Tuesday, September 30, 2008

The First Charter of Virginia Rhetorical Analysis

• Author-The exact author (authors) of this document are not specified individually, but from the context of the text, there reason to believe that this document was the product of collaboration between several authors, who were appointed subjects under the authority of King James.

• Audience-The audience which this document regards is the group of European residents who were sent by King James with a mission to inhabit and colonize the part of America known as Virginia. According to the text in the document, this group (which composed of sundry Knights, gentlemen, merchants, and other adventurers from the cities of London, Bristol, Exeter and town of Plymouth) was to divide itself into two sets in order to speed up the process of colonization in America. This legal document applied to the European inhabitants who were under King James.

• Tone-The tone of the author(s) of this document is somewhat demanding and very much authoritative. In the institution of laws and regulations, one would only expect such a stern writing style judging by the documents purpose.

• Purpose-The purpose of this document was to establish a series of regulations for the colonists in the New World. It was a legal contract that restricted the inhabitants independence and allowed for King James and his monarchy to have a certain level of control over the colonies even from thousands of miles away. It served as a legal agreement providing benefits and policies for future inhabitants.

• Persuasion
-Ethos: As a legal document, emotion did not play a very prominent role, but looking at the situation the authors perspective (King James & Monarchy) this document was most likely the product of personal voracity & for wealth and power (gold & land).

-Pathos: The credibility of the Virginia Charter & King James was decently credible and somewhat consist ant. I base this conclusion off of the fact that the inhabitants did receive land as stated in the charter, but I do not make this conclusion without considering the actual risk of the charter and the odds of dying in the process of the journey to the New World.

Logos: The logical aspect of the Virginia Charter was a questionable effort to inhabit and colonize the new world, to obtain land, resources, and new wealth for England and for King James.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

The First Charter of Virginia Rhetorical Analysis (Draft)

Author-The exact author (authors) of this document are not specified individually, but from the context of the text, there reason to believe that this document was the product of collaboration between several authors, who were appointed subjects under the authority of King James.

• Audience-The audience which this document regards is the group of European residents who were sent by King James with a mission to inhabit and colonize the part of America that came to be known as Virginia. According to the text in the document, this group (which composed of sundry Knights, gentlemen, merchants, and other adventurers from the cities of London, Bristol, Exeter and town of Plymouth) was to divide itself into two sets in order to speed up the process of colonization in America. This legal document applied to the European inhabitants of America.

• Tone-The tone of the author of this document is somewhat demanding and very much authoritative. In the institution of laws and regulations, one would only expect such a stern writing style judging by the documents purpose.

• Purpose-The purpose of this document was to establish a series of regulations for the colonists in the New World in order to restrict their independence and also in order for King James and his monarchy to have a certain level of control over the European inhabitants even from thousands of miles away. It served as a legal agreement providing benefits and policies for future inhabitants.

• Persuasion
-Ethos: As a legal document, emotion did not play a very prominent role, but looking at the situation the authors perspective (King James & Monarchy) this document was most likely the product of personal & voracity for wealth and power (gold & land).

-Pathos: The credibility of the Virginia Charter & King James was decently credible and somewhat consist ant. I base this conclusion off of the fact that the inhabitants did receive land as stated in the charter, but I do not make this conclusion without considering the actual risk of the charter and the odds of dying in the process of the journey to the New World.

Logos: The logical aspect of the Virginia Charter was a questionable effort to inhabit and colonize the new world, to obtain, land, resources and new wealth for King James and England.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Destruction of the Indies

Destruction of the Indies was a brief personal eye witness account by Bartolome de Las Casas depicting descriptively the total annihilation and mutilation of the natives dwelling on the Indies as well as the island of Hispaniola. Although this informative historical account gave the reader an idea of why the destruction of the Indies came to be, I believe that it boldly emphasized on revealing the brutal cruelty, and immorality of the Spaniard’s treatment of the, “innocently simply” natives on their own homeland. The author supports this through many examples, one in which he states, (regarding the Spaniards cruelty), “they spared no age, or sex, nay not as much as women with child, but ripping up their bellies, tore them alive in pieces.” In yet another example in which the author was an actual witness of, De La Casas describes the immoral actions of the Spaniards, “They lay wagers among themselves, who should with a sword at one blow cit, or divide a man in two; or which of them should decollate or behead a man, with greatest dexterity.” Not only were the Spaniards immoral and cruel in their physical proceedings but in physiological aspects also. Knowing that the natives (in the words of the author) “reverenced them as persons descended from heaven”, the Spanish took advantage of the innocent natives in almost every way that thy possibly could. From forcing them into labor, to physically abusing and ruthlessly slaughtering large numbers of the natives, I personally believe that the most repulsive part about the Spaniard's actions in the destruction of the Indies was that the Spaniards executing theses decadent proceedings were yet hypocritical enough to represent a nation bearing and spreading Christian faith and it's principals. While De La Casas' account of the destruction of the Indies in 1552 was historical and educational, it also accentuated a very low point in the history of Spain as well as in the history of civilized cultures.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Individual Writing Philosophy

