
over dependant since mass media is largely financed through billion-dollar industries of
advertising. Many advertisements are designed to generate increased consumption of brand name
products and services throughout mass media. Mass media has been created full of ideas of mass
consumption, in which has shaped a ‗world cultural convergence‘ to homogenize consumer
tastes and engineer as a trigger of lifestyle, culture and behaviors among consumer segments
across the world in the global cities.
The development of a new global market economy and shifting system of nation-states,
and also the rise of global economy and culture, are emerging as a result of computer and
communication technologies, and a consumer society with its panorama of goods and services,
transnational forms of architecture and design, and a wide range of products and cultural forms
that are traversing national boundaries are becoming part of a new world culture. For example,
George Ritzer coined the term ―McDonaldization‖ to describe the wide ranging socio-cultural
processes involve, including fast restaurants chain, major sports events, entertainment programs,
and advertisements have all been spread out over the world as like a global village. New
technologies are changing the nature of work and creating new forms of leisure, including the
hyper reality of cyberspace, new virtual realities, and new modes of information and
entertainment. Of the world, there are many forms of resistance that have been raised to protect
the national state or reject globalization under the influence of the resurrection of tradition,
ethno-nationalism, and religious fundamentalisms.
Mike Davis explains how the IMF‘s Structural Adjustment Program makes slums in the
Third World countries. When capitalists enter the free market, they are chasing and gaining
access to cheap labour, reaching easily to natural resources, violating the environment, breaking
union resistances and removing the state policy barriers for their investments through ―SAPing‖.
Globalization is struggling to extent accumulation because national states don‘t agree with
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removing all state control for allowing free laws and capital sakes. For example, Russia, Brazil
and Turkey have had strong resistances for the Americanization process since the 2002‘s when
oil prices went up. This is a new problem for globalization and neo-liberalism. Russia and Brazil
haven‘t given up from their natural resources and kicked out international companies from their
strategic fields.
Finance is the centre of the global capital. There are paper financial economies and real
economies existing. Paper financial economies disconnect the real economy of manufacturing
and agricultural businesses because they are not over accumulating the production then and so
it‘s profitable. For example, if farmers don‘t want to follow an overproduction rule of capitalism,
destroy what is produced if they are doing more than consuming. This is the main conflict and
contradiction. The financing economy became hyper active in the Wall Street, while the real
economy become struggling in much lower cases because this disconnection is not accidental,
and the financial economy is making up the real economy. Total disaster is the disconnection
between profits and real values because without manufacturing and producing values, producing
values becomes unreal. This is called the ―bubble‖ profit. Everything is depending on the peak of
the crisis made off system, with the speculative fake economy; after all, the SAPing is increasing
poverty while democracy is only used for slogans for invading the Third World.
In conclusion, it is clear that ―Globalization is an Americanization‖ as a hegemonic
power (Friedman, 1999). It is promoting the one-sided economy, culture, and politic, bringing
more inequality, exploitation and general poverty within modernity, and forcing to adapt to only
one model of modernization named Americanism. Globalization has been in use of instruments
such as IMF, the World Bank, NAFTA, EU, and the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB)
among other international lending agencies who would be becoming a global state soon for the
governance of national economies. With globalization, borders become more fluid with the
impact of electronic and other flows such as money transfers, satellite communications,
computer data flow, capital flows and merchandise trade. The contemporary state is unable to
control phenomena such as global companies, global production and trading. States can no
longer exercise control of their financial markets alone. State sovereignty is affected through
multilateral arrangements in the global economy. Multi-national corporations frustrate states
through threat of transfer pricing and relocating their production facilities. Neo-liberalists
corporate politics and the media‘s corporate have controlled all over the world through a global
economy as globalism and a global culture, and they create global cities as a transnational grid of
places in which are linked to new global information economy.

References:

Friedman, Benjamin. 1999. Globalization: Stiglitz‘s Case, The New York Review of Books, pp
50. 15 July 1999.

Sassen, Saskia ―Introduction‖ and ―The State and the Global City‖ from Globalization and its
discontents – Taken from Transnational Studies Reader. Ed. S. Khagram and P. Levitt (2008) 72-
81

Davis, Mike. 2006. ―SAPing the Third World‖ from City of Slums 151-173

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Reflection 11 Etnie and Colonial Memories of Korean
The articles ‗Etnie and Colonial Memories‘, ‗Sites of Memory,‘ and ‗Postwar
Peace and the Feminization of Memory‘ show that memory has become a metaphor for
the fashioning of narratives about the past and that the site of memory turns into
secondary memory for the rewriting of history (Winter: 313). The Korean memorial
location indicates the ethnic politics of Korean aliens in Japanese politics in the
postwar period, and it is clearly understood as official history‘s suppression of Korean
ethnicity through the marginalization of their memories (Yoneyama: 159). On the other
hand, during the post-war period, Japanese women were gendered and their identity
was collectively constructed in the male dominant society through the ruling historical
narrative of postwar transformation and was transmitted from the past to present,
whereas similar discrimination has applied to the Korean memorial as a sign of
alienation and a wholesale enfranchisement until resistance and rebellion was launched
(Yoneyama: 188).

Since the explosion of the atom bomb, the Korean victims‘ memories have been
excluded in the official zone of the Peace Memorial Park in Japan because Korean
immigrants were racially and ethnically the minority group that was interpellated and
neglected in memorial as they were forgotten for their Korean heritage, and they were
seen as secondary citizens and Japan‘s former colonial subjects (Yoneyama: 153).
Their memory location has became problematic in the space of discursive memorial
which later on has challenged the remembering of the Hiroshima atrocity since the
1990s where 10% of victims (Korean) were dismissed or invisible, and this proved
coherent and totalizing history narratives about the nation‘s past.

Crises occur when relocation controversy discourses the representation of


Japan‘s colonial history, cruelty, and falsification of history, and they draw lines in
between the boundaries of ethnicity and nationality and put conflict in between North
and South Korea for unified memory. Physical sites indicate public commemoration
with gestures, words and symbols that act as mutual aspects of the past at sites of
memory, and they conflict with politics and the power structure in society, whereas
communities have to deal sooner or later with the construction of a commemorative
form in a surrounding of the official history ritual that public commemoration has
flourished within the orbit of civil society, which has been both irresistible and
unsustainable since post-modernity (Winter: 322-323-324).

In conclusion, official history is constructed by the dominant political power


which has shifted from ideology to images in memorials, museums and monuments,
although shared and conflicted individual, collective, official and public memories
challenge the notion of Truth, authenticity and modernism as memory is a social
construction in the present. For example, Korean victim atomic bomb memories and
the victims‘ struggles for the relocation of this memorial have already changed the
official history of Japan and both the halves of Korea. The feminized Japanese women
were transformed through the tropes of peace, statehood, motherhood, anti-
imperialism, and the quotidian can challenge dominant perceptions and public
commemorations (Yoneyama: 208).

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References:

Winter, Jay. (1999). ―Sites of Memory,‖ in Susannah Radstone and Bill Scharz (eds.), Memory:
Histories, Theories, Debates. New York: Fordham University Press, 324-372.

Yoneyama, Lisa. (1999). Chapter 5 ― Ethnie and Colonial Memories‖, pp 151-185 and Chapter 6
― Postwar Peace and the Feminization of Memory‖ in Hiroshima Traces: Time, Space, and the
Dialectics of Memory, Berkeley: University of California Press, pp187-242.

