Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin looks at slavery from the perspective of a Christian lady, and addresses the question of whether Christianity and slavery can coexist in a society we would like to call moral and humane. The question is a part of a larger one, one that is commonly referred to as “the problem of evil.” Stowe poses another question about the society of which she writes, and that is whether we are racially superior and whether this is any justification of acts of conquest. These questions will be discussed in brief in this paper, using specific character descriptions to help support the discussion.
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Dr. Anabel Ford’s The Ancient Maya of Belize: Their Society and Sites manages to successfully accomplish at least two things for an individual interested in Maya studies. First, it provides the reader with some useful background information on the Maya civilization and their sites, allowing for a more comprehensive contextual understanding of what one may observe as a visitor to the Maya region. Second, it presents the reader with slightly more detailed descriptions of 18 of the more major sites they may be interested in visiting in Belize. As such, this small booklet can be quite a useful addition to the backpack of a traveler wishing to observe the ancient Maya civilization.
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I am a king in a time long ago. I have heard rumors that the earth is round. I feel that it is in my interest to find out whether or not this rumor has any truth, and I understand that great progress is often achieved when trying to learn with an open mind. As such, I have summoned my wizards and set upon them two tasks. The first is to find out what the shape of the earth is. The second is to estimate the size of the earth. Here is what they found.
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Amy Mowl | Pham Phung | Darcelle Pruitt | Ananda Mahto
Foreword
In the 25 years since the American government withdrew financial and military support from the former South Vietnamese State the unified government of Vietnam has worked to recover from the destructive impacts of the war. In 1975 the Vietnamese government inherited a country on the verge of economic collapse. Through the progressive steps of central planning, agricultural reform, state owned enterprises, the economic restructuring of doi moi, and the steps taken toward opening up to global trade, Vietnam has sought a path to provide stability for its people. Through a stable national policy, Vietnam hopes to create a harmonious national environment, equity within society, ensure social welfare, alleviate poverty, and balance citizen’s rights with their responsibilities.
In this paper we will address Vietnam’s economy after the war, the restructuring of the economy under doi moi, foreign policy implications, and the successes and failures of the Vietnamese government and foreign aid donors in achieving domestic policy goals. In section one we will discuss in detail the situation after the war, the initial economic plans, and the beginning steps toward decentralized economic planning. In section two we will introduce Doi Moi, discuss Vietnam’s hesitance to enter the free market economy, and look at some achievements of Doi Moi. Section three will address Vietnam’s foreign economic policy, the benefits of foreign investment in Vietnam , the drawbacks for foreign investors, Vietnam’s trade imbalance, and the U.S. economic embargo. In section four we will examine Vietnam’s domestic policy priorities using the education and health care systems to analyze the implementation of domestic policies, examine the overall effect Doi Moi has had in attaining public goals, and look at foreign aid donors as participants in reaching domestic policy goals. Finally, in section five we will summarize our findings and make policy recommendations intended to further the economic and social development goals of Vietnam.
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Early in the morning of September 5th, 1999, I was saying goodbye to my mother and my co-worker at the Santa Barbara Airport. A short while later, I was in San Francisco, waiting with thirty other students, to leave for Asia. We had arrived at the airport quite early, but soon enough, we were on a plane to South Korea.
We got to South Korea on the evening of the sixth. We made our way through customs fairly efficiently, then made our way outside. It was warm, but drizzling. During the bus ride to the YMCA Hotel that we were going to stay at, I got a sense of how large Seoul was. There were many huge sky-rises with packed apartments. They were all inhabited, but they often seemed to take on the appearance of neglect. This turned out to be one of the most obvious observations throughout China, South Korea (Seoul at least), and what I have seen of Vietnam.
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As with the midterm exam for this course, for the final exam, we had a choice of an in-class random selection of 2 or 3 questions, or a take-home answer 10 out of 15 questions.
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This paper will discuss three philosophical writings, one each from the Indian, Western, and Chinese traditions, each one dealing with our views of our selves. The first piece, Sri Aurobindo’s The Reincarnating Soul, is representative of Indian philosophy and gives us a discussion of the human soul and its relationship to the universe. The second piece representative of Western philosophy is an excerpt of Jean-Paul Sartre’s Existentialism, which discusses ideas of atheism and self-determinism. Finally, I will use a summarization of Mencius’ Human Nature is Good to represent Chinese philosophy that ascribes human nature to man, and not a heavenly being.
I will begin by summarizing the three pieces, in the above-mentioned order, then discuss similarities and differences between the pieces and their implications to society. As stated before, all pieces deal with our views of our selves—but they also carry implications about the role of the individual in society or in the universe. While looking at the ideas of these essays on an individual level I can find points of personal disagreement, taking all three together does have considerable value to life. If anything, they should encourage us all to be a little less selfish in our manners.
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Sri Aurobindo’s The Reincarnating Soul is an attempt to find the proper point from which we should start our discussion of the possibility of reincarnation. He feels that “human thought” for most people has resorted to “a rough and crude acceptance of unexamined ideas.” This observation holds even truer when the ideas require “subtle thinking” and “precision.” We can manage thought about evident, tangible things, but Sri Aurobindo feels that out of “impatience,” in almost a lazy manner, we are contented with accepting crude ideas.
Reincarnation is one such subject. Sri Aurobindo feels that the idea of reincarnation as popularized by contemporary thought has become popularized in a crude, misleading manner. The popular idea is that of a reincarnating soul, where “the soul is reborn into a new body.” The questions often stop here, with no thought given to the definition of a soul. Is the soul Purusha (Person, or Atman)? Does Purusha simply take up a new body and bring along with it the old personality of the “now discarded physical frame?”
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John Stewart Mill, an Englishman, lived during the first three quarters of the 19th century. Although not a professional philosopher, he was a well-respected writer of his time, touching on many subjects. His essay On Liberty, is a good example of his ability to work through questions in a reasonable manner. At e center of Mill’s essay is an exploration of the entitlement of governments and society to assert power on the individual—to interfere “with the liberty of action of any of their number.” Mill asserts that the only time our liberty—both individual and collective—should be sacrificed or interfered with, is when not sacrificing our liberty would result in harm to others. Our individual well being is not reason enough for us to exert our power to limit someone else’s liberty. As Mill writes, “The only part of the conduct of anyone, for which he is amenable to society, is that which concerns others.”
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When I went to Korea, China, and Vietnam as part of a study abroad program, one of the courses I took was on different world religions. The teacher gave us an option: take an in-class midterm exam where he would ask us 3 out of a group of some 15 questions (which he would give us in advance) or select 10 of them and treat it as a take-home midterm. I thought the second option seemed easier (and somewhat more interesting).
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