The system of values by which I have come to write original, pieces of literature that are satisfactory to my own personal standards have always been far from premeditated. The pieces of writing that I have completed on my own time solely for myself have always had a sense of spontaneous mystery within them. Literature, like music or painting is a valuable art through which the author or artist is able to transcribe what he feels only he is capable of expressing. The motive and overall intention behind the creation of art and literature can come to an artist or author in various forms that at times may even be mysterious. You will never find a true artist or musician sitting around asking himself why he should paint his next painting or write his next song, or even searching for reasons to do so. Backtracking to Joan Didion’s, On Keeping a Notebook, the author would jot down slivers of dialog and peculiar details to summon experiences to- remember what they were to her. Was someone making her write those things down? I personally believe that literature, like art, cannot be forced. Art that is forced is not art, and on the contrary, literature that is forced is not literature, but merely strings of words and sentences. Synchronizing the essay, English Composition as a Happening into the picture, Charles Deemer states that essays are written by heads, but insists that the heart should also have its say in English Composition.

Being an aspiring musician I have the opportunity to study and sometimes even write music accompanied by lyrics. I can honestly say that from my experiences and perspective, at times music and lyrics are born without one even asking for them. Sometimes different pieces at different times, leaving you to simply put the puzzle together. To me, music and lyrics are brought by something I can only describe as a muse. It reveals itself either spontaneously, or grows in my head so loud that It overwhelms me if I don't transcribe it to paper, and feels as if it were a part of me. This same muse can wake you in the middle of the night, force you to grab your instrument and attempt to record an impossibly meticulous stream of consciousness that flows looped through your mind. Sometimes this task is not so easily accomplished, but you don't give in easily, the reward of it is far too grand, and at times when you do give in, the guilt... the guilt of giving in would keep you up all night anyway, and if are up all night, you feel no sense of loss, even the perception of time fades away because you do it all realizing, that if you are fortunate enough and consistent, one day, you might even stumble upon the happy accidents that are art, and this my friend, is priceless.

A poem that has always been a very significant influence on me supports my philosophy on writing most literature and music…and in the words of Archibald MacLeish “I insist that poetry is also capable of knowledge”, so pay attention to the poem below by writer Charles Bukowski entitled- “So You Want to be a Writer?”

so you want to be a writer? by Charles Bukowski

if it doesn't come bursting out of you in spite of everything,
don't do it.
unless it comes unasked out of your heart and your mind and your mouth and your gut,
don't do it.
if you have to sit for hours staring at your computer screen
or hunched over your typewriter
searching for words,
don't do it.
if you're doing it for money or fame,
don't do it.
if you're doing it because you want women in your bed,
don't do it.
if you have to sit there and rewrite it again and again,
don't do it.
if it's hard work just thinking about doing it,
don't do it.
if you're trying to write like somebody else,
forget about it.
if you have to wait for it to roar out of you,
then wait patiently.
if it never does roar out of you,
do something else.
if you first have to read it to your wife
or your girlfriend or your boyfriend
or your parents or to anybody at all,
you're not ready.
don't be like so many writers,
don't be like so many thousands of
people who call themselves writers,
don't be dull and boring and
pretentious, don't be consumed with self-love.
the libraries of the world have
yawned themselves to sleep
over your kind.
don't add to that.
don't do it.
unless it comes out of
your soul like a rocket,
unless being still would
drive you to madness or
suicide or murder,
don't do it.
unless the sun inside you is
burning your gut,
don't do it.
when it is truly time,
and if you have been chosen,
it will do it by
itself and it will keep on doing it
until you die or it dies in you.
there is no other way.
and there never was.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