Reflection 12 Cultural Trauma

The articles ‗Toward a Theory of Cultural Trauma‘ and ‗Tracing the Disappearance of
the Yanggongjustwar‘ show how traumas emerge at the core level of the collectivity within a
nation‘s own identity, in which social crises such the terms of ―Yanggongjustwar‖ and the case
of ―Yun Geum-i‖ became cultural crises that have turned into the site of memory in the Korean
culture both in diaspora and while in the creation of the nation-state of South Korea. The creation
of a new master narrative is a key issue where a cross-referential is correlated successfully and
given the meaning ―the causality which is symbolic and aesthetic, not sequential or
developmental, but value added,‖ even though the issue is left to be forgotten in amnesia
structurally, intentionally and officially in between Korea and the US (Alexander: p 12). The
Yanggongjustwar have become a spectral agent out of the ruins of catastrophe, such as ―the
Yun‘s images erases the subjectivity of the real women who works in the Camptown and
challenge the Yanggongjustwar as figure of populist struggle despite the absence of popular
concern for living a sex worker‖ (Cho: 119) whether they are ―Yankee Whore‖, ―Ambassador‖
or ―Dirty Women‖ as the Yanggongjustwar are symbolized beyond recognition between the
relationship of the Korean economic miracle and Korea‘s fractured, ashamed past in the
imperialism periods of both Japan and the USA.

Furthermore, a successful process of collective representation should provide some


answers to the following questions; how did the nature of the pains actually happen; what really
was the nature of the victims; where and when did the traumatized victims become related to the
wider audience; and why did an emerging domain of social responsibility and political action
become important to establish the identity of antagonist and trauma, collectively (Alexander: p
13-15). For example, when South Koreans unify their own nationalism, the Yanggongjustwar
become a symbol of knowledge production that creates anti-U.S. nationalism both in Korea and
diasporic Korean in the US after the 1990s; this symbolizes and recognizes hyper-militarization
as an object of violence and a site of contestation with a history of collective trauma within
constructed and unofficial military prostitution, historically and politically (Cho: 90-91). The
Yanggongjustwar have violated institutional areas such as religious gender norms, aesthetic and
traditional values and will never return to normal life in society, but they are also a conflicted
agency as having a intensified, collective feeling of shame because of one who had sacrificed
herself to protect an innocent, reduced victim of rape and supported the poor economy for
nationalism, and alongside her also is a symbol of a privileged women who tasted the American
dream in the buffer zone where most of the members of the Korean diasporas desire to live like
Americans, whereas the Yanggongjustwar lived in biopolitical space in Korea until the Yun‘s
murder was haunted in the past to be presented as a cultural and political trauma, which is still
seen as a moment of awakening to the history of violence and such victims help to create a de-

385
militarized society through their victimized images no matter whether they are ―fallen women‖,
―diseased transmitters‖ or ―diplomats‖ (Cho: 125).

References:

Alexander, Jeffrey C. (2004). ―Toward a Theory of Cultural ‖ in Ron Eyerman, Bernhard


Giesen, Neil, J Smelser and Piotr Sztompka (eds.), Cultural Trauma and Collective Identity , p
10-17.

Cho, Grace ( 2008). Chapter 3 ―Tracing the Disappearance of the Yanggongjustwar ‖ in


Haunting of the Korea =Diaspora, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, p 90-128.

Reflection 13 A National Crime: The Canadian Residential School System

John Milloy‘s article of ‗A National Crime: The Canadian Government and the Residential
School System‘ portrays a vision of education setup in the service of progressive assimilation
against the Canadian Aboriginal population through residential and industrial school systems as
structured, managed, financed and staffed with the cooperation of the Department and Churches,
which were unable to reached their goals, as no significant improvements were noticed since 1879
to 1986. This education setup failure didn‘t end with the closing of the residential school system
after a long process; it has left behind many neglect and abuse cases (sexual assault isn‘t
mentioned) and traumatic stories, including a national crime. The residential school became a site
of memory of the Canadian history and a cultural, political and social trauma for Aboriginals
which link the past to the present where Aboriginal voices are still forgotten and a national crime
was never investigated, but only that one old, alive, persistent narrative (Milloy 1999:186).

Canadian authorities have seen Aboriginals as savages, with an uncivilized and primitive
culture, whereas their own superior, civilized and dominant culture should assimilate them with a
designed curriculum, and surrogate parenting (planting out) in which implies with the separation
of a weak child from its family, language, religion and moral values in a segregated place, the
residential schools. The vision of Aboriginal education was developed by leaders in churches and
an Indian Department in which was a valuable tool of social control with a powerful strategy for
re-socialization (Milloy 1999:32-33) where academic learning and practices lost reliability with
sub-standard, ineffective teaching and the lack of market values (Milloy 1999:180-181), as
children in the segregated schools had been dying in a way that is unbelievable with uncontrolled
diseases such as tuberculosis, as these crises were termed in 1922 as ―the national crime‖ (Milloy
1999:75).

Milloy identified that ―Aboriginal conditions‖ is an expression that is in itself racist and
discriminatory. There are four explanations to account for the differences between Aboriginal and
non-Aboriginal groups with their sociobiology, culture, structure and history. The government of
Canada ignored health crises and endemic problems on Indian reserves, industrial schools and
residential schools due to governmental neglect. The idea of a state-church alliance in educating
Aboriginal children gained format and funding structure where the Aboriginal way of life was
seen as a failure, leading to its extinction and the separation of its children from families to
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become ―re-educated,‖ with the hope that they would merge with the mass of Canadians in their
dominant culture. Many reports indicated that the continuing poverty on Aboriginal community
resources and cultures were causing the lack of success in ‗re-socialization,‘ blamed only on the
result of lack of integration for graduated students as ―cultural backsliders on re-entering‖ (Milloy
1999:188). Parents resisted sending their children because of the lack of progress those children
were making (Milloy 1999:166). Churches had their own interest in both missionary activities and
with getting funding from governmental resources. The poor quality of teachers and the nature of
literary curriculums failed for cultural transformation, and the language and spirituality struggle
wasn‘t mention because white-men predicted on the destruction of Aboriginal culture through
non-Aboriginal education, although their origins humiliated and dehumanized their racial heritage,
and knowledge of their racial history and culture were never taught (Milloy 1999:174). The truth
had never revealed until in the 1960s, when such problems had continued, and for instance, grad
students extended isolation from their families, went to the denial of their culture and abusive
conditions, and were unable to lead any sort of productive life, old or new (Milloy 1999:185).

References:

John Milloy ( 1999). ―A National Crime: The Canadian Government and the Residential School
System,‖ Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, p 23-75, 109-128, 157-186.

Reflection 14 The Redress Movements


In cases of foreign affairs cases, like between Germany and other countries, reparations
have led to healing and reconciliation. However in domestic cases where populations are still
live in perpetrator states, the evidence is less conclusive (Page 78) – ex. The TRC and its
attempts to reconcile the population after the South African Apartheid - On the whole the white
and black population have not reconciled
Some Questions to think about:
 Do such efforts result in reconciliation?
 Reconciliation for whom?
 All members of the community in question?
 For only some?
 If reparations do lead to reconciliation. Why?
 What does that mean?
 Do reparations work? Do they give wronged groups a fuller sense of
membership/inclusion?

Japanese in America and Canada got $20,000 in redress and official apologies ($21,000 in
Canadian case)
How do reparation politics actually contribute to the larger society of previously mistreated
groups? The African-American case vs. The Japanese-American case
Background: The Internment Experience

387
After Pearl Habour attacks, in the winter of 1941 Japanese-Canadians and Japanese-
Americans were seen as a national security threat.
 In Canada, under the War Measures Act, 22,000 Japanese-Canadians were relocated into
camps
 In America, 120,000 Japanese Americans were moved to detention camps

After the war, Japanese-Americans went back to their homes and rebuilt their lives back to their
pre-war levels in about a decade, while, Japanese-Canadians did not return to their homes (in the
west coast).
Japanese Canadians:
 They were not allowed to move freely in the country until 1949, when the Act was lifted
 They were also not allowed to concentrate in major urban areas
 The government kept their numbers down as well as kept them distributed
 About 13,000 stayed in Alberta and only 6,776 went back to their original home of
British Columbia.

