Hong Kong
It’s March of 1997, and a political cartoonist who goes by the pen name “Zunzi”, sketches in a cafe in Hong Kong. Many Americans take this right for granted. Zunzi, however, is thankful that his newspaper is among the few that have avoided self-censoring as the Chinese take-over approaches, bringing with it harsh censorship laws. He draws a picture of a smiling man outfitted in the lower half of a dog costume, preparing to put on it’s head. The man symbolizes wealthy businessmen in Hong Kong, and the costume symbolizes their willingness to obey Beijing by assuming positions of power, such as the Preparatory Committee and the Provisional Legislature. They change their costume and identity in whichever group they are in while remaining loyal to China by acting as China’s “puppets”. This way, China has a strong grip on political affairs in Hong Kong. Zunzi is aware his days in Hong Kong are limited (Sesser 21). As China takes over many laws that restrict Hong Kong’s free speech are being put into effect, causing uneasiness among citizens. Despite China’s attempt to control, Hong Kong citizens struggle to maintain the democratic lifestyle to which they are accustomed.
The Chinese government’s restriction of free speech has oppressed many citizens of Hong Kong. Before the hand-over on July 1, 1997, a vigil was held in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park for the victims of the June 4, 1989 massacre at Tianemen Square. Fifty-thousand people attended the vigil, which remembered those who died while rallying for democracy. Said pro-democracy campaigner Szeto Wah, “Tonight. we are again using sparks of candlelight, solidified drops of ‘tears,’ to remember you and mourn you." However, demonstrations like this are not looked on by approval by the new government that will come with the hand-over. The soon-to-be executive chief Tung Chee-hwa expressed his disapproval of the vigil by saying that it is “...time to set aside the burden of June 4”. New laws proposed by the Provisional Legislative Council required demonstrations and societies to register with the government. Those considered dangerous to national security will be banned (Baird 30). These new lawsthreaten to make demonstrations like the one held in Victoria Park impossible.
The disapproval and Tung Chee-hwa and the emergence of restrictive laws pose a threat to citizens who value their right to free speech.
Hong Kong citizens fear expressing themselves through art because of China’s control.
York, Geoffrey. 2007. “Text-messages: the new Chinese protest tool.” Globe and Mail, Friday, June 1: A13.
Everyday people in China are suffering from their government. From being wrongly accused to being executed for petty crimes. In a country where you cannot speak your opinions, talk poorly about government officials, speak about Chinese communist failures, or even browse the internet freely. China has kept its citizens in the void. One example is the great firewall of china, which sensors most social media and other sites. This essay will go into some individual stories of the Chinese government's unfair social injustices towards its people.
The Dahlonega City Hall was crowded on the evening of March 1st 2010. The seats were full, except for at the very front, and the standing room was filled almost out the door. The crowd, mostly made up of students, leaned in to hear as the voices of the City Council members faded in and out of the faltering sound system. The six City Council members and the mayor sat along a bench as if they were the judges at a hearing. Because of the ongoing discussions and the crowd, I thought I had arrived a few minutes late; but I was able to find a seat in the front two rows. Despite how packed the small room was there were plenty of empty seats in the front. I had thought the meeting was well on its way by the way conversation was going and apparently I was not the only one who shared this feeling. After a solid forty-five minutes of talking about parking laws and if there was a parking problem in the city, the mayor stood up and thanked everyone for coming. Most people took this as a sign that the meeting was over and started to pack up and leave. However this was just the meetings call to order. Following a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance the City Council meeting began.
The fight between men and women and equal rights and pay has been going on for many years. The wage gap is contributed by many factors like sex, race discrimination, education, but manly overall how men and women have been viewed as. Men are paid more because they work “harder and are stronger” where’s woman’s jobs are “less work and not as strong” therefore, that’s why the pay and the job occupations is different. Over the past century, American women have made tremendous strides in increasing their labor market experience and their skills (The Gender Wage Gap: Extent, Trends, and Explanations). The pay gap goes beyond wages and is even greater when we look at workers’ full compensation packages. Compensation includes not just wages, but also
Walder, Andrew G. The Beijing Red Guard Movement: Fractured Rebellion. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009.