English Composition as a Happening

In 1967, in his essay English Composition As a Happening, Charles Deemer illustrates to the reader that English Composition, as a class in an education program, is in desperate need of reshaping or what he calls a “happening,” or an experiment that he proposes will provide a remedy and institute justice to the “fragmentation and lack of mutual participation between class and student”. To describe how severe this “fragmentation” really is (especially in our school systems and universities) Deemer exemplifies many of his conclusion backed by the words of Paul Goodman (“From John Dewey to A.S Neill”) who states, “Our entire school system, like our over-organized economy, politics, and standard of living, is largely a trap; it is not designed for the maximum growth and future practical utility of the children into a changing world” .Deemer makes examples of the mental and physical barriers that make it difficult for mutual participation to take place. He begins with physical barriers such as the podium from which an instructor directs information towards his students, continuing with the principle acquired dividing notion that the teacher and the students are entirely two separate entities in a classroom/lecture hall. The notion that an instructor is most commonly perceived as the “wise authority figure”, and the students; “recipients of knowledge” is the root of Deemer’s “criticism of the traditional misdirection of education.”

Charles writes that he envisions education as an “experience involving both student and teacher”, but the successful transfusion between the two is currently impossible as “the traditional rigidity of our educational institutions puts the generation behind the podium forever out of touch with the younger generation in the lecture hall”. Bertrand Russel also points out that the mental habits that are being taught to students by educators such as obedience and discipline are deemed almost inadequate in real world situations (as they are obviously characteristics of those who are dependant upon people other than themselves) and ought be replaced with habits such as preserving independence and impulse.

John Dewey states that “education must be conceived as a continuing reconstruction of experience; that the process and the goal of education are one and the same thing”. Based upon this theory Charles Deemer explains that the teacher has the prominent advantage of an “accumulation of experience”, and he states that he would like to base a new organization of teaching of English Composition in which the goal would be to keep students involved and participating and unified. The first step in forming this organization of teaching would be to “eliminate the stage”, thus in a sense removing the authority of the teachers and making them part of the so called, “audience”. This aspect would make teacher and student equal and accomplish the purpose of making students comfortable enough to discuss and participate.

Deemer explains that one of the most critical tools of the happening would be shock and surprise; it had the purpose of enveloping the spectator. He states, “The teacher having upset the student’s expectation of the organization of the classroom medium, should find it less of a problem to get the student’s pat ideas and opinions and to inspire an experience, a happening, that will get the student to participate in the realization of his own awareness of his inadequacy.”Strangely enough, Charles makes a unique correlations stating that “the best teachers have always been actors, by their ability to move an audience to an experience, an active engagement with and in the performance, a process fundamental to real education.”
The result of Charles Deemer’s proposal for this new organization of teaching English Composition can lead to “valuable educational consequences with important emphasis on Unity over fragmentation”, and the like. But it would never occur without the cooperation of the students and the influence and experience of the teacher.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Human Rights Disorder in China


With China being given the honor to host the 2008 Olympics, the social standings of the country and the way that the Chinese government governs its people has been seen as customary by many. But what the majority of people around the world are unaware about is the intense human rights disorder from which countless innocent Chinese citizens have suffered and continue to be a part of. The momentous havoc that China faces is the simple and bold fact that the Central Chinese government is deficient and ignorant when it comes to upholding human rights. The consequence of this predicament has resulted into other dilemmas which include the harassment and prosecution of lawyers who attempt to defend and stand for human right issues, the suppression of religion, free speech and personal choice, and the lack of judicial independence and due process. The strict and immoral conditions which are imposed on the everyday lives of the Chinese have resulted in the death of numerous innocent citizens, not to mention the anguish and distress that the people of China have recognized.