Japanese-Canadians were uprooted, stripped of their property and scattered across the nation.
The situation was played down politically. Finally, in 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed
legislation, mandating $20,000 to be received by heirs. Subsequently, in the same year Brian
Mulroney offered a formal apology and announced compensation of $21,000 - the extra $1000
was intended to reflect the greater severity of Canadian mistreatment

Reparations and Reconciliation


Reparations have an impossible challenge, for they can never make up for what has been
lost: possibilities for personal and professional development, personal relationships, physical
health and well-being. Reparations can however try to shift the losses from the terrain of the
irrecoverable, to a place in the ―realm of the politically negotiated‖. This can at least open up the
discussion between the perpetrators and the victims. This discussion may lead to both parties
being able to live together and to resume political, commercial, and cultural interaction. (Page
82).
Material reparations can never make up for what has been lost. And if money is given to
victims without an apology then the concept of blood money comes to minds of many. It is a
combination of both that gives reparations substance. The apology is needed to tell the victims
that the perpetrator acknowledges that the acts were wrong and that there is no excuse for what
was done. It is also an acknowledgement that similar acts will not be repeated. (Page 82. The
ultimate goal of reparations is political reconciliation. This is the primary objective of efforts to
come to terms with the past. Political reconciliation implies, public acknowledgment, public
recognition, and public accountability. It deals with structural and institution framework of
rights and justice. With reconciliation society can move on ahead without always bringing up
hurtful memories of the past. It should give the victimized group a fuller sense of membership in
society. Reconciliation is really more about the future then it is about the past.

388
The Redress Movement and its Consequences
Redress depended on a specific set of conditions:
 Strong political pressures exercised by the claimant and their supporters needed

Redress in United States


The Japanese population in the United States who experienced internment camps were
(Issei and Nisei), first and second generations. The redress movement however was due to the
actions of the third generation (Sansei). (Page 85). The Sansei gained political power and used
that to gain redress. However a price was paid in order to gain this power. Only through
assimilation could they, as an ethnic group in American society, overcome the obstacles they
face in gaining political influence (Page 85). Assimilation may not necessarily lead to a positive
outcome. Apathetic assimilation would be the political equivalent to downward assimilation in
some cases, whereas learning the new cultural patterns and entry into American social circles
does not lead, to upward, but exactly the opposite (page 86). Also involvement in ethnic group
oriented activity may not necessarily promote division. Involvement in ethnic-community
organizations helps integrate individuals into the larger society. Another part of the strategy used
by Japanese-American‘s was their emphasis on the wrong done to the country as a whole, and
not just the wrong committed to their particular group. They framed their trauma as a violation
of the American constitution that affected all.
―Even though the United States constitution guarantees all citizens equal protection, it failed to
protect Japanese Americans. This failure affects all Americans.‖ (page 87)

Redress in Canada
Japanese-Canadians did not gain any political power in Canada. By the time the redress
movement was going on, many Japanese-Canadians (Sansei) had established themselves
amongst the Canadian middle classes and did not see the relevance of the internment camps to
the contemporary Japanese-Canadian community. High intermarriage rates in some cases might
have led to some third generation (Sansei) to feel not as Japanese as others. Also there was a lot
more Japanese in America than there was in Canada. This might have Given American-Japanese
more chances to mobilized and form stronger communal ties. The Canadian redress campaign
did relatively little to sustain ethnic consciousness in Canada. However in the Japanese-
American case the redress campaign helped to BOTH sustain ethnic consciousness AND
stimulate a sense of full membership.
The Canadian redress campaign was framed around human rights, not the constitution…
-making redress dealt with the Canadian sense of fairness. The redress also included legislative
change and establishment of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation. This potentially shifted
the ground for race relations in Canada forever. This is precisely the kinds of measures that fit
the criteria for durable reconciliation. This foundation was intended to address the questions of
racial discrimination against any group. This is in contrast with America. (Page 89)
Americans did not want to make the redress too broad for fear of claims from African-
Americans. So they created legislation that mandated the Civil Liberties Public Education Fund.
This failed to signal that the wrong in question was rooted in racial discrimination, arguably an
ongoing problem requiring further attention. (Page 90)

389
The Impact of Redress
 (Different view points)
 Many felt like full members of society after redress
 Many just wanted to be treated as equals
 For some it restored lost honour
 Some say that there will never be closure
 Created an enhanced sense of pride for others
 Lifted a feeling of guilt for some Japanese, who actually blamed themselves for what had
happened
 It all became part of the healing process, it was a NECESSARY factor in that process
 The ―healing‖ of wounds inflicted by historical injustices would entail a kind of forgetting
that is at odds with the project of the ―anamnestic‖ redemption of past suffering adumbrated
by Walter Benjamin

Monetary Reparations
 Money can NEVER make up for what was lost but can be a PART of the symbolic gesture
 What else can be given other than money?
 Money adds seriousness to the apology. It also helps enhance the image of the nation state
 There is danger in using the word ―community‖. –Different segments within a community
ex. Some care about the money and others do not
 Redress gave Japanese-Canadians the ability to take possession of their cultural heritage and
assert it politically as an expression of multiculturalism
 Though about 95 percent of Japanese Canadians marry outside of their culture: ―If you attain
your ethnicity, you are not Canadian‖ - Some say that the community largely fell apart after
the redress.

Museums and Commemoration (Page 95 -101)


 You need national recognition for reconciliation
 Textbooks play an important role in redress
 Many of them were actually politically ahead of the issue and may have helped the public to
get ready to tackle such issues
 Museum as a site of memory - can play a significant role in a group‘s self-understanding
 The Japanese-American National Museum (JANM) is largely financed by the community
itself. Provide ONE version of the groups understanding.
 Must think about who controls the museum and how they are representing history - this can
also be seen as a form of social capital
 Some might put too much trust into the museum
 Some criticized the museum for only representing the viewpoint of older, rich Japanese-
Americans and not the rest of the community
 Japanese-Canadian national museum made the issue more about everyone, including
Japanese-Canadians. Japanese could not afford to fund the museum, so government did
 Criticism is that it provides a world view of one particular generation and focuses on
suffering instead of achievement
 But, many people do not visit this museum - it only has one full time staff member
 Such forgetting enhances the risk that such mistreatment may be repeated in the future

390
Similarities between Past and Present: 9/11 (Page 101-104)
 Arrests without charges of Arab-Americans brought back painful memories for many
Japanese-Americans
 Brought back into perspective, the issues of race, prejudice, war hysteria, failure of political
leadership
 Reconciliation MUST be grounded in the everyday realities of people‘s lives and fears
 The humiliation and harassment of the people that look like the ―enemy‖
 Japanese-Americans experienced 9/11 much differently than Japanese-Canadians
 The possibility of the internment camps is real. It could happen again, but the redress made
people aware that this did happen and that it SHOULD NOT happen again
 Canada has a greater willingness to address issues of the past, whereas the United states
seems to pick and choose, because it does not want to deal with all of the past especially in
regard to its African American population

 Reconciliation is more of a process, than an outcome for victimized individuals and


communities
 Considering the psychological harm done to middle-eastern communities after 9/11 the
structural conditions have not changed
 The younger generations of Japanese communities in America and Canada have assimilated
and in the American case became more politically powerful as a result
 One must think about what hat has the broader public learned and is it prepared to take a
stand, should something like this happen ever again? Are reparations really effective? Does it
change society on a whole? If not what else do you think needs to happen?

