Graduation Speech Thanks For Contacting Me - 1018 Words

Thanks for contacting me. I have been listening to Alex’s podcasts for years, but I really only joined this forum a month ago. I had a peek every so often, but generally found there was too much ‘mind stuff’ happening in the show discussions. I am coming from experience not from theory, and until the thread on family constellation with Dan Cohen, I just could not put in the effort to get into the conversation. Much like yourself, I follow my own path. At times I would call it the path of the ‘dark night of the soul’, other times it is about following the light. This is what resonated with me in your last posting. I know all about the fire that consumes every aspect of the false self in some kind of a purification process. For years I†¦show more content†¦I see the value of doing a past life regression, and understand that many people experience physical healing from such sessions. That’s great go with what works. But to me, this is more about storytelling, a way to access the subconscious and bring hidden driving forces and motivations to the surface to work with. It does not proof anything and I always suspected that people who believe in it come from a place of fear of death or ego obliteration. This may be partially true, but I am also getting now that reincarnation feels quite real for a number of folks. I don’t believe anyone’s reality is more valid than anybody else’s. I think the universe is big enough to accommodate all of it. This is essentially where I am coming from. Use what works and what makes your day to day life better. There is little point arguing about theories and philosophies. At the end of the day we are all in a body. It hurts when we hit our heads, we have physical needs as well as emotional ones etc. If one person has figured out how to make one aspect of our existence a bit better, it’s worth listening to them. If what they say resonates on some level, great, otherwise let’s move on to something more interesting. I guess I have spent many years developing my mind. Eventually I figured out that the mind is only a small aspect. A sharp and critical mind without development of the heart or compassion for our fellow human becomes rather anti-social and cruel. However, something interesting

