Self Determination of Indigenous Australians Essay Example for Free

Self Determination of Indigenous Australians Essay â€Å"Self determination is a principle of International Law and it must be the basis of social and political organisation† (Mazel, 2009, 150). This is an important principle in the acknowledging of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples rights. Self determination allows Indigenous peoples to independently determine their political status and gives them the freedom to economically, socially and culturally develop as according to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (Maguire, 2009, 2). Acknowledging this fundamental right is essential for Indigenous Australians to be able to preserve their culture, dignity and independence. Therefore, political, social, cultural and economical independence and freedom need to be granted to the Indigenous peoples. Arguably, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) was politically a step forward for Indigenous self determination and autonomy. ATSIC was established in 1990 and allowed Indigenous Australians, via a number of councils, to effectively govern themselves. This gave them the opportunity to take care of their own land, education, economic development, laws and justice and a number of other issues. â€Å"Aboriginals must be recognised for what they are, a peoples in their own right with their own culture, history and values† (Djerrkura and Herron, 1999). Since ATSIC was abolished, the Indigenous peoples have even less political representation and their infrastructure has worsened. To maintain the traditions and culture of the Indigenous Australians, they need to be able to have the strong connection to the land that is such an integral part of who they are as a people. The Aboriginal Land Rights legislation is a positive step forwards in this way. Also, socially there needs to be more recognition in the white Australian community of the damage that was done in past generations and there needs to be more respect for the lands original owners. As more responsibility is taken for the wrongs against the Indigenous population, and more actions are taken such as providing mental health services to help deal with this, there will be less social stigma attached to the Indigenous population. The Australian Government implementing the Northern Territory Intervention was a direct violation of the Racial Discrimination Act and it â€Å"impairs self-determination of Aboriginal communities, their ability to make certain choices about how their communities are run† (Anyana, 2010). This blatant form of institutionalised racism is demoralising and takes the Indigenous Peoples dignity from them, lowering their self-esteem and essentially making the causes of excessive drinking worse. Also, government funding is not going far enough in terms of infrastructure or providing support. Without basic needs being met such as garbage collection or emergency plumbing, the risk of disease is much higher. Most importantly, I believe that there needs to be some constitutional changes so that rights cant be revoked so easily. Also, Indigenous history, culture and customs need to be assimilated into into all compulsory education from as early as possible so that the younger generation can co-exist more harmoniously. Another very important thing for white Australians need to do is stop trying to force westernisation onto the Indigenous people and let them be autonomous. Self determination is necessary for Indigenous cultures so that a cultural majority doesnt take over and force the old culture into extinction. Increased political independence and representation is an important step towards this, as well as encouraging their spirituality and better social integration of the diverse cultures. It is important that the Australian government gives back the Indigenous Australians in the Northern Territory the right to manage their own finances and also to economically support these remote communities infrastructural development. This principle of international law is a foundation for organisation both politically and socially because handing over the responsibility is not only a show of respect but allows Indigenous Australians to take pride in who they are. REFERENCE LIST Mazel, O 2009, The Evolution Of Rights: Indigenous Peoples And International Law, Australian Indigenous Law Review; Volume 13, Issue 1. Maguire, A 2009, The Right of self determination to the Indigenous peoples of Australia, National Human Rights Consultation. Djerrkura, G and Herron, J 1999, Regional Autonomy for Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Communities; Discussion Paper. Anyana, M. 2010, The West Australian; NT Intervention violates human rights: UN.