These articles ‗Commemoration, Redress, and Reconciliation: The Cases of Japanese-


Americans and Japanese-Canadians‘ and ‗Perspectives on the Role of Forgiveness in the Human
Rights Violations Rearing‘ emphasis on how reconciliation, healing and forgiveness efforts are
structured through symbols, and national unity and redress to subsequent reparations politics. I am
personally troubling to conceptualize the distinction between forgiving the past regime or its
institutions and a specific perpetrator of whom should take responsibility or blame for their crime
against humanity, and forgiveness at the personal level that is also problematic as interpersonal
relationships mask wider systemic social and political questions because the perpetrators are more
likely to serve as the instruments of a regime or the intellectual authors of the crime (Chapman:
88). It seems that when forcing perpetrators to accept the personal or state responsibility and the
acts of violation for wrongdoing, where political reconciliation implies public acknowledgement
which is important, public recognition of harm and public accountability are like institutions that
change the previous, sick structure and ensure a durable design, as a sustainable reconciliation will
guarantee the future repetition of previous wrongdoing, providing implicit and explicit promises
(Sevy: 83).
The redress movement had its successes differently in the US and in Canada because there
were various specific politics in involvement, economic dependency and a third generation of
conditions about repairing arrangements in the form of official apologies and compensation to
their Japanese populations as a potential threat during World War II. Their Internment camp
experiences and rebuilding of their forcibly interrupted lives had undergone and influenced
internal politics such as assimilation—the melting pot—in the US and social recognition and
within the multiculturalism in Canada. The reparation process had led to reconciliation in cases of
391
historical injustices, as the demand in terms of constitutional violation was connected to the notion
of the wrong being done to the entire country in which the public acknowledged this crime against
the Human Right Chapters (Sevy: 87). Many Japanese Americans and Canadians felt a similar
feeling of vindication concerning the means of restoring honour, the sense of ethnicity, culture,
heritage, reintegration, and belonging to country as first class citizens as a result of the healing
quality of the redress experience, whereas modem museums froze time and the fixed memory,
selecting and keeping alive what should be remembered (Sevy: 91, 99).
The South African case of forgiveness had been criticized to be a fake forgiveness, and less
respect to deponents through symbolic and ritualized performance was given with the help of
religious beliefs and bodies where the entire process was faulty because of the unwillingness of
the beneficiaries of apartheid that hadn‘t offered to victims financial restoration, or even their
acknowledgement of wrongdoing, and rather unrelated the nature of the crime and had the lack of
expression of regret (Chapman: 66-67). ―Victims seldom reject apologies from wrongdoers when
they are forthcoming‖ because perpetrators and the state still denied the facts of apartheid regime
existence where ―the intentional outcome of structure operating system has dehumanized people
of colour‖ and the white community benefited from the system as they ―yet share an
understanding of the past and can provide a moral framework to encourage‖ to lessen the number
of individual acts of forgiveness through their religion and political beliefs (Chaplen: 74). The
truth generated new anger, revenge, hatred, sorrow, sadness, disempowerment, rage and bitterness
in a negative manner rather than healing in a positive manner, whereas ―the TRC process had
imposed a false homogeneity around the agendas of survivors‖ (Chaplen: 82).
References:
Sevy, Rosa. (2004). Chapter 3 ‗Commemoration, Redress, and reconciliation: The Cases of
Japanese-Americans and Japanese-Canadians,‘ Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 78-106.

Chapman, Audrey R. (2008). Chapter 3, ‗Perspectives on the Role of Forgiveness in the Human
Rights Violations Rearing,‘ Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 66-89.

Reflection 15 The Utilitarian Morality in Modernity


Durkheim helped with the understanding of science with detail in specific studies such as
collective consciousness and produced theories and methods used for studying others, and he
determined collective memories without mentioning aphasia. Our past reappears in our dreams as
raw material and reminds us that early childhood might be forgotten, but also reappears in our
unconscious which is the isolated place of the brain cell. Halbwachs created a new theory in
relation between dream and aphasia, which shows how the reconstruction of the past through
collective memories and our childhood plays a role that recalls the mental state through subjects,
symbols, pictures, funny episodes, etc. in many visual memories with conceptualize the historical,
social and individual components of human behavior within socio-historical perspective.
His unorthodox perspective related to the Freudian theory which is missing in his writing,
and it is a theory that recognizes the self in unity (as an individual) and unifies identity and reason
as the way of achieving self-consciousness. If a certain memory is incapable, inconvenient or
unable to make the separation of images, the past memory is incomplete or unperfected, but our
392
minds reconstruct a new shorter memory under the pressure of society. Apfelbaum gave several
examples on how alienation has been suffered by its victims who wanted to forget the horrors of
experience or who were incapable of expressing the horrors of torture, due to a lack of collective
memory.
The location of memories is part of the totality of common thoughts such as within a
family or group, which is in similarity with older memories that are sufficient to the adaption or
restructuration of contiguity and social obscurity. There is a problem in that different people can
have different experiences at the same group, in the same period of time and places within many
frameworks that is not accounting as collective memory. The reality of an individual person‘s
memory occurs in the system that is associated with minds unless understanding this individual is
a part or aspect of the group of memories. Every individual is remembering differently and is
producing in a discourse different from the other memory.
Furthermore, social classes and their traditions are shaping the memories of the noble or
ordinary person. For example, giving the judge his position is very crucial where suppressing is
within our personality of profession and acting in singularity is in the structure of society in terms
of technical activity, whereas the unconsciousness of the brain works out involuntarily in relation
with belonging to a certain community or group. The world of the mind and culture is organized
by a symbol in our imagination, even though freedom and the existential anxiety of fear are
constructed by the great frameworks of the membership of the society that is either traditional or
modern.
In conclusion, Durkhem, Freud, Halbwachs and Foucault agree on the concept that past
memories shape the future but adapt to the new environment in utilitarian morality in modernity.
Neitchze was right on many issues except for one of them, in which he tried to remove religion
and God from society, although he couldn‘t. He created the character of the superhero as an
individual for his utopian state, and he rejected all kind of ism, ideologies, noble blood, status,
theory, and put them out for garbage. His ideas are followed by Foucault and began the idea of
post modernity, even though religion and culture are very powerful and strong influences to the
mind, as nobody can remove them from the collective memories of people as well as from horrific
experiences.
References
Halbwachs, Maurice. 1992 [1925]. On Collective Memory. Chicago: University of Chicago. pp.
43-53, 120-166
Apfelbaum, Erika. 2010. Halbwachs and the Social Properties of Memory, in Susannah Radstone
and Bill Schwarz (eds.), Memory: Histories, Theories, Debates. New York: Fordham University
Press. pp. 77-92

393
Chapter 50

My Letter Writings

Letter 1: Asking to get a grant

December 12, 2008


Community Festivals and Special Events Investment Program
Janine Jeffers

City of Toronto Parks Forestry and Recreation

150 Brough Drive Scarborough, ON M1P 4N7

416-396-7407 Fax: 416-396-5399

Re: CFSE Grant Application

Dear Janine Jeffers:

The Toronto Turkish Festival celebrates Turkish culture through music, exhibitions, arts, crafts,
dance, shows and fabulous food. Festival Organizing Committee would like to increase tolerance
and understanding within the diverse community of Toronto with your support.

The Turkish Festival first of which took place in 2006 as only one day attracted so many people
and attention that CTFC was in a way forced to extend it (with David Miller advised) to a two-
days festival. And in 2007 and 2008 CTFC once more successfully organized the Turkish
Festival. Tens of thousands of people from many other communities and cultures around GTA
and neighbouring cities, provinces and even U.S states (like New York), have visited the festival.

Festival Organizing Committee expects to attract over 100 thousands of tourists from all over
Ontario, the rest of Canada as well as the United States in August 1 and August 2, 2009, with our
new marketing strategies.

We are sincerely assured that CTFC organization has the vision, the potential and the capability
of attracting audiences from many parts of Ontario and neighbouring provinces and states.

Sincerely,

Director of CTFC

394
Letter 2: Asking to propose a petition
December 5, 2007

The Honourable Michael Chan


Ontario Minister of Citizenship and Immigration
6th floor, 400 University Avenue
Toronto, Ontario M7A 2R9
Tel: 416-325-6200 Fax: 416-325-6195
Issue: Petition to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.

