Smallpox has been one of the most fatal infectious diseases to have afflicted humankind in recorded history. From the earliest recorded occurrences of the disease we learn that the disease spread rapidly where ever human population was dense and killed one in five of infected persons. Children were particularly vulnerable, as it claimed one in…
Tag: USA
The USA PATRIOT Act and issues of privacy
The twentieth century has been a transformational period for human societies. As the process of industrialization advanced during this period, more people moved away from rural to urban settings. As a result major cities became overpopulated and towns expanded into cities. The meaning of ‘public space’ got expanded and redefined during this process. And when…
Logical fallacies in an editorial piece: A case study
Print journalism has a long and rich tradition, reaching back more than two centuries. The content disseminated by newspapers can be divided into two classes: reports and opinion. While reports are expected to adhere to objectivity and neutrality, opinion editorials have no such restrictions. As a result, the latter can at times come across as…
Criminal Justice: Preventing rape as a weapon of war
The association between rape and war goes as far back as recorded history. Among all evil actions that human beings are known to commit, rape is only next to murder in terms of its barbarity and cruelty. It is also a sad fact that irrespective of widespread acknowledgement of the tendency of human beings to…
Arguments in favor of Year-round Schooling
Public opinion is divided on the issue of whether or not American schools should adopt year long curriculums. But conventionally, schools across the country have adhered to schedules that would give pupils a break of three months followed by nine months of study. In recent years, some journalists and commentators have suggested that year long…
Relevance of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 to the Madoff Scandal
The investment scandal perpetrated by Bernard Madoff is the largest financial fraud in the history of capitalism. It is believed that Madoff’s secretive investment advice firm caused a loss of nearly $65 billions for the 4,000 odd investors who trusted his firm with their wealth. The investors consisted of several celebrities as well as people…
A critical analysis of the role of mass media in liberal democracies based on liberal theory and political economy
Conventionally, mass media was perceived as the Fourth Estate, implying that it is separate and autonomous from the three main branches of government. While such is the idealized theoretical understanding of the definition of mass media, the reality is stark and discouraging. Far from its founding ideals, journalism here in the UK, as elsewhere in…
How the poor are punished twice by Affluenza?
John de Graaf and team’s well researched and eye-opening book “Affluenza: The All Consuming Epidemic” brings up several issues ailing contemporary industrial societies, such as deceptive mass advertisements, over-population, environment damaging toxic dumping, corporate greed, etc. Such lifestyle and social trends are no where more ostensible than in the United States of America. The USA,…