Discipleship Essay -- essays research papers

Discipleship Teachers around the time when Jesus lived thought that learning was such that the people who wanted to learn should come to them to be taught. But Jesus felt differently and rather than waiting for people to come to him, he went out to find them and then chose them to be his followers. He called them disciples and this word means one who learns. But Jesus chose his disciples carefully as we are told in Mark 1:16-20 and also in Mark 3:13-19. In the first passage, Jesus appoints his first four disciples, Simon, Andrew, James and John. Jesus said to them â€Å"Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.† (Mark 1:17) In Mark 2:13-17, Jesus calls up the fifth disciple, Levi who was a tax collector, and Jesus later renamed him Matthew. But Levi was not called in the same way as the other four disciples. Jesus was with him at the tax collector’s booth and Jesus simply said, â€Å"Follow me† (Mark 2:14) and he rose and followed Jesus. These five men responded immediately to Jesus and this is very surprising as he is a man who they have never met before. It is quite clear that this idea of discipleship for the first disciples is very important and that Jesus is planning on building his faith in them and he wants them to spread the word around to the people. (Mark 3:14) Jesus appointed 12 disciples in total and this number was significant because each one represented one of the twelve tribes of Israel. (Mark 3:13-19) Jesus gave them the authority to cast out demons and preach to his people and they were known as his companions. It seems strange for him to choose those specific people as his twelve because he could have chosen from many of his disciples, but he chose a specific twelve to be his companions and apostles. When Jesus chose his apostles, there were two unusual choices: Levi and Simon the Zealot. Levi was a strange choice because he was a tax collector who had managed to get more money out of people than they need pay and so many people hated him and many other tax collectors. Simon the Zealot was an unusual choice because he was a zealot and although they had a strong belief in God, they hated the Romans, and being ruled by foreigners. In the mission of the twelve, Jesus calls them to him and sends them in two’s saying that they have the authority over evil spirits. (Mark 6: 7-13) Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave th... ...o Pilate, JesusÆ main enemy, or trouble, was the Roman Empire. Their religion was polytheistic; they had, among many others, a god of war, (Mars), a god of wine, (Bacchus), and a goddess of love, (Venus). They also believed that their Emperor, at the time Caesar, was a living God. This included Jesus, one of his titles being "King of the Jews". At the time of JesusÆ death, this number was sizeable, and as the early church grew, after the resurrection, the followers grew in number too. Literally. All of the people who attended these secret meetings, to tell or listen to the tales of Jesus Christ, were disciples. They were risking their lives to spread the good news. Stephen was viciously stoned to death after his great speech at the Sanhedrin (Acts 7), and Peter was crucified. There are many examples of modern day disciples around. Oscar Romero was the Roman Catholic Archbishop of El Salvador. Endangering your own life by fighting oppression, injustice, and going up against bigger powers, or giving your life to helping others. There are still some people today who take the faith as seriously as the first Christians do, but not many. TodayÆs society is too materialistic.