Dear Honorable Michael Chan,

We, the undersigned over 200 residents of Canada, draw the attention
of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to the following:
The government of Ontario has been passed the landmark Bill 124-The Fair Access to Regulated
Professions Act, 2006. This legislation is supposed to be break down barriers for internationally
trained and educated individuals to obtain a license to work in their field of expertise. We believe
that Ontario‘s comprehensive plan of Breaking Down Barriers is not working.
Past educations of immigrants are wasted, because professional organizations are locking up the
system and locking out newcomers. They are likely to resist reforms in the system, and not
willing to change their unreasonable rules voluntarily. Access to some position shouldn‘t
condition any more by membership. Existing Government funds must use for professional
integration of immigrants in Ontario that funds be used in acquisition of reference material for
these professional candidates, their registration fees in Professional association, training
programs of immigrant in their field of competency. Qualified contacts information should be
collected by government and referred to Professional bodies must mandatory. Reform is very
urgent because majority of immigrant are in falling victim of the present system:
Therefore, our petitioners request that parliament must put pressure on regulatory bodies in order
to remove systemic discrimination against newcomers. Parliament should pass a new Bill to
create new evaluation and diploma equivalence system regarding additional licensing tests,
degrees year of experience, practicing and registration requirements must be simple, fairness and
less expensive. Never again an immigrants shall have hide their credentials when apply for a job.

This is our proposal detail for new Bill:


Our first suggestion is to replace the old school heading the professional organizations because
they are responsible for locking up the system and locking out newcomers. They are likely to
resist reforms in the system. The professional association should have the responsibility to
arrange practical immersion of new immigrants into the Ontario professional environment and
administer an entry test to the association. This readjustment process would have to be
completed within one year and half or two at most.
New evaluation system should be created which may a point system for skilled immigrants based
on criteria like diploma, years of experience, language skills, etc…should be enacted that years
spent on school bench will have to be given their full value. The equivalence between university
degrees versus years of experience has to be clearly stated. Never again an immigrant shall have
to hide his credentials in order to have a job in Ontario.
Qualified landed immigrants or first generation immigrants or Canadians name, phone and e-
mail contacts should be automatically sent to the professional association of his discipline in the
395
province where he elected home so that he can be given all the required materials necessary for
the practice of his profession in Ontario. The contact should be made in both ways and
mandatory those live in Ontario.
Some of the powers given to professional associations should be curtailed because of a concern
clearly expressed above elimination of competitors whether new immigrants or not. Access to
some positions shouldn‘t be conditioned anymore by membership to the appropriate professional
association. Since the provincial government is allocating 20 millions CAD for the next 4 years
declared in February 17, and promised to hire more foreign trained doctors, nurses etc. before
October 10, 2007 provincial election, We wouldn‘t like to see this money to ending up in the
hands of bureaucrats and forget promising without achieving much in terms of professional
integration of immigrants in Ontario.

Our proposal is that much of these funds be used in acquisition of reference materials for these
professional candidates, their registration fees in professional associations, training programs of
immigrants in their fields of competency.

Our suggestion is that the Ontario government starts, within three to six months, collecting
names, addresses, phone numbers and e-mail and qualifications of landed immigrants, refugees
in Ontario so that they can be referred to professional associations. These reforms are very urgent
in Ontario because this province takes majority numbers of new immigrants every year but they
falling victim of the present system. The toll is unbearably high and unacceptable. This model
shall be seen only as a frame on which many other elements could be added.
Dear Mr. Chan, although we are convinced that you are a very busy person, we are looking
forward to receiving your comments about these suggestions or hear about a differing plan from
your side.

Thank you for your time and best regards.

Sincerely,

Faruk Arslan

396
Letter 3: Asking to get the support letter from a politician
Leaside Park Drive
Suite I
Toronto, Ontario M4H I RI
Tel: 416-467-7275 Fax: 416-467-8550

Dear Rob Oliphant,

We launch a Conflict-Free Campus, "Wake Up to the Conflict" Campaign at York University on


March 16, 2011 to build the consumer voice for conflict-free electronics – cell phones, laptops,
and other devices that do not finance war in eastern Congo. It draws on the power of student
leadership and activism to encourage university officials and stakeholders to commit to measures
that pressure electronics companies to take responsibility for the minerals in their supply chains,
which have been contributing to the ongoing conflict in eastern Congo. By raising our collective
voice as consumers, we can actually bring about a shift in corporate and government policy and
help bring peace to Congo. We are a group of Political Economy of Social Movement students.
The WarChild (www.warchild.ca) is eager and willing to work closely with us as initiative
during this campaign. Our mission is to create a public awareness campaign that reveals the
significant role those electronic corporations in Canada and abroad play in contributing to the
unethical trade of 'conflict minerals' that has further led to the political instability and ongoing
human rights abuses in the DRC.

As we know, John McKay, Liberal MP for Scarborough-Guildwood, has introduced a private


member's bill (C-300) designed to put controls on mining companies overseas in 2009.
Conservatives have vowed to kill the bill, which is opposed by Canada's mining industry. Mining
companies are big business in Canada and, with about 200 active lobbyists, a powerful voice in
Ottawa. Debate kicked up in 2002 after a United Nations report called on the Canadian
government to investigate the actions of seven Canadian companies accused of illegally
exploiting resources from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has been in a state of
civil war since 1996. The Canadian government didn't investigate. This Liberal private member's
bill was giving the minister of foreign affairs and the minister of international trade the
responsibility of holding corporations accountable for their practices by submitting annual
reports to the House of Commons and the Senate for review. It also allows transgressors to be
publicly lambasted and deprived of investment from the Canada Pension Plan and other
government investments. But as a private member's bill it is not able to create an ombudsman
position that would spend taxpayer money to investigate allegations of Canadian-financed abuses
in the developing world. Canadian companies have to respect host governments and local
communities. A watchdog groups like MiningWatch Canada and the Halifax Initiative, both
based in Ottawa, allege some companies spend money buying guns, employing paramilitaries,
bribing officials and forcefully relocating entire communities. Not only is there a behavioural
risk to an individual company, but there is also a risk to our national reputation. We would like to
have your supporting letter in our campaign while collecting signature for petition. Hopefully,
we will see a new Bill with an ombudsman in future to rebuild our national reputation.

Sincerely,

Faruk Arslan Public Relation for the "Wake Up to the Conflict" Campaign
397
Letter 4: Incident Report

Name: David R. and Amin P.


Age: Two boys residence
Residence: Group Home For Adolescent Young Offenders
Date of Admission: January 5

David R. and Amin P. are young teenagers who have been at Group Home for young offenders.
Both boys are in preparation for community living and hope to move out of Group Home in the
near future.

David R. and Amin P. like to watch TV and have fun. On January 5, the kids decided to watch
television (We usually allow them free time a couple of times a week). Incident occurred that
night over controlling the TV remote. David R. wanted to watch one show but Amin P. wanted
to something different; so, they began arguing and things got out of hand. David R. grabbed the
controller and threatened to report Amin P. Amin P. got angry, agitated, grabbed the controller,
and a fight broke out. Amin P. was out of control, thrown out one of lamp to David‘s head;
David R. injured with lamp in the eye. Counselors Larry Stoltzman and Greg Cummings were
able to break up the fights after two lamps broken, and David R. received a black eye. David R.
was not seriously hurt but he was really scared. We are dealing with Amin separately.

In fact, Amin P. has a history of fighting both at school and in the Group Home. Two teenagers
had a fight before over Amanda S., a girl at school. They got 15 days suspension and sent to the
Group Home. This information was revealed later on follow-up interviews. Prior friction over
Amanda, seemed to cause a conflict between the two boys.

David R. is very regret about the entire situation. Amin is not controlling his anger. At this time,
I recommend that Amin P. residency will be suspended. An anger management course is
recommended for both boys. Amin P. has to learn to control his emotions in tense situations.
David R. can stay in the Group Home while taking an anger management course. A caseworker
has been assigned for Amin to move out another facility. In the meantime, David R. stays in here
until further notice.

Date: January 6, 2008

Faruk Arslan
SSW

398
Letter 5: Fundraising letter to parents
Sunrise Daycare Centre
1441 Lawrence Avenue
Toronto, Ontario
M4A 1W3

January 29, 2008

Dear Parent and/or Guardian:

Sunrise Daycare Centre is aware of your child's special needs and interests,
spent time planning a challenging activity for the children, and encouraged the children to try
new things.

