Stowaways
Stowaways have been a problem to shipowners for about as long as there have been ships in the sea. In the early days of sailing ships and looser maritime legislation, this was a relatively minor problem. This probably had to due with the fact that the ships were smaller in comparison to today's standards, and were comparatively heavily crewed. Thus the chances for a stowaway to get on board and go undiscovered for any length of time were fairly small. Also in that age, the concept of "human rights" was not what it is today, and any stowaways that were found often became involuntary members of the crew. There was, therefore, little incentive to become an unpaying passenger on a merchant ship. Today, however, ships have become ever larger, the maritime world has become increasingly regulated, and the issue of stowaways has become a major problem. There are really several reasons why stowaways have become more of a problem.
The real driving factor is really an economic one (Wiener). With all of the political and economic strife in the world today, there is a huge population of people who are just tired of being on the rock bottom of the economic ladder, and are desperate for a better life in a different place. This is really the basic reason why someone would want to spend a week or so crammed into a stuffy container or other similarly uncomfortable accommodations in order to get from wherever they are to somewhere else. It isn't because they just didn't have the money for a plane ticket, but it is the fact that they are being lured by the prospect of a better life. They are willing to leave their homelands and endure uncertain conditions in order to get there.
There is, of course, the possibility of applying to another country, such as the
United States or any other world economic superpower, for admission as an immigrant. This is a very long and difficult process, and the likelihood of actually getting in is slim. Even if it was possible, few third world citizens can actually afford transportation overseas, let alone find and afford housing, meals, and so forth, once they get there. The fact of the matter is that may desperately poor people who would like to immigrate to another country simply lack the resources to make the trip legally. Therefore, alternative measures, such as stealing rides on merchant ships, become very attractive (Wiener).
Another component is the ever increasing size of today's merchant ships, coupled with the gradual decrease in the size of the crews sailing in them.
either be because they want to get away from the violence going on in their country, or because
this country they are able to get good jobs and to take advantages of America’s social services.
people come for a better more ideal life, but they have no idea why they stay. New York
others deserved the right to be free and equal. They did not back down until they were
...they may not have any other way to support themselves or their families (Fabiola 2). If there were better prevention programs that would educate people about how to avoid situations of being fooled into false opportunities maybe a lot these dilemmas within the those programs could be averted.
According to Hannah Arendt, “The Declaration of the Rights of Man at the end of the eighteenth century was a turning point in history”. (Arendt, 290). She begins her thesis by making this affirmation. However, throughout her essay, she further develops the idea that this “Declaration of the Rights of Man” has been questioned ever since then, because of the fact that these human rights don’t really appear to be implemented over a numerous amount of human beings. This “turning point” which Arendt refers to, indicates that when human rights were first conceived, they stated that only the nation worked as the law, and neither the divine law nor anything else had power over them. This was the moment when control over these rights was lost, since there is a deficiency in the precision of who really has the rule of law over them, if not even the human authorities have been able to manage the “universality” they are supposed to express. Hannah Arendt’s explanation on the human rights article called “The
still may leave their country in order to prosper from our nations higher quality of life
to have money to send back home, or to make sure their children are raised in a better
older days for women, as they did not have much rights as men’s did. A
was a human rights struggle for more than just the right to vote. They were also striving
The United States, a place where anyone can “pick themselves up by the bootstraps” and realize the American dream of a comfortable lifestyle. Well, for over 30 million Americans this is no longer possible. Though we live in the richest and most powerful country in the world there are many who are living under or at the precipice of the poverty level, “While the United States has enjoyed unprecedented affluence, low-wage employees have been testing the American doctrine that hard work cures poverty” (The Working Poor, 4). This translates to families of four making around 18,850$ a year. And as soon as they find work or move just slightly above that 18,850$ a year (which is still a meager and deprived way to live) they are cut off from welfare checks and other “benefits”, “they [working poor] lose other supports designed to help them such as food stamps and health insurance, leaving them no better off-and sometimes worse off-than when they were not working” (The Working Poor, 40). The working poor find themselves in a trap of dead-end, minimum wage jobs, and complicated, under funded government programs.
their higher education since it is hard for them to return back to their home countries (229). In
Human rights have been developing as a concept throughout the history of humans. Human rights have been present in several nations throughout history including in Ancient Greece as Natural Law, 1689 in the English Bill of Rights, 1776 in the American Declaration of Independence and 1788 in the French Revolution’s Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen. It was not until recently in 1948 that the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights was created as an international concept in response to the genocide of European Jews by Hitler.
Human rights has evolved over time and has thus made it difficult to identify and define what exactly human rights entails because it is so complex; therefore, human rights have been categorized into three generations of rights, each focusing on the different aspects of living a life full of peace and dignity. First generation human rights focuses on promoting political rights that include rights such as the right to vote and be elected, right of peaceful assembly, and the right to a fair and public hearing for those charged with a crime. First generation rights also concentrates on civil rights that include freedom from torture or cruel inhuman or degrading punishment, freedom from slavery, and freedom to leave any country. Meanwhile, second
The doctrine of human rights were created to protect every single human regardless of race, gender, sex, nationality, sexual orientation and other differences. It is based on human dignity and the belief that no one has the right to take this away from another human being. The doctrine states that every ‘man’ has inalienable rights of equality, but is this true? Are human rights universal? Whether human rights are universal has been debated for decades. There have been individuals and even countries that oppose the idea that human rights are for everybody. This argument shall be investigated in this essay, by: exploring definitions and history on human rights, debating on whether it is universal while providing examples and background information while supporting my hypothesis that human rights should be based on particular cultural values and finally drawing a conclusion.