Woman and Canadian Politics Free Essays

Prior to 1921, men were the only members of the Canadian parliamentary system. With the first Canadian women being elected into the Canadian parliament in 1921, women have had the ability to participate and become elected into the House of Commons. Since then, Canadian women’s participation in the House of Commons has substantially increased from 1 female seat holder in 1921 to the present day 64 seats held by women. We will write a custom essay sample on Woman and Canadian Politics or any similar topic only for you Order Now Although this increase is seemed as substantial, the debate about the underrepresentation of women in politics has been a central topic of debate by politicians, scholars and the general public in Canada. Although it is widely agreed that representation of women in the House of Commons needs to increase, there are two fundamentally different views regarding this underrepresentation; the explanatory perspective and the feminist perspective. The explanatory perspective argues that â€Å"political institutions should reflect the composition of civil society† , while the feminists perspective argues that, â€Å"since women offer unique perspectives, their exclusion from political power means that their needs, demands, and interests would currently not be echoed in the political arena. However, through the assessment of the definition of democracy, and the evaluation of the feminist’s arguments and explanatory perspectives, the relatively low number of women elected to the House of Commons does not mean the Canadian political system is insufficiently democratic. In order to understand the underrepresentation of women in the Canadian political system, democracy must be define d. According to Rand Dyke, the definition of democracy is, â€Å"a political system characterized by popular sovereignty, political equality, political freedom, and majority rule. Popular sovereignty and political equality entails that everyone eligible to vote has: a vote to participate in a final outcome, and an equal weighted vote. Political freedom involves equal opportunities and rights to all. Majority rule entails that when it comes to making a decision regarding differences in opinions, the larger number should win. Therefore, democracy suggests that there should be representation for all genders and race, everyone should enjoy the equal opportunities, and everyone has an equal say when it comes to choosing their representatives. Firstly, women hold approximately 20. 8 percent of the House of Commons in Canada. Although this is an underrepresentation of the women population in Canada, it is not undemocratic. Based on the definition of democracy as defined above, it is argued, and has been proven through the election of women into the House of Commons, that women have equal opportunity to become a member in the House of Commons. Out of the Canadian population of eligible voters, women approximately make up more then 50 percent of that population. With women holding the majority of the votes in Canada, and an equal vote, it is puzzling that there are complaints regarding unfair representation. The fact that women have equal right to men shows that the Canadian political system is democratic. Perhaps the underrepresentation is not due to flaws in Canadian democracy regarding electing females to the House of Commons, but individual wants regarding representation. Women’s traditional role in society has been to stay home and take care of children as they are seen as nurturing creatures. The ways politicians have been portrayed through the media are ruthless and powerful people. The portrayal of traditional roles of women verse politicians may be part of the reason the general public does not elect more into the House of Commons. Perhaps if women involved in politics became more involved with the media, to prove their authoritativeness, the general population would be more inclined to elect strong-willed, assertive women into the House of Commons. Secondly, feminists have argued that females vying for political nomination face challenges finding monetary support for their nomination and campaigns. Although women face this difficulty, men do as well. To accommodate the financial difficulty of competing nominees the 1974 Election Expenses Act was implemented, and in 2004 Bill C-24. The 1974 Election Expenses Act introduced restrictions to the amount that candidates and parties could spend on elections, as well as gave tax deductions to sponsors, and partial reimbursement to parties and candidates wining more than 15 percent of the vote. Bill C-24 introduced restrictions once again on sponsorship spending placing boundaries on who can sponsor and caps on how much can be sponsored, while giving parties subsidies for each vote they received in the last election. By placing these restrictions and caps on spending, the competition in the financial field became less of an issue. The facts that these barriers have been acknowledged and attempts have been made remedy these burdens, not only benefited women’s likelihood to get nominated, but made competing playing field equal. Candidates who did not find finance as a burden were restricted to a cap, therefore made it more likely that all candidates would have around the same amount of money to spend on their promotion. Both men and women have to go through the same nomination process to become a candidate for elections; whether they choose to pursue the legislative route is based on personal choice, not political inequality. Thirdly, feminists are concerned that the small numbers of women in the House of Commons means that women’s interests and needs are not being represented. However, this can be proven false through the fact that for a long time the Canadian politics has mostly been based on the brokerage system. The brokerage system theory suggests that since Canada has such a diverse population, in order for political parties to win elections, they must appeal to the masses. Since Canada follows the brokerage system, it is suggested that everyone will receive representation in the Government because political parties have compromised in order to gain their support. One of the ways the Canadian political parties have gained more support by women was by bringing more into their party. Since 1921 women candidates in parties have increased from 4 female candidates to present day 380 female candidates. The increase shows that parties are accepting women in as candidates, in hopes to better accommodate women’s wants and needs; however, the general population is not voting them in. Not only does it allow from more female candidates, but it makes it easier for Feminists to belong to a political party. However, more feminists in the House of Commons may not be the best strategy for meeting needs, demands and interests of women. Women rather vote for â€Å"women as women† rather then feminists. Finally, although the underrepresentation of women in the House of Commons does not mean that the Canadian political system is insufficiently democratic, it does need to be improved. Some solutions suggested to improve this underrepresentation is to look at the how seats get distributed, quotas, and greater promotion for women in politics. Canada bases their government off of single member plurality. Single member plurality means that the candidate that wins the most votes wins a seat in the House of Commons no matter how marginal their victory is. This â€Å"first-past-the-post† technique leaves parties completely unrepresented, including women, when there is support for them. A suggestion to remedy underrepresentation is to implement a mixed member system. A mixed member would entail that a portion of the seats in the House of Commons is elected by the â€Å"first-past-the-post† system, and the remainder of the seats are chosen based on proportional representation. Another suggestion is to place quotas on parties as to a specific percentage of women must be elected. Countries such as Costa Rica, Argentina and Belgium have legal quotas as to percentage of women elected. A further suggestion would be to create greater publicity to promote women’s involvement in politics. Promoting interest in politics may trigger more women to get involved in politics, therefore possibly increasing the number of female candidates. Through some of these suggestions, female representation in the House of Commons may increase; however, this will take time. Underrepresentation of women in the House of Commons is a problem in the Canadian political system which does need to be addressed and remedied. However, this issue did not result because Canada’s politic system is undemocratic. Through the dissection of the definition of democracy, it was proven that both women and men are equally liable to be elected into the House of Commons. Through the assessment of the feminist argument that women have greater monetary burdens, it was proven that competition for nomination and candidacy has been regulated through Bill C-24 and the Election Expenses Act to assure expense equality. And the fact that the Canadian government has been based on the brokerage theory system suggests that political parties would want women to be elected therefore making their party more appealing to the masses. Although the number of women in the House of Commons has grown significantly, females are still underrepresented due to then general public’s decision not due to undemocratic functioning’s. Steps need to be taken to increase female interest in politics and the single member plurality system needs to be re-assessed to make female representation in the House of Commons more representative of its population. Bibliography Cool, Julie. Women in Parliament. [cited 1 November 2006] Available from http://dsp-psd. pwgsc. gc. ca/Collection-R/LoPBdP/PRB-e/PRB0562-e. pdf Dyck, Rand. Canadian Politics: Critical Approaches. th ed. Scarborough: Nelson, 2004. Government of Canada. Population by Age and Sex Group. [cited 1 November 2006] Available from http://www40. statcan. ca/l01/cst01/demo10a. htm Heard, Andrew. Elections: Women Candidates in Canadian Elections 1921 – 2006. [cited 1 November 2006] Available from http://www. sfu. ca/~aheard/elections/women-elected. html Trembla y, Manon. â€Å"Do Female MPs Substantively Represent Women? A Study of Legislative Behaviour in Canada’s 35th Parliament. † Canadian Journal of Political Science / Revue canadienne de science politique 31, no. 3 (1998): 435-465. Tremblay, Manon, and Rejean Pelletier. â€Å"More Feminists Or More Women? Descriptive and Substantive Representations of Women in the 1997 Canadian Federal Elections. † International Political Science Review / Revue internationale de science politique 21, no. 4, Women, Citizenship, and Representation. Femmes, citoyennete et representation (2000): 381-405. Young, Lisa. â€Å"Fulfilling the Mandate of Difference: Women in the Canadian House of Commons. † In the Presence of Women: Representation in Canadian Government. Ed. Jane Arscott, Linda Trimble. Toronto: Harcourt Brace Company Canada Ltd, 1997. How to cite Woman and Canadian Politics, Papers