Our Centre provides a good standard care for children. The premises are warm and welcoming
for both children and adults. Our facilty is designed to encourage families, schools, and
community organizations to help all children become more skillful mover, which, in turn, will
encourage youngsters to become more physically active.

We would like to request (Company's) assistance in providing this opportunity to the students of
(school, club, organization, area). Your sponsorship of (amount) would be greatly appreciated.

We have a large fundraising goal for (name of your school) (name of your event). The expected
cost of the (insert fundraiser purpose) is $ (insert fundraiser goal). I have set myself a personal
fundraising target of $ (insert your own sponsorship target). I would greatly appreciate your help
in reaching this target because (insert benefit summary or fundraiser benefit statement).

I have started my fundraising off with a personal donation of $ (insert your own amount). Your
donation will bring me closer to my goal and help (insert benefit statement about your
fundraising event).
As part of our fundraising, we are also holding a (name of your event) on (date of your event). I
will be inviting people from the local business community/families from the local area. If you
could donate (an item for our auction, provide the food/drinks/decorations or print the tickets and
posters for the event), I will (include an acknowledgement of your support on the program, etc).

If you have any questions or would like additional information, please call me at 416-555-5555.

Sincerely,
Faruk Arslan

399
Chapter 51

My Cover and Reference Letter Writings

Cover Letter 1
1441 Lawrence Avenue East #1217
North York, ON M4A 1W3
April 10, 2008
Gail Walker, Administrator
Chartwell Seniors Housing REIT
100 Milverton Drive, Suite 700
Mississauga, Ontario

Dear Walker:

I am writing to introduce myself to you at the suggestion of Michael Taylor from CAMH
informed me of the position you are developing to serve for senior. In May, I will graduate from
the Centennial with a Diploma of Social Service Worker and I am seeking a position that will
incorporate my desire to work with senior. I wanted to let you know that I am extremely
interested in learning more about this position.

As indicated on my resume, my field placement was with an interfaith agency. In this position I
developed event management and referral skills, counsellor, group leader, advocate,
administrator and an understanding of the multidisciplinary work. My volunteer experience in
private practice for six years has prepared me well for the flow of interviews, house visits, and
documents necessary to work out situations with senior people that I am comfortable to work
with. I am extremely motivated to work with others with my advocacy and excellent counselling
skills. I have extraordinary organizational and interpersonal skills.

I am looking for employment with this department in your agency and would welcome an hour
or so with you to show you my records, my college diploma in Social Service Worker, and my
recognition as a social worker in good standing with Ontario. I am eligible for membership with
the Social Service Workers Association of Ontario.

Let's meet one day next week if you have time. I can come to your office at your convenience.
Just give me a call at 416-822-8975. Thank you in advance for reviewing my credentials; I look
forward to speaking with you soon.

Sincerely,

Faruk Arslan
Enclosure: Resume

400
Cover Letter 2
1840 Victoria Park Avenue East #614
North York, ON M1R 1S9
August, 26 2010

Scadding Court Community Centre


707 Dundas Street West
Toronto, ON, M5T 2W6
Canada

Dear Alina:

I am writing to introduce myself to you at the suggestion of the position you are developing to
serve newcomers, immigrant communities. In April 2011, I will graduate from York University
with a Degree of Sociology. I also graduated from the Centennial with a Diploma of Social
Service Worker in 2008. I am seeking a position which will incorporate my desire to work with
newcomers. Although I know the position you are developing is in the preliminary stage, I
wanted to let you know that I am extremely interested in learning more about this position.

As indicated on my resume, my field placement was with an interfaith and intercultural agency.
In this position I developed event management and referral skills, counsellor, group leader,
advocate, administrator and an understanding of the multicultural system. My volunteer
experiences in private practice for six years has prepared me well for the flow of interviews,
house visits, and documents necessary to work out situations with immigrant people who are
often victims of current system. I am extremely motivated to work with others whose situations
are compounded by a lack of community support.

I am looking for employment with this department in your agency and would welcome an hour
or so with you to show you my records, my college diploma in Social Service Worker, and my
recognition as a social worker in good standing with Ontario. My university degree is available
on June 2011.

Let's meet one day next week if you have time. I can come to your office at your convenience.
Just give me a call at 416-822-8975. Thank you in advance for reviewing my credentials; I look
forward to speaking with you soon.

Sincerely,
Faruk Arslan

Enclosure: Resume

401
Reference Letter 1:

To Whom It May Concern:

It is my pleasure to write a recommendation letter for Faruk Arslan who is applying for your
program. I first met Faruk in July of 2010. Since then we have worked together in advising
committee for the Canadian Intercultural Dialogue Center, a non-profit institution whose purpose
is to help bring together the communities in order to promote compassion, cooperation,
partnership and community service through intercultural dialog and conversation. Although I
have known Faruk for five months only, I have interacted with him quite a bit and I think I am in
a good position to judge his abilities. In short, I have been extremely impressed by Faruk‘s
intellect, perseverance, compassion, and personality. Thus, I have no hesitation and whatsoever
to recommend him to your program at the highest terms.

Faruk has many important valuable attributes that are essential for completing a successful
graduate program. An important distinguishing attribute of Faruk is his thirst for learning. This
should be obvious from the fact that he has been studying in a university at the age of 41 and
pursuing a graduate degree. My own experience with him also confirms this. During the period I
have known him, I have observed his eagerness to learn and understand social issues. The second
important attribute of Faruk is his ability to observe, relate, and evaluate social issues. I have
been very impressed by his knowledge and evaluation of social issues. Third, Faruk has great
writing skills. He worked as a columnist in the top selling newspaper Zaman in Turkey from
1992 to 2002. He is the author of 11 books already, and among his books, his last book (―The
Mason Bektasism‖) has gotten the strongest attention from academia. In my opinion, Faruk is
already a scholar. He will greatly contribute to the intellectual environment in your program and
be one of the finest scholars that your program has ever generated.

Finally and most importantly, Faruk has strong motivation, desire, and ability to engage in social
work. He has been a driving force in our community activities via the Canadian Intercultural
Dialogue Center. He is a compassionate and caring person with great interpersonal skill, and a
great team member. He has coordinated and built up our relationships with shelters, hospitals,
jails, non-profits organizations and government agencies to offer our community based social
programs as an outreach worker. I very strongly recommend him for admission and full financial
support.

Please do not hesitate to contact me at.........................if you have any further questions.

Sincerely,

Associate Professor Department of Economics


University of Toronto

402
Reference Letter 2:
December 20, 2010

Re: Reference letter to Faruk Arslan

To Whom It May Concern:

Please accept this letter as my personal recommendation for Faruk Arslan. It was my sincere
pleasure to work with Faruk as a member of my team of Public Relation at the CIDC for
approximately four years, from December 2006 to December 2010. During that time, Faruk
reported to me as a consultant to our documentation staff, where he acted as an expert writer
specialist for our team. He has been working on to create a social program with us since then as
a volunteer.

Faruk is an excellent member of the team, provided his expertise and solutions to our team. His
primary responsibility was to coordinate our events, programs, prepare news releases, letters,
video clips and update our web site for online information. Faruk successfully completed his
work, allowing us to make significant improvements to all our documentation presence and
enabling our audiences to more easily find the information they need.

He did everything possible to contribute to the team‘s goals, working many nights and weekends
to meet our deadlines. In addition, by virtue of his determination and cooperation, Faruk
developed a wonderful working relationship with the other members of the team. His ability to
work well with all of his coworkers greatly increased the possible scope of his contributions, and
his mature, professional approach to monitoring and completing his work allowed him to work
autonomously and effectively.

I greatly admired his talent and sincerely enjoyed working with him. If you have any questions
regarding this reference or any aspect of Faruk‘s performance, please don‘t hesitate to contact
me via email or phone at 416 888-8888.

Sincerely,

Ahmet Tamirci

President of Intercultural Dialogue Institute

403
Reference Letter 3:
January 21, 2008

Re: Mr. Faruk Arslan

To Whom it May Concern,

It is my pleasure to write this letter on behalf of the CTFC, and confirm that Faruk Arslan has
been one of our active members since 2006. We are a non-profit and charitable organization
involved in a variety of efforts around the community to promote educational, cultural, arts and
music activities throughout the GTA.

