Some people, mainly debaters in NCFCA, have taken the position that the U.S. should institute a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with India. They give the reasons that we need this FTA and they say that the only reason it is not going through now is that India has problems with agricultural parts of the deal. The proposition is simple; pass the FTA with out the agricultural section. But I would argue it is not so simple, and it won't work. There are two main reasons that this plan will fail and many disadvantages to implementing a FTA with India.

The first reason that the FTA won't work is because of the incredible small impact it will have on India. With Exports increasing by just 1.14% and Imports increasing by a mere 1.84%. A US-Indo FTA is obviously not going to do any good.

The second reason is that the issue of agriculture is not the only thing hindering these FTAs. In negotiations with the EU over a FTA the issues of Intellectual Property Rights, competition, agriculture, public procurement, market access and transparency were all hindrances, not just agriculture.

Disadvantages of this plan include, an increase in the sex trade, economic meltdown, increased environmental impact and promotion of international crime. All these spurning from globalization which is a result of increased Free Trade.

Clearly now is not the time to initiate a FTA between the U.S.A. and India.

Orwell's Message

In the book 1984 George Orwell uses the lives of his two main characters and their outcome to covey a warning of what may come to be in the year 1984. In the book there are many contrasts between Winston and Julia, the main characters, yet in the end the result is the same.
Orwell's characters have different views of the Party even though they manifest themselves in the same way. Hate of the Party. Julia, since she hadn't lived before the Party she knew, “nothing else, accepting the Party as something inalterable, like the sky, not rebelling against it's authority but simply
evading it, as a rabbit dodges a dog.” Winston, however, was older, although he did not remember much, he did remember that there was a time before the party. His memory carried with it the hope that party could be destroyed and drive to assist in it's destruction. Winston put it into words by saying,
“I know, of course, that the past is falsified, but it would never be possible for me to prove it, even when I did the falsification myself. After the thing is done, no evidence remains. The only evidence is in my own mind, and I don't know with any certainty that any other human being share my memories.”
More evidence of this difference of their difference is seen when Winston is reading “The Book”, an Illegal book written by a underground network of rebels, to Julia. Winston, who is throughly engrossed in every detail of the book, finds that Julia has fallen asleep, obviously not interested. Again, Julia's mentality is contrasted to Winston's. Winston wants to understand the truth, and he wants to know the “why” of things. Whereas Julia is not interested in such things, she wishes merely to dodge the Party and live life. It does not matter to Julia whether the Party is telling the truth or not when it has no impact on her. These different mannerisms go a long way in determining how they live their lives. Although both Julia and Winston are both party members that hate the party, they differ in how they live their lives. Julia is a mischievous individual who likes to have “fun”, this is seen by the many times that she sneaks away from the telescreens to be with Winston during the book. Julia puts up a very convincing act that removes all suspicion from her while she sneaks out with Winston when no one is looking. Winston on the other hand lives a life of hope. He tries to make it look like he participating in things such as the Two Minutes Hate everyday hoping that someday the party would be destroyed by either the mysterious group called the “Brotherhood” or the lowest social group in Oceania, the proles. Another example comes from the time when Winston brings up the idea that, “we
are the dead.” He submits to Julia the idea that they are going to die no matter what, whether it is sooner or later, they are going to die. When Julia hears it, however, she brushes it off, tells him to forget it, and moves on to planning their next meeting. This shows how Winston is a deep-thinker, who wants to destroy the Party, whereas Julia is a schemer, who believes that the Party in unalterable, living life for the sake of evading the Party and living to see another day, she has no desire to find the truth. The only similarity between them is the fact that they both hate the Party and they both hate Big Brother.
In the end both Winston and Julia were “converted” my the party, they denounced each other and the party had won. Orwell used his two different characters to show that some people will fight and some people will evade, but the end result will be the same. His warning was that a Government similar to Ingsoc could arise and take over in such a way that they could destroy all hope and wipe out history no matter if you fight or dodge, you will be overcome by it.

Paul and the Toilet

It was a mild winter day. Cold, but not cold enough to stop Timothy's mom from undertaking the task of assembling her team of daughters and searching the woods for a small rusted stake that indicated the property line. In the meanwhile Timothy, who was in the house diligently studying his math, heard the grating of porcelain on porcelain and then a crash. For a split second there was silence. The next thing he knew Paul, who had been playing with his legos and roaming the house up until this point, shot out of the bathroom like Luke escaping the exploding Death Star and there was a loud roar as if a small jet was taking off. Timothy rushed into the bathroom to find it was already starting to flood. As is happened Paul had just gone to the bathroom and found that the toilet would not flush after he had used it. It had been having problems recently and Paul had seen his mom take the back off of it and fix something in the mysterious black of the back of the toilet. Half moved by the necessity to fix the toilet and half motivated by a curiosity to know what was in the back of the toilet, Paul slid the heavy cover off of the back of the toilet, not thinking ahead far enough to know what he was going to do with it. With a crash it fell to the floor conveniently shearing off the pipe that brought water into the toilet at the same time. As soon as it fell Paul panicked and ran and hid as Timothy rushed into the bathroom. After he had established that the bathroom was very wet, getting more wet by the second, and that the valve had been sheared off the wall along with the pipe he went out and yelled for his mom not knowing what else to do. His mom got there a minute or two later. She then quickly assessed the situation and immediately went to the breaker panel and and flipped all of the breakers, knowing that one of them would shut off the water pump. Within 30 seconds the water had completely subsided and we began to clean up and repair the damage. Needless to say their dad, who happened to be in Sudan for a week was not thrilled to find out that his recently redone bathroom was soaked, along with insulation that had just been put up under the house.

