Modern Day Slavery?

There are 27 million slaves in this world today. How is it possible that in the 21th century there are millions of people enslaved?

They are forced to work without any pay, are threatened with violence making escape much harder. They can be found in factories, the sex industry, farm fields, construction sites and even private homes.

Many slaves are lured in by traffickers who promise them a job or education. These people who follow them are rarely seen again by their families.

Although slavery is illegal everywhere, it happens everywhere.

How is it that everyone hears about organizations and campaigns to "save the endangered Siberian tiger" or "help preserve the rainforest" but there are people living who dont even know that there are millions of slaves still today? Why isn't this a key issue today? Why doesn't any senator or congressman bring this issue up?

Human life is so precious and dear, why isnt it valued just as much?

 

Playing the Race Card?

Racism is unacceptable and despicable. If anyone in Congress criticizes a black Senator or representative, then they are automatically labeled a "racist".

Barack Obama is the first black President. If anyone like Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity criticizes him what are they called? A racist.

Maybe its because of his leadership and policies that they are criticizing him instead of because he's black?

With all respect for our president, I would like to bring up an important question, so to what extent can I criticize Obama before I will be labeled a racist?

This is an easy way to escape responsibility, if you don't want people criticizing your policies then you just pull out the race card and say "don't criticize me or else you are a racist". This is why so many conservatives who don't agree with Obama's policies get bashed so many times and are labeled as "racists" when it's definitely not the case.

10 Years in Prison and 2000 Lashes

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/10/03/saudi-men-to-get-10-year-sentence-2000-lashes-for-dancing-on-vehicle/?intcmp=latestnews

This man in Saudi Arabia gets sentenced to 10 years in prison and 2000 lashes for dancing naked on the streets. Wow! He most likely will die first from the 2000 lashes before he can even go to prison!

The freedom that exists in USA is definately more compared to other nations, no agruments there but one can ask the question as to when this freedom becomes "too much" and everything becomes legal eventually?

America has more freedom but what are the effects on morals and ideals that America held close just deades ago? Are they dissapearing all too soon? Are social norms evaporating?

Gender Stereotypes in Disney Movies

As the child, I loved watching Disney movies.

The Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, Snow White, Cinderella, etc. These are the classics and every young girl idolizes the young princesses.

Much older now and better at analyzing, I now see the gender stereotypes that are reflected in the female characters.

All the main female characters (princesses) are beautiful, they have an amazing body and beautiful flowing hair. They have gorgeous facial features including big round eyes, and  small waists with curves. Disney sends the message that if your slightly overweight, stocky and have short hair, then you are not beautiful, because according to their "standards"  you need to be tall, nice curves, skinny, with beautiful facial features and long flowing hair. The typical gender stereotype about women and beauty.

Also the female characters are loving, kind, nurturing and good housekeepers. Again, this is conforming to the traditional gender view of women and gender. Disney is reflecting the stereotype that women are supposed to be good housekeepers. Snow White is shown cleaning and cooking for the seven male dwarfs. Cinderella is shown being a servant to her family, cooking and cleaning for them.

Also all the princes are rich, famous, good-looking and charming. This is what every girl wants her prince to be like. And in the end, all the female characters end up with their prince charming, as usual under male dominance, and they live happily ever after. The END

Although Disney movies have good morals, gender stereotypes definitely are reflected in the female characters and exist in the movies.

One major knowledge issue is: what are we showing to our children and how is this influencing their way of thinking when they are older? Once older, would they catergorize people by thier looks and social class instead of by their personality and heart?

Now this is just a glance at the overall topic, a chance to get the "big picture",  I did not go in-depth on gender stereotypes in Disney, there is SOOOO much more information and analysis that could be done on each Disney movie.

The Lost Art of Courtship

When young children hear teens dating, they think sex and parties.

 

Unfortunately, the generation that is growing up today is exposed to too many movies and TV programs that show sexual activity. To spice up movies and gain attention, Hollywood puts many sex scenes in their movies.

 

This raises an important knowledge issue, to what extent do the scenes on TV that young children watch influence their attitude and behavior in their future?

 

A study of 1792 adolescents ages 12-17 showed that watching sex on TV influences teens to have sex. Youths who watched more sexual content where more likely to initiate intercourse and progress to more advanced sexual activities in the year following the beginning of the study. Youths in the 90th percentile of TV sex viewing had a predicted probability of intercourse initiation that was approximately double that of youths in the 10th percentile. Basically, kids with higher exposure to sex on TV were almost twice as likely than kids with lower exposure to initiate sexual intercourse. - Study Conducted by RAND and published in the September issue of Pediatrics.

 

*Kids and teens (8 to 18 years) spend nearly 4 hours a day in front of a TV screen and almost 2 additional hours on the computer (outside of schoolwork) and playing video games.

 

Where have all the ideals and morals gone to regarding dating? Are the numerous Hollywood movies and TV shows that have sexual intercourse influencing teenagers to have sex? The statistics most definitely show that young teenagers are more likely to engage in sexual intercourse if they watch TV shows and movies that have sex scenes.

 

*For high school students reporting in 2009 that they had ever had sexual intercourse, percentages were highest among Black males (72 percent) and females (58 percent), followed by Hispanic males (53 percent) and females (45 percent), and White females (45 percent) and males (40 percent). -Advocates for Youth

 

Parents should understand and monitor their children's activity, guiding them and providing a strong moral foundation in their youth. Sadly young teens are enchanted with the idea to be "cool" and "popular" once they enter high school, they change once they enter school, trying drugs and then sex.

 

Where is parent leadership? Parents have the responsibility to install morals and ideals in their children from a young age, they need to monitor their behavior and guide them through their path through high school and life.