Please be advised that Mr. Faruk Arslan is one of the organizers for The Toronto Turkish
Festival. He has been volunteer coordinator in 2006 and 2007, appointed general coordinator for
2008. Mr.Arslan is organizing monthly meetings for Festival Planning Committee and
coordinating 150 volunteer during two days festival.

Faruk wrote two grant proposals behalf of our community to Ontario Ministry of Tourism and
Toronto City Hall to extent Festival audience. The Toronto Turkish Festival celebrates Turkish
culture through music, exhibitions, arts, crafts, dance, shows and fabulous food. This wonderful
event will bring Turkey and Turkish Culture to Ontario with its music and tasty cuisine from
kabobs to mouth-watering pastries. It will include live traditional and modern Turkish music as
well as live Sufi music and dancing.

Without doubt, Faruk is a good team player, trustworthy person and well character community
organizer; he knows exactly what it means to live in partnership with others and to give back to
the community in which he lives.

Please do not hesitate to contact me for additional information at 416-285-0000.

Sincerely,

Celaleddin Basar
President of CTFC

404
Chapter 50

My Resume, CV

Faruk Arslan
1840 Victoria Park Avenue #614 Toronto, ON M1R 1S9
Tel: 416-822-8975 E-Mail: sunrisefaruk@yahoo.ca

OBJECTIVE

Interested in social work field, media and public relations and consultancy.

HIGHLIGHTS OF QUALIFICATIONS

Hon. Sociology Degree. York University, Toronto, Canada


Diploma in Social Service Work from Centennial College, Toronto, Canada
Extensive knowledge on social policy, legislation, social justice, social welfare, counseling and
social problems (macro/micro).
Experience in working with diverse populations, gets positive results, and able to work and
consult in multiple languages. (English, Turkish, German, Azerbaijan Languages)
Counsels individuals, families and prepares social programs for the community.
Over 18 years interviewing and journalism experience, strong communication skills.
Extensive speaking and writing experience; wrote and published 11 books.
Trustworthy, eager to learn, has positive attitude, creative and well problem solver.
Proven team player and has excellent leadership skills in different types of environment.
Works in high-pressure environments using superb multi-tasking capabilities.
Efficiently completes word processing of company letters and general correspondences.

SKILLS AND CAPABILITIES

Counseled individuals, couples, youth and adolescents to solve problems, provide support.
Scheduled appointments and formulates intakes over the phone, collects data.
Worked as team player, has supervised over 30 volunteers, 10 employees beforehand.
Has assisted in monitoring budgets and developing financial status reports.
Documented client and program services in compliance with agency policy requirements.
Connected families, individuals to community resources and organized campaigns.
Coordinated and organized programs, events and festivals and wrote to get grants for them.
Assessed social-economical needs and provided supportive counseling to communities.
Excellent computer skills, including ability to use publisher, Excel, and power point
Has taught Chess and Turkish language in elementary school as an Educator and Translator.

WORK HISTORY

January 2010 to present: Public Relations, Intercultural Dialogue Institute in Toronto.


September 2009 to January 2010: Public Relations, Canadian Intercultural Dialogue Center
July 2008 to September 2009: Public Relations, Canadian Interfaith Dialogue Center.

405
September 2007 to June 2008: Media and Public Relations, Canadian Interfaith Dialogue Center
as Field Placement, SSW student.
September 2004 to present: Column Writer at CanadaTurk, the newspaper of the Turkish
Diaspora in Canada.
August 2003 to July 2006: Export Manager of Astra Canada Pulses Inc. in agricultural sector
and Astra Mart that is specialty imported food store in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.
November 2000 to August 2003: Zaman Newspaper Canada representative and Toronto
Reporter.
September 2002 to August 2003: Published Sunrise Newsletter as an Editor in Chief.
November 2000 to present: Freelance reporter- doing online journalism at several web sites as a
column writer regularly.
August 1998- November2000: Diplomatic, foreign and energy reporter for Turkish Daily
Newspaper ―Zaman‖ published in Ankara the capitol city of Turkey following diplomatic
process between Turkish government structures and another governments as a Diplomatic
Correspondent.
September 1995 to August1998: Foreign and national reporter, column writer for ―Azerbaijan
Turkish Zaman ―daily newspaper in Baku, Azerbaijan. Oversaw national and international news
coverage and reported to second largest newspaper, in Turkey, ―Turkey Zaman (Time).‖
September 1995 to August 1998: ―World News Agency (CHA)‖ in Baku, Bureau Director and
Director of that Zaman News Centre. In charged of editing international politics section that
produced an enterprising balance of news features and graphic presentation. Manage reporters
and network of national and international stringer in the News Center.
February1992 to September1995: War Reporter and Editor National Politics Section in
―Azerbaijan Zaman Newspaper‖ Regional Bureaus Network Manager in Baku, Azerbaijan.

VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE

September 2010 to present: Volunteer, at the Cummer Lodge Ltd. Long-Term Care
Homes and Services, every Sunday, 3 hours

October 2008 to December 2010: President, Turkish Student Association at York

January 2008 to December 2010: Public Relations, Community and Program Developer:
Working several social action projects and programs at Canadian Intercultural Dialogue Center
(CIDC).

September 2007 to June 2008: Canadian Interfaith Dialogue Center, Media Relation
Coordinator/ Field Placement worked totally 320 hours. Involved events such as Whirling
Dervishes, Rumi Symposium, Annual Friendship Dinner, Fundraising Dinner and Noah's
Pudding campaign, prepared agency press releases, newsletters and updated the web site.

September 2006 to present: Community counseling, assessing mental health, family crises cases
and supporting for families, individuals, youth and adolescents at Canadian Turkish Friendship
Community (CTFC).

June 2006 to present: Festival Volunteer Coordinator in CTFC of Toronto Turkish Festival at
Yonge and Dundas in 2006, 2007 and 2008 as well as 2009 and 2010.

406
September 2007 to present: Grant Writer for Turkish and Azerbaijan communities in Toronto.
Work on funding new programs and events.

September 2007 to June 2008: Chess Club Volunteer Teacher/Educator at Nil Academy, and
preparing students to national and international chess competition.

October 2007 to December 2007: Food Donation Campaign to Africa, as an Organizer Assistant
at the Dicle Society.

September 2006 to July 2007: Youth Program Supporter, did psychological assessment and
support for Atak Soccer Club players and Kardelen Music Group members at CFTC.

August 2007 to July 2008: Azerbaijan Community Developer, at Azerbaijan Turkish Regions
Association.

November 2000 to July 2003: Sunrise Education Trust, Festival and Event Organizer, and
Published the monthly Sunrise newsletter.

Canadian-Turkish Islamic Heritage Association, volunteer- Turkish Kitchen traditional food


cook 6 months in 2003; Islamic Social Services and Resources Association, volunteer sick child
visitor; Omer Ul Faruk Islamic Center, volunteer Turkish community organizer, 6 months in
2002.

EDUCATION

Degree: York University, Honour Sociology BA in 2011.


Diploma: Centennial College, Social Service Worker Program: Diploma on April 30, 2008.
Degree: Azerbaijan University, International Relation and B.A. International Law specialized
degree, majored in English, Russian, and Azeri Linguistics, in Baku, Azerbaijan, in June 1997.
Diploma: Medical College, Gulhane Military Medical Academy, in Ankara, Turkey, in April
1987.
Certificate: Mock Disaster Course, "Tele-buddy Project", Network Ideas, in December 2007.
Certificate: French Language Explore Program Certificates in Toronto, in June 2010.
Certificate: German Language Course Certificate, in Alanya, Turkey, in March 1989.
Certificate: Arabic Course Certificate, in Turkey, in Alanya, Turkey in March 1988.