Forms of Discrimination Against Women

Question: Discuss about the Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Answer: Introduction: The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), is adopted in 17979by the General Assembly of UN. This treaty is generally known as bill of rights for women at international level. This treaty consist preamble and almost 30 articles, which defines what actions are considered as discrimination against women and it also provide actions to end these discrimination activities. The main aim of Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of 2008 is to promote and protect the rights of human with disabilities, and also ensure the enjoyment of these rights by person with disability. In this paper, we discuss the applicability of Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of 2008 in Zambia. Applicability of CEDAW UNCRPD on Zambia: CEDWA states that discrimination against women is still exist, and this treaty ensures that a woman gets equal rights and also it provides respect to the dignity of women. Zambia is the country where number of tribal groups exists, and the society of Zambia consist patriarchal cultural values. Discrimination against women is widely spread and absence of women in the political position shows the condition of women in Zambia. Womens does not take part in the decision making structures and this will result in gender discrimination in the government policy also. This is the only reason that nongovernmental organizations conduct various programs to protect and promote the rights of women in Zambia. Constitution of Zambia guarantees equal treatment of men and women. However constitution itself contains limitation in Article 23(4) (c) which put limitation on the rights of women related to marriage, adoption, divorce, and other personal law matters. On the continuous basis womens are discriminated in family law matters such as legal age of marriage is 21 years for men but 18 for women, and in many cases womens get married at very young age under customary law. There are other laws also such as De jure discrimination against women which are related to immigration law such as Zambian Immigration Act provides that if Zambian men marry non national women, then in such case that non national women automatically becomes the Zambian citizen whereas in case of women no such provision exist. In Zambia domestic violence against women occurred at large scale. The United Nations Committee comment on the Zambian report that various incidents are reported related to violence against women such as violence in prison and domestic violence, and also recommend that Zambian government must take initiatives to protect the women against violence. Whereas number of initiatives are taken by the government such as gender violence tribunal which help in solving the public issues, and also help policy makers and law enforcement officers, and Victim Support Unit (VSU) to provide ample support to the victim. Recently, government adopted a National Gender Policy, but there is no national plan for prevention and protection of women against violence. It is clear that there are number of Discriminatory laws stated in Zambia which encourage the discrimination against women. Discrimination in Zambia is set up at legal level of the country. Therefore, we can say that government signs the CEDWA but applicability of CEDWA is not up to mark. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of 2008 (UNCRPD) - in this we discuss the current status of applicability of UNCRPD, and the condition of disable persons in Zambia. There are number of steps taken by government for meeting the criteria of UNCRPD such as enactment of disabilities Act no 6 of 2012, government also launch policy that is national disability policy and also make other efforts at policy level. Whereas government also prepares a report related to UNCRPD and submit it to UN which shows that government does not take measure steps to implement this treaty. According to the WHO findings almost 15% population of Zambia is suffered with disability, and the maximum numbers of peoples with disability is live in rural areas where basic facilities are limited. A survey was conducted in 2015 which shows employment rate that is 45.5% in case of disabled people as compared to non disable people that is 58%. A census shows large number of people stated that most disable person is self employed whereas very few are working as employers in organization, and it also shows that 80% disable people are engaged in agriculture. Maximum numbers of disable persons are live in poverty and they also have low level of literacy as compared to non disabled people. In fact, large numbers of disabled are begging on street for survival. Number of public buildings is set up to help the persons with disability, but these buildings are not able to access large number of disable people which result in various challenges to the disable persons and infringement of rights of disable persons. In Zambia there is need to formulate various strategies to protect the rights of disable persons and for the implementation of UNCRPD. Therefore, we can say that applicability of UNCRPD is not up to the mark, but government takes various steps and measures to protect the rights of the disabled persons in Zambia. Conclusion: In last, we conclude that both the treaty signed by Zambia is not implementing in country up to mark, and government does not take measure steps to implement these tasks. Government does not take accurate measures to implement these treaties. CEDWA and UNCRPD are signed by government to improve the conditions of women and Disabled persons respectively, but there are number of faults in the implementation of these treaties. Bibligraphy Treaty on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) [1979] Treaty on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities [2008]. Martignoni J., Violence against Women In Zambia (OMCT 2002) https://www.omct.org/files/2002/01/2193/zambiaeng2002.pdf accessed on 23rd November 2016. CEDWA, Third and fourth Periodic report of Zambia, https://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/cedaw27/zam3-4.pdf accessed on 23rd November 2016. Longwe, S. LEGALIZED DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN IN ZAMBIA https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNAAX512.pdf accessed on 23rd November 2016. Ammattikorkeakoulu, D. United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Current state in Zambia : Perspective from PWDs https://www.theseus.fi/handle/10024/107690 accessed on 23rd November 2016. ILO, Inclusion of People with Disabilities in Zambia, https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@ed_emp/@ifp_skills/documents/publication/wcms_115100.pdf accessed on 23rd November 2016. Chilufya, M. Accessibility of public buildings to disabled persons https://dspace.unza.zm:8080/xmlui/bitstream/handle/123456789/3162/CHILUFYAM0000001.PDF?sequence=1 accessed on 23rd November 2016.