Harassment of lawyers by local government has become a very common occurrence in China, and while lawyers are prosecuted and assailed, the central government is doing nothing to discontinue this unrighteous prosecution.(Human Rights Watch) With minimum legal protections, the people of China are forced to face the harsh human rights conditions unaided . Although human rights were granted to the people of China, they are however not upheld by a Central Chinese government that has communistic policies and rarely reenforced. In present time, Hong Kong, Chinese lawyers who attempt to defend human rights and expose the absence of an independent judiciary are being harassed and attacked by the state government. Sophie Richardson, deputy director of the Asia division of Human Rights Watch quotes, “It’s unclear whether China’s central authorities have ordered, condoned or ignored the recent attacks on lawyers. But it’s crystal clear that the government should uphold the law and stop this blatantly illegal persecution of lawyers”.(Human Rights Watch)

Because of his attempt to defend victims of severe government violation and power abuse, Beijing lawyer Gao Zhisheng was detained on the 15th of August on charges of alleged involvement in criminal activity. In 2005, authorities stripped Gao of his right to practice law. This is just one of many example of how the state government is not just interfering but even assailing lawyers, and how the central government needs to take notice of this and discontinue it, as the human rights of a nation are at stake.

Throughout the history of China, the people of China had suffered suppression of religion, free speech, and personal choice. This doctorial movement still continues even today, and influences the daily lives of the Chinese. In 1950, all religious activities outside establishments registered under the official branches of four state-recognized religions (which included, Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, and Islam) were prohibited by the People’s Republic of China government. Individuals who conducting or were in any way found involved in the act of publicized worship or practice of religion (including Protestants and Catholics who secretly worship in house churches without the authorization of the government) were known to be fined, detained, arrested, placed into internal exile, or close police supervision, and in some serious cases, even tortured. Since the year of 1989, PRC police have closed hundreds of house churches and have confiscated religious literature and church property.

Suppression of free speech is another issue that the people of China are forced to face daily. This is a major concern for which many Chinese citizens are unrightfully prosecuted for. Freedom of speech is controlled so that even something such as putting political material on the Internet or writing a simple statement about the importance of freedom of speech can land a Chinese citizen in jail. Many examples exist of this unrighteous activity and many innocent victims have told their grotesque stories of abuse and discrimination by the local government over the issue of free speech.

After publishing articles memorializing the protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989 in which thousands of people were reported to have been killed by the Chinese military during the breakup of the protest on his web site, computer engineer Huang Qi was arrested. The information that resulted in his prosecution, was a description of the democracy movement, the independence movement in the northwest Muslim of Xinjiang, and other political material. According to Human rights watch, based in New York, Huang Qi had fainted in the period of the hearing, had looked like he had lost weight, and allegedly had been beaten while in custody. (CNN)

Even today, very few legal safeguards exist to guarantee an equally fair trial in China. The Chinese judicial system is at every stage dictatorially controlled by Chinese Communist Party political legal committees that have the ability to determine the result of numerous court cases even before the court is given an opportunity to hear the evidence presented at the trial. To this act of, “verdict first, trial second” legal scholars within China have attempted to put an end to, but as long as political-legal committees exist, and continue to overlook and reside in the policies of the Chinese judicial system, detainees are immensely unlikely to be given unbiased hearings, free of official mistreatment.

The official, Criminal Procedure Law of China allows for detainees to have contact with lawyers no later than one week before the beginning of the trial. But even this minimal protection is not at all times observed. In most cases, Chinese prisoners are not even allowed to call up witnesses for defense, or even question witnesses against them. In such cases that correlate with or include political involvement, lawyers have been ordered that they may only enter a not-guilty plea if they receive authorization from the judicial administration. Even in cases involving the death penalty, defendants would only be given an undersized time period of only several days to file an appeal, which are frequently superficial. (The Human Rights Facts Sheet)

Human rights issues such as lawyer harassment, suppression of religion, free speech and lack of judicial independence are actual today in China today, and until the day that the central government makes the decision to step in, uphold the law, and make an effort to resolve the communistic regime that the Chinese people suffer for to this day, these issues that affect the lives of an entire nation, will continue.


Work Cited

The Human Rights Facts Sheet. Rengal, Pat/ Legislative Council,

Lack of Judicial Independence. July 17, 2008.

<http://www.christusrex.org/www1/sdc/hr_facts.html>


CNN.com Shiffrin Anya, China, The Net and Free Speech. July 20, 2008.

<http://archives.cnn.com/2001/TECH/internet/02/16/huang.qi.idg/index.html>

Christus Rex “Tiananmen 1989”. June 4th, 1999. July 22,2008.

<www.christusrex.org/www1/sdc/tiananmen.html>


Human Rights Watch. China: Government

Must End crackdown on Lawyers. July 20, 2008.

<http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/08/23/china14064.htm>