Brisingr Reading Jornal

Today's Date:

11/20/2008

Title, Author, Publisher, Copyright date:

Brisingr, Christopher Paolini, Alfred A Knopf, Copyright 2008

Briefly Describe:

Brisingr is a book about a young farmer who's fate is to be a Dragon Rider and to free Alagaesia from the evil Galbatorix.

Protagonist,

Eragon, Saphira

Antagonist,

Galbatorix

other major characters

Arya, Nasuada, Oromis, Glaedr, Roran

Briefly describe the setting.

This book is set in a fictional world comparable to the Medevil times in our world, only with Dragons and Magic.

Is the point of view first person, third person, or third person omniscient?

Third person

Summarize the plot.

Eragon and Saphira, rescue Katrina and then find a chance to return to Ellesmera for a few days of teaching and to obtain Eragon's new sword before returning to help Nasuada take a city.

Describe the theme (the quintessential meaning or purpose of the book in two sentences)

For Eragon and Saphira to obtain knowledge about Galbatorix's power and how they might defeat him as well as advancing their own abilities so that they will be able to defeat him and Murtaugh when the time comes.

What is the author's worldview? (maybe the characters display behavior to support a particular view)

Probably Atheist. The Elves in the book were placed above everyone else intellectually because they had magic and a more “complete” view of the world. Paolini seemed to infer that the Elves were correct and that everyone else wasn't.

Why did you like or dislike this book?

I like this book, first, because it is well written, it easily draws you into the story. The second reason is that Paolini realistically portrays the ability of having magic, making this power extremely desirable to the reader. In essence Paolini draws you into the story in a way that makes you want to be in the story, you want to be a Dragon Rider.

Frankenstien

In the book “Frankenstein” Dr. Victor Frankenstein creates a Monster who, through a long chain of events, develops a hatred for his creator. Striving to make Victor suffer as much as possible, the creature kills everyone from Victors family, sparking a hunger for vengeance within Victor. With feelings of vengeance and a responsibility to rid the world of the monster he brought into existence Victor starts to chase his creature. After many months of being but a few days behind the monster Victor obtains a faster dog-sled and begins to gain ground. Gaining quickly, Victor is merely hundreds of feet behind the monster after just one day. Yet when he has finally gained the hope that he may overtake the Monster the ice breaks around him, leaving him to float to his death on a small portion of ice. Victor has lost all hope when he sees a ship. He is saved. They take him on board and there he meets the Capitan after having been somewhat nurtured back to health. It is under the care of this Capitan that Victor spends his last days. During this time do they benefit from each other? Are they friends? How do their personalities compare? And most of all, why does this matter?

While Victor and the Capitan have some similarities they are, for the most part, different. Victor took on the task of creating a being and giving life to it. A being who's actions Victor is indirectly responsible for because he created it. All the deaths it caused were his fault. When Victor had finished crafting his monster and had given it life he went into shock from the sight of his monster, showing a very weak resolve and resulting in the allowance of a whole chain of painful events. Events not only hurtful to him but also for many others. Events that could have otherwise been avoided. On the other side of things we see the Capitan, however, who was exploring new lands. He was not creating something that would have terrible, lasting consequences or cause innocent people to die. The only people he put at risk were himself and his crew, and his crew came willingly. Both the Capitan and Victor have very different personalities and pursuits.

Despite their differences, though, both Victor and the Capitan could help each other. Victor helped the Capitan by giving him his story that he might learn from Victor's mistakes. He also gave the Capitan and his crew valuable encouragement even if it didn't cause them to press on in their explorations. The Capitan also helped Victor, primarily by saving him from death but also in a few other ways. For instance the Capitan was a friend to Victor in his last days when victor had no friends. He also recorded Victor's story so that it wouldn't be lost. Through all of this Victor and the Capitan mutually helped each other.

During Victors brief stay with the Capitan they become friends. They take an immediate liking to each other, Victor because the Capitan saved his life, and the Capitan because Victor had travel as far as he had, only on a dog-sled. It didn't stop there though. As they got to know each other better Victor came to like him because of how courages he was and the Capitan was in awe of everything Victor has been through, admiring his determination to destroy the monster, among other things.