How Democratic is Britain? Essay

In this essay I will be looking at the democracy in Britain, but firstly I would like to be sure that it is clear what democracy means. Democracy is when there’s a system of government, whose representatives have been elected by the population. This means that the society is able to choose themselves, they have freedom of speech and views. The opposite of this is Dictatorship, this is when a ruler has total power over a country, a person who tells people what to do in an autocratic way or who determines behaviour in a particular area. Politics is concerned with power differences at every levelling society its about negotiation and decision making within individuals at a personal level, groups at a personal level and groups at a national level. This topic is a topic that many sociologist are interested in, they want to find out how democratic Britain is because everything sociologists study are linked to each other and this topic is linked to equality in society. Sociologist want to know if our society is as equal as it’s said to be, but we all know that in our society there isn’t total equality. One of the important principles of democracy is that we are able to participate in the political process in order to make our views known. We do this by voting, joining a political party and writing to the press or our M.P.’s. We have a Parliamentary democracy, this means that there’s a system where leaders are selected to represent the people through elections. These are the Members of Parliament (M.P.) who are elected. The British system has a number of fixed posts, these posts holders are the civil servants, the lords and the judges. These are the three main institutions of the state and the most powerful groups in society. The role of the state is to act as an umpire or referee rather than side with one party over another. The problem with this is that most of the people who work for the state are middle and upper class and all seem to share the same views about the way society should be run. This means that not all views are being represented their views are elitism. Due to this critics argue that Britain is not democratic because we have an unelected House of Lords and a Hereditary Monarchy. In this system there are three types of power and three types of authority that Max Weber drew out, Economic power, Physical power and Non-co-operative power, Traditional authority, Charismatic authority and Legal authority. Economic power is when money has lead someone to power, it can reach to the point were there’s exploitation. Physical power is taken over someone using physical force over someone more vulnerable to them. Non-co-operative power is when someone refuses to follow what the person in power order therefore the one who refuses will become empowered themselves. Traditional authority is when it is accepted because it’s always been done that certain way, it’s traditional within the culture. Charismatic authority is when a person has something special about them in their personality that the public is drawn to. Legal authority is accepted because it is the law, you can be sent to prison for disobeying the law. There are three factors about the state that seem to support Marx’s view, they are: 1. most Mp’s are white. 2. most of them are from the middle class and 3. most of them are men. Due to this many groups are no longer voting because they feel their views are not represented or they feel that there is racism, sexism and bias within the political system. The pluralists argue that the states approach is towards everyone in society. Including the different ethnic groups, all ages, all genders and all other groups that exist in society. Political power is spread a spread among these groups. Unlike the conflict who argue that the state’s approach is towards those who have had a privileged education and background. Thos who are in the senior possessions such as the judiciary. They believe that the policies benefit the bourgeoisie and ruling class. For this reason is why pressure groups have a very important role in maintaining democracy in Britain. Pluralists have a positive role of them. They help politicians keep in touch with the wishes of the public. They provide the government with the expert information. There are links between our voting behaviour and our social class, ethnicity, age and gender. People vote for the party that the best represents their views or interests, these views and interests are brought to us by the way we are socialised. We get these views and interests through the way we are socialised, we get influenced through our families, our peer groups and the media influence our political views and attitudes on politics. I feel that the media is the main influence in our political socialisation in the media because it influences our lives in everything. The media often use â€Å"Spin† and â€Å"Spin Doctors† they use these in campaigns to persuade us to vote a particular way. â€Å"Spin† and â€Å"Spin Doctors† are use to either catch out the opponent by using images or interviews were they look as if they were going against what they said they would do in their manifesto, for example printing a certain phrase they said out of context so they look bad. If they are unable to do this they might make up things up about them and use it to get the public to vote for them. These techniques are a type of propaganda because they want you to believe something that is not exactly true but as long as they look like the good ones it doesn’t matter. I have come to my conclusion of this essay, I believe that Britain is democratic because we get to vote in the Members of Parliament who are there to represent us. But there is a minority of people who have an incredible power within our government who make Britain and undemocratic country because it’s up to them to pass a law or any other decisions. This wouldn’t be a problem if they thought the way the nation do but their backgrounds have a great influences in the way they think and their thoughts are very different to ours. I don’t agree with the present parliamentary system because those who are involved in the system are elite, I think that if they wanted a true democratic Britain they would bring in a new system to vote in who we want to be at the top deciding what the right thing would be for our society, including the royal monarchy.

The Pros and Cons of Laws Against Defamation - 1193 Words

During the history defamation has developed in two ways; slander and libel. The law leading slander focused on oral statements and libel on written ones. By the 1500 English printers had to be licensed and had to be linked to the government as by that time it was believed that written word had possibility to give a risk to political strength. However when the times passed the law progressed and these days freedom of expression is a foundation of democratic rights and freedoms therefore freedom of speech is necessary in making possible democracy to work and community involvement in decision-making. When defamation comes to practice and people feels threatened with a defamation suit, the biggest focus is on whether or not there is†¦show more content†¦Even though this is not that common in United Kingdom but it is worth keeping in our mind. Privacy laws quite often slow down investigative reporting aimed at exposing corrupt and illegal practices. Privacy laws, while important in protecting the private affairs of individuals, should not be misused to deny discussion of matters of public concern. One of the most recent cases was News of the World scandal where News of the World journalist Dan Evans and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire for misuse of private information and breach of confidence. Progress has been made in recent years in terms of securing respect for the right to freedom of expression. Efforts have been made to implement this right through specially constructed regional mechanisms. New opportunities are emerging for greater freedom of expression with the internet and worldwide satellite broadcasting. I a case Ferdinand v MGN Ltd was said: â€Å"The action for misuse of private information has grown out of the older equitable claim for breach of confidence. Breach of confidence in its original form does still have a life of its own and may be relevant, for instance, where the Claimant is not in a position to invoke Article 8.† The claim has been dismissed. Nonetheless new threats are emerging such as global media monopolies and pressures on independent media outlets. 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The pros and cons of these questions must be examined in order to determine whether or not â€Å"Hate Speech† should or should not be considered a crime. 123 To live in a country where liberties are so readily available is a privilege. The founding fathers came to