Caroline Schiavo
2016
Passing the Bhutan from a Monarchy to a Democracy
The government of Bhutan has evolved from a pure monarchy to a guided democracy, along with all the trappings of a developing country. The first elections of a democratic society began in 2008 and 2013 with the guidance of “…His Majesty sitting through the sessions of the Tshogdu on a high gilded throne, taking notes and even occasionally intervening in the debate...". This reveals that the monarchy is concerned about guiding the adoption and direction of democracy in the country. “The command of His Majesty Jigme Singye Wangchuck to draft a written constitution for the kingdom, the following consultations by the monarch with the subjects, the latter’s reluctance and the gentle force behind them, all but point to the fact that the monarch’s role in setting up a democratic model in the country”. This identifies that the kingdom documented a clear hierarchical path to democracy with a dedication to providing stability to the Bhutanese citizens; the challenge was twofold to actively and simultaneously preserve the traditional system and values, while adapting to modernity and its uneasiness. “The main challenges are also described in order to assess the viability of the monarchy as the principal agent of change”. The Bhutanese government has been marked by political, historical, and cultural aspects. The portrait of Bhutan can be considered based on: its geography, its democratization, its governmental structure, its Gross National Happiness factor, and its educational challenges and goals.
Baltimore Riots, Then and Now
The massive migration of blacks in the 1960s to northern urban cities resulted in riots, prejudice, racism, and poverty. Due to a lack of education, limited job opportunities, unskilled labor, and poor housing options, blacks in the cities of Newark, Detroit, and Baltimore were oppressed with a persistent feeling of helplessness and marginalization. This led to economic downtown, racial divide and profiling, despair, and civil disobedience across the country. The Civil Rights movement involving Martin Luther King and Brown vs the Board of Education in the 1950s gave rise to the heightened anger blacks endured. Tension caused riots in Detroit, Newark, and Baltimore. The Vietnam War helped to radicalize blacks and integrate them; however, back at home racism perpetuated. The Civil Rights movement helped to spur President LBJ’s War on Poverty initiating programs like Economic Opportunity Act and VISTA. Ironically, there appears to be a retrogression with racial profiling emerging in the 2015 with the death of Baltimore’s Freddie Gray, Ferguson’s Michael Brown, and many other deaths that have started the Black Lives Matter movement.
Germany and Brazil Eugenics
Eugenics, thought to be the concept of human heredity, is the artificial, instead of natural selection of congenital traits. Largely manipulated by the Nazi Third Reich, Germany’s eugenics believed in maintaining a wholesome Aryan race through the persecution of Jews and the euthanasia of a class of inferiors, allowing propagating to continue among pure Aryan females. Brazil’s stance on preventive eugenics, particularly the concept of sanitation, allowed for the betterment of the environment and assistance with homiculture and puericulture, supporting the preservation of public health and the mestiços. Nazi controlled Germany stressed the importance of racial hygiene and sterilization, while Brazil’s formidable economy was confronted with the principles of sanitation and the desire to make Latin America join in the international advancement and movement of eugenics; individuals aspiring to shape society were confronted with the idea of positive, preventive, or negative eugenics and whether pangenesis Darwinism, the soft style of neo-Lamarckism or hard Mendelism should be considered the philosophy of eugenics.
Environmental History of Hometown
Introduction to Society and the Environment paper on the history of my hometown area which consists of Berkeley Heights, New Providence, and Summit, New Jersey. It is socially and civically responsible to teach society about the past, the Lenni Lenape Indians, the Europeans, and the local summer vacationers that established my hometown, Berkeley Heights. The present New York City commuters and middle class residents need to understand the impact of their use of public transportation and decisions on the environment will affect its future. For a sustainable future, the government needs to create regulations, reduce emission and pollution levels, and ensure communication through the local environmental commission. New Jersey’s Union County suburbs of Berkeley Heights, New Providence, and Summit (BHNPS) previously inhabited by Algonquin Indians, started as the permanent English settlement, Elizabethtown in 1664, eventually settling into separate townships by the 1900s. This region deals with constant transportation and industrial revolutions; while in the future, these cities aspire to maintain the Passaic River, the Great Swamp, and the local tree canopy through ecosystem services.