This means that the drivers are essentially driving around on the road blindly (“What” 1). Texting while driving causes 1,600,000 accidents per year, 333,000 injuries per year, and 11 teen deaths every day (“DWI” 1). Driving while intoxicated seems like the most significant cause of accidents, while on the road, however, texting while driving is much more hazardous. Texting while driving is about 6 times more likely to cause an accident than driving while intoxicated and is the same as driving after four beers (“DWI”
Texting and driving involves all three types so you can predict the outcome isn’t too much in our favor (Distracted Driving, 2015). According to the National Safety Council (NDC), the big myth today is that people are capable of multitasking, and even worse multitask while driving, but in fact, the human brain cannot do such a thing. People may be walking and chewing gum at the same time, but that is because those actions involve both a thinking task, and a non-thinking task. Driving and talking on the phone at the same time is risky though because it requires both to be used. Instead of attending to both actions simultaneously, the brain quickly shifts between two cognitive activities (The Great Multitasking, 2010). Taken from a new report from the NSC ,drivers that tend to talk on cell phones often enter a state of what is called “inattention blindness” and when this occurs, they may fail to see up to 50 percent of what is ahead of them (NSC Looks Inside, 2010). The United States Department of Transportation says, "text messaging while driving creates a crash risk 23 times higher than driving while not distracted,” (Distracted Driving, 2015). That makes driving
Shortly after broadcasting this episode of the Jimmy Kimmel show on late night October 16th2013, controversy has raised among many Chinese-Americans, and later Chinese abroad. To them, the “joke” of “killing all the Chinese” does not seem to be fun. Thus, the protest of Jimmy Kimmel and ABC soon spread out among many of the Chinese-Americans and Chinese citizens nationwide to gather outside ABC’s...
However, that does not mean that inequalities no longer exist between the two genders, the pay gap between men and women is one of the larger gender inequalities seen today. According to an article “ Explaining the Pay Disparity Between Women and Men in Similar Jobs” the authors state that, “ equal pay ranked higher than health care, family and medical leave, pensions and social security for most important legislative issues” (Hessaramiri,Kleiner 3). People want something done about this injustice and are looking towards the government to intervene. The Equal Pay Act is one of these interventions put in place to make employees under the same profession paychecks’ equal no matter the gender. After forty years though, the Equal Pay Act has done little to stop the pay gap from continuing. Hessaramiri and Kleiner inform us that, “ According to the Monthly Labor Review, the weekly earnings of women were lower than that of men for full time employees across all broad occupational categories” (4). Most of the time these employees suffering from the pay gap do not even realize that they are being
The wage gap is a prevalent issue in the United States and must be closed in order to increase the quality of life for women across all fields of expertise. In 2014, female full-time workers made only 79 cents for every dollar earned by men, a gender wage gap of 21 percent (“Pay Equity & Discrimination”). As a woman who does the same amount of work for the same amount of time, just as well as as her male counterpart, the existence of a wage gap
The pay gap between genders is increasingly becoming a hot topic of discussion. Recently I have witnessed conversations, read news articles and heard stories about women being paid unfairly and only making a small percentage of what men earn. Forbes Magazine states that in the last decade, full-time working women on average only make 77 percent of what men earn (Maatz). There is even a day dedicated to recognizing when women’s wages finally match men’s wages from the previous year; this day is called Equal Pay Day (Maatz).
Women had suffered unfair pay in the workforce for years. Statistics have shown that men still earn more than women who have the same degree, education, and qualifications. Women are the main focus for the uneven and unequal share of low-wages in the United States. However, women have additional responsibilities from men that keep them out of the workforce longer which in return leads to discrimination. This research will introduce problems, solutions, and prove that there are alternatives for women.
Zhao, Y., (1998), Media, Market, and Democracy in China - Between the party line and the bottom line (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press).
When you associate anything with New York City it is usually the extraordinary buildings that pierce the sky or the congested sidewalks with people desperate to shop in the famous stores in which celebrities dwell. Even with my short visit there I found myself lost within the Big Apple. The voices of the never-ending attractions call out and envelop you in their awe. The streets are filled with an atmosphere that is like a young child on a shopping spree in a candy store. Although your feet swelter from the continuous walking, you find yourself pressing on with the yearning to discover the 'New York Experience'.
America is a place that encourages freedom and equal opportunity. Unfortunately women are not always receiving that equality in their paychecks. The problem is in some instances, women still are not being paid equal to men in the workplace. In fact, they are still being paid seventy five cents to the man’s dollar. It is unfathomable to think that the wage gap continues to exist in 2015. Women have undoubtedly become a significant part of the American workforce. However, women’s pay has not kept pace with their male counterparts due to several reasons.