These two men though somewhat different, were mutually helpful to each other and even became friends in the little time the were together. Through the chance meeting of Victor and the Capitan, Victor's story was preserved and the Capitan carried on the important lesson that was to be learned from Victor's mistakes as well as the model of determination to do the right thing that the Capitan saw in Victor.

Missile Defense with India

India and Pakistan are on the verge of a cold war. Pakistan is building up it's nuclear arsenal and India, feeling threatened, does the same out of fear of being wiped out without defense. With this build up comes the possibility that one of the countries, whether on purpose or by accident, will fire one of their weapons on their neighbor. One missile could and most likely would start an onslaught that would entirely desolate both countries. How is this of any concern of us here in the U.S.? It is a chance for the U.S. to gain favorable relations with India.

India is, right now, doing everything they can to keep themselves from being destroyed by Pakistan. To India that means building up their nuclear weapons, but if they had a system by which they could protect themselves would they continue to build these weapons? What if they had access to the worlds most advanced missile defense and radar system? With the peace of mind that comes with knowing that a nuclear missile could not reach their soil before being destroyed India would have no need to further their nuclear program and would still maintain their national sovereignty that they hold so dearly.

The U.S. has such a system, it is called the U.S. Patriot. Allowing India to use a Patriot system would be sure to put us in a favorable position with India as well as preventing India and Pakistan from destroying each other.

The Trial of Tom Robinson

During most of the book 'To Kill a Mockingbird' there were events leading up to and events in the aftermath of the Tom Robinson t. The case was a lawsuit filed against Tom Robinson, a black man, accusing him of raping Mayella Ewell, the daughter of one of the 'village idiots' at the time. The question is 'Why did Atticus Finch, who was a defense attorney for Maycomb, take the Tom Robinson case? Would a lawsuit against a black man, given Maycomb's extremely racial attitude, even stand a chance to convince a jury of Tom's innocence? By taking the case, what troubles did Atticus bring down on him and his family? What could he possibly gain by defending Tom?

The people of Maycomb County lived in a sad time. It was a time where, although black people were free, there was an extreme racial attitude, especially in Maycomb County. They had separate schools and churches, avoiding interaction with each other as much as possible. Although this was not the feeling of every person in Maycomb, it does portray the feeling of most. Atticus Finch, the father of the main character, Scout, was one of the few in Maycomb who did not hold a racial prejudice. With such strong a strong feeling towards black people there was no way that the people of Maycomb could be convinced that Tom was innocent, even in the presents of overwhelming evidence. All this because of the color of his skin.

With no hope of winning the case, there was no reason for Atticus to defend the falsely accused Tom Robinson. In fact, taking the case would cause him to suffer many insults, much name calling, and would lower him in the eyes of Maycomb. Yet, even with these disincentives, Atticus took the case knowing full well it would not be a popular decision. He took this case because he believed that the Negroes living in Maycomb were being unjustly treated overall, as well as in this specific case. Atticus understood that whatever your skin color every man is created equal and endowed with certain unalienable rights. It was for this reason that Atticus fought for Tom Robinson. He understood that if no one stood up in an attempt to change the unprecedented presumption that all black people are lesser beings, the racism would never end.

When the time of the trial finally rolled around, there had already been many insults thrown and almost as many noses broken by Scout, but Atticus was ready. The trial came and Atticus proved, far beyond the shadow of a doubt, that Tom Robinson was not guilty. He was so convincing he even had the prosecuting lawyer, a friend of his, leaning toward his side by the end of the trial. Yet even after being given the facts and the overwhelming truth that Tom did not rape Mayella Ewell, the jury voted, as everyone in Maycomb knew they would, that Tom Robinson was guilty of the accused crime. Even though it would seem that Atticus had failed at his goal, in reality he had not. Knowing that he would not be able to win the case because of the racist attitude of the people, Atticus still wholeheartedly attempted to persuade the jury of Tom's innocence, in an attempt to prove to them that a black man was no different than a white man. After the evidence had been presented and the closing speeches had been made, the jury went to decide if Tom was rightfully accused. If Atticus had not defended Tom so passionately, it would have taken the jury but five minutes to vote and condemn the black man. Since Atticus had devoted everything he had into defending Tom it took the Jury hours to come to a conclusion. This alone meant that Atticus was getting his message across to the people of Maycomb.

When Atticus was put on the Tom Robinson case he knew there was no chance that he could win. However, he pushed to defend Tom because he knew it was the right thing to do and that it was the only thing that could be done in order to begin to change the preconceived notions of Maycomb. Through his diligence and perseverance, Atticus began to convince people that all men are created equal and endowed with certain unalienable rights among which are life, liberty, and the lursuit of happiness.

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