RECENT ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS

2010. ―The Holocaust: The Site oRf Memory, Site of Contestation and Collective
Consciousness.‖ The Fountain Magazine. Submitted and accepted, pending for publication.
2010. ―The Turkish Economic Miracle: Mutually Beneficial Economic Developments, Zero
Enemy Politics and Human-centered Universal Moralities.‖ Fatih University, European Journal
of Economic and Political Studies. Submitted, accepted and pending for publication.
2010. ―Universal Human-centred Moralities and Social Altruism.‖ The Turkish Review.
Submitted and pending.
2010. ―New Paradigms in the Turkish Foreign Policy.‖ The Turkish Review. Pending.
2010. ―Top-down French Secularism Targets the Full Veil.‖ SUSA, York University. Pending.

407
NON-ACADEMIC BOOK PUBLICATIONS

1-―Masonry Bektashism‖ Publisher Karakutu. April 2009, 376 pages, the relationships between
Alevism-Bektashi sects and the Turkish state since the10th century to present.
2-―The Black Box: Tuncay Guney‖ Publisher Karakutu. November 2008, 300 pages, a life story.
3-―The Myth of Jesus in Keshmir" Publisher Karakutu. Research book, 206 pages, unknown
truth of Jesus Christ boyhood life in Asia, December 2006.
4-"The Savior of Mesiah‘s Barnaba‖ Publisher Karakutu. Novel, 344 pages, about the unknown
history of the first Christians and the Gospel of Barnaba, in November 2006.
5- ―The First Alperens‖ Publisher Lulu. Memory book. 314 pages, journalism memories in May
2010.
6-"Rescue Us Canada" Publisher Lulu. Memory and Research book, 400 pages, about how to
come to Canada, and how to adapt in Canadian society, in August 2006.
7-―Wolves Valley of the Caspian‖ Publisher Karakutu. Oil power disputes in the 1990s over
Caspian sea oil resources, 445 pages in April 2005.
8-―Net Breaking: The Fiction War of Evangelist‖ Publisher Karakutu. 400 pages, about Iraq and
Afghanistan war disputes, global politics and human rights violations, in August 2005.
9-"The Secret of the Valley is Being Solved" Publisher Evreca. Research book, 256 pages, about
the Turkish mafia, deep state and secret organization triangles, in June 2005.
10-"The Chess of Petroleum" Publisher Lulu. Politics, 350 pages about how colorful coups and
revolutions in former Soviet Union countries underwent the petroleum dispute, in January 2005.
11-―September 11: Fiction of the Matrix‖ Publisher Q-Matrix about conspiracy theories, 495
pages, weird facts about September 11, in April 2004. Publisher Lulu in 2005, English
translation version.

AWARDS AND BURSARIES

Provost's Scholarship at York University in July 2008.


York Business & Prof Alliance Bursary OSOTF I at York University in November 2009.
York University Undergrad Bursaries at York University in 2008, 2009 and 2010.
George Tatham Memorial Bursary in 2011.

MEMBERS

Canadian National Ethnic Journalist Association, Canadian Turkish Friendship Community,


Azerbaijan Turkish Regions Association in Toronto, Canada. Azerbaijan Journalist Association,
in Baku, Azerbaijan; Turkish Writers Association and Turkish Diplomatic Reporters
Association, in Ankara, Turkey.

Reference: Available upon request.

408
Statement of Interest
I have been an accomplished student, a successful reporter and correspondent, and then a
researcher—even a writer who has already published 11 books. As a Political science, a Social
Service Worker and a Sociology student, I am a passionate thinker and writer aiming to respond
to the complex problems facing our society and communities. The reason behind my decision to
attend Centennial College and York University was to continue learning and exploring issues
that interested me. I returned to academic life after 15 years of work in active journalism and life
experience because I wanted to keep learning, reading, helping individuals, families and groups
and doing research.
My peers have always consistently placed me in leadership positions in my university
years since I have had a reputation for doing work well beyond what is expected. I have
published several Turkish community newspapers, journals and newsletters since 2000 including
The Sunrise Journal and CanadaTurk Newspaper in Toronto. I have about 20 years of
experience as a reporter and column writer. I have published over 6000 articles and 2000
columns. The news pieces that I have written had major impact throughout Turkey and the
Middle East; leading to numerous TV and radio news coverage.
I wanted to continue my journey of hard work, research, curiosity, and exploration; and a
master program enable me to continue this journey. I received an Honour Sociology degree from
York University in a growing field, and I already have a phenomenal amount of research,
journalism and SSW experience. I look forward to learning further, developing my research
skills in an academic environment. The interdisciplinary nature of the sociology program is very
appealing and fits my research goals and interests. I want to concentrate on Social Work field as
well because I want to help individuals, families, groups, and research on a community-based
social movement in Canada.
I am committed to achievement by recognizing roots of discrimination and oppression
usage and within my approach, critical and reflective thinking. It is important to see all of the
different ways in which the persons and systems are inter-related. I have been influenced by the
system + ecological theories = the life model in social worker studies, and during my field
placement at Centennial College, I was drawn to the Germain's ecological perspective for the
same reasons. However, I found only one theory to be lacking in practical application.
Postmodernism and the Critical Theory are broad rubrics for intellectual movements rather than
specific theories, and postmodernism derives from Post-Structuralism and Deconstructionist,
which were initially criticisms of the Structuralism Movement of the 1960s. The Critical Theory
was derived from the neo-Marxism and Feminist theories, extended to include the Post-Colonial
Theory and Queer Theory. Discourse and deductive thinking need a variety of approaches
assigned based on client needs. The ecological structure needs nutrition to adapt and evolve, and
it depends on power and the structure of the society to have benefited them. Based on the critical
perspective, there are false conscious, deconstructive, and dominate groups that benefit from
consciousness such as capitalism, and historical facts were choices that have influenced our
lives.
I searched several approaches, such as one reflective, which puts oneself in someone
else‘s shoes to understand others. I am equally a kinaesthetic, oral and verbal learner, so I plan to
take advantage of all the possibilities from these forms of learning that encourage me to do
intensive study. I like to use the Critical Reflective Model, antiracism and anti-oppression
approaches to practice in the social field in order to break down barriers. I do advocacy for social
justice. I confront the ideas of discrimination and oppression. I create possibilities for multiple
perspectives and develop explanations as a critical reflector. Talking of this practice can put
impact on community leaders and challenge their minds to work on community-based projects
409
for all. The less competent MSW is not interested in his work as a helper of people, but rather as
an expert of people in the way of working effectively for clients. I would look to an anti-
oppressive, empowerment, critical, reflective, and systemic life model, and also a contextual
model for guidance in encouragement in order to collaboratively change the system.
My skills as a SSW and having sociological knowledge are adequate to help people
within a certain context; I have experience working in the Canadian Interfaith-Intercultural
Dialogue Center, Canadian Turkish Friendship Community, Azerbaijan Turkish Regions
Association, Sunrise Education Trust and Canadaturk as a community developer, an event
organizer, and a grant writer for refugees, immigrants, new Canadians, and for persons with
whom case management was necessary with high-risk families, and with media and public
relations, and I have also been successful doing SSW work with families and children.
Ultimately, I feel it is important to know more about the approach to theories, have an
idea of my own biases, but to never let a certain perspective or technology limit to what I can do
for a client. Respect for human diversity has always been a core social work concern. It is the
centerpiece of many of our best efforts to enhance human growth and potential. I have respect
that culture, race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual diversity in Canada grow ever more inclusive.
The social work profession works mostly with underprivileged segments of society that include a
large number of culturally diverse populations. I have assumed the task of broadening my
cultural competency to improve my ability to work with clients whose backgrounds and culture
are different from my own. My experiences living in other countries (Azerbaijan, Turkey and
Canada) have allowed me the perspective of being outside the mainstream.
I feel confident and passionate and have the intellectual capacity, real world experience,
and the tenacity and courage to be a scholar in the field of Sociology. I believe my researches
can have significant implications for the sustainability and social responsibility of many sectors
in Canada. I want to continue my journey and develop research skills in a Ph.D. in Social Work.

410

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