Gypsies, The Long-lost Children Of India, Number About 12 Essays

Gypsies, the long-lost children of India, number about 12 million worldwide. In Europe, the 8 million Gypsies constitute its largest minority. Recent films like Tony Gatlif's Latcho Drom: A Musical History of the Gypsies from India to Spain (1994) and books like Isabel Fonseca's Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and their Journey (1996) will help ensure that the Gypsies do not again get lost -- outside the world's consciousness. Bury Me Standing -- the title comes from the Gypsy saying, Bury me standing, I've been on my knees all my life-- is a compassionate book about a marginalized and much-maligned people. Nonetheless, over the past seven centuries, the Gypsies have made many contributions to European folk music, dance, and lore. As the Cannes award-winning Latcho Drom shows, Flamenco dance is an outstanding example. When Isabel Fonseca, an American journalist and former assistant editor of the Times Literary Supplement, set out to write this book in 1991, she had in mind that the Gypsies were 'the New Jews of Eastern Europe.' After four years of field work that included living with Gypsy families in many European countries and researching library documents, she concluded that the Gypsies alongside with the Jews are ancient scapegoats. Traditionally, Gypsies never kept any written records nor maintained an oral history. The research on their origin began with a systematic philological analysis of their language, Romani, which has been firmly established as a Sanskritic language. Words like dand, (tooth), mun, (mouth), lon, (salt), akha (eyes), khel (play) are identical with those in northwest Indian languages like Punjabi and Hindi. Fonseca does not comment on the close resemblance, presumably because of her unfamiliarity with these languages. She is also puzzled by the Gypsy habit of shaking head side-to-side to signify yes. This distinctive gesture alone suffices to pinpoint their India origin -- rendering all linguistic evidence redundant! If confirmation were needed, it would be readily provided by the Gypsy use of the bhairavi musical scale as well as the bol (the rhythmic syllables -- tak, dhin, dha -- imitating drum beats). Current scholarly consensus is that the Gypsies are from the Dom group of tribes, still extant in India, making their living as wandering musicians, smiths, metalworkers, scavengers, and basketmakers. They migrated first from northwest India to Persia in 950 A.D. at the invitation of Shah Behram Gur. As recorded by the contemporary Persian historian Hamza, the Shah out of solicitude for his subjects, imported 12,000 musicians for their listening pleasure. The Dom, or the Rom, as the Gypsies came to call themselves, appeared in Europe first in 1300 A.D., fleeing from forcible Islamic conversions by the Turks. In Europe, ironically, they were accused of being advance spies for the Turks, and persecuted again. They were also mistaken as Egyptians, whence the folklore origin of the term Gypsy. Fonseca apparently is unaware of another etymology: Punjab-say -- from Punjab, which was what the earliest immigrants to Persia replied when asked where they have come from. By the time, they reached Byzantium, the locals heard Punjab-say as Jabsay, Gypsy. The locals took Gypsy to mean from Egypt, a country they had heard of. The history of the Gypsies in Europe, gleaned, for the most part, from court- and church-records and from rare academic publications, is a horror--Europe's heart of darkness. One of the examples Fonseca cites is the 1783 dissertation published by Heinrich Grellman of Gottingen University. In his book, Grellman describes an event of the previous year in Hont county, Hungary: The case involved more than 150 Gypsies, forty-one of whom were tortured into confessions of cannibalism. Fifteen men were hanged, six broken on the wheel, two quartered, and eighteen women beheaded -- before an investigation ordered by the Hapsburg monarch Joseph II revealed that all of the supposed victims were still alive. During World War II, the Nazis exterminated 1.5 million Gypsies. At the Nuremberg trials, the Nazis' lawyers argued that the killing of the Gypsies was justified since they had been punished as criminals, not as a race. There was no one to speak for the Gypsies, and the international tribunal accepted this rationale. Ah, humanity. Although tyrants, bigots, and the misinformed have often stereotyped the Gypsies as congenital criminals, sociological studies show that the Gypsies commit crimes no more than others. A large-scale study cited by Fonseca: In Romania, which has the largest Gypsy population of any country, out of all criminal convictions that of the Gypsies total 11 percent. Their population in the country? Exactly 11 percent. (The Gypsies in Romania do not have equal access to the justice system. Their situation is worse than that of the Blacks and Hispanics in the U.S.A.) In recent decades, a Gypsy intelligentsia has begun to emerge. Fonseca

Western Ideals Essays

Western Ideals Essays Western Ideals Essay Western Ideals Essay The Western Evils The infiltration of western ideals into the Japanese Culture had forever changed customs and traditions of the Japanese society as a whole. Yet was it as it was stated in a 1941 pamphlet issued by the Japanese Ministry of Education entitled â€Å"The Way of the Subjects. † â€Å"this country has been widely seeking knowledge in the world since the Meiji Restoration, thereby fostering and maintaining the prosperity of the state. With the influx of European and American culture in this country, however, individualism, liberalism, utilitarianism and materialism began to assert themselves, so that the traditional character of the country was much impaired and the virtuous habits and customs bequeathed by our ancestors were affected unfavorably† Had the infiltration of individualism,liberalism,utilitarianism and materialism corrupt the once glorious and honorable society of Japan? Or perhaps had it enlightened their society to a new way of thinking? To answer these questions Id like to give a brief highlight of how women were viewed in Japanese Culture prior to the infiltration of the western ideology. To do so I will be referencing Andrew Gordons book entitled: A Modern History of Japan. To start off Id to address the role of women prior to the infiltration of western ideology. More precisely the the views of the Orthodox in the Tokugawa society, that being that â€Å"women should be kept ignorant and in the kitchen. †[1] However that wasnt the case rather it was that this belief was more to keep women as submissive an obedient . It was further brought out that women worked as managers of farms for the wealthy in addition to their regular household duties. [2] So exactly how did this system change after the infiltration of the western ideology? Well to answer this question Im going to reference Funichiro Tanizakis book entitled: Some Prefer Nettles and Nakano Makikos book entitled: Makikos Diary. When we look upon the example set by Makiko in Nakano Makikos book entitled: Makikos Diary, we can see no change in the sense of a submissive an obedient partner. An example of this can be taken from how Makikos spouse frequently parties and she waits up for him every night. [3] However the change that is displayed by Makiko is that of becoming more materialistic. This can be seen through out the text as she speaks of the gifts that they had received an especially when she talks about the camera that they had came to posses. [4] So what of the example set forth by Funichiro Tanizakis book entitled: Some Prefer Nettles? Well as seen in the beginning of the book Kanames wife Misako was anything but loyal. This is clearly show through the fact that his wife had another lover by the name of Aso. [5] Another theme that found its way through this book as well is the materialistic desires of the people in their society. A picture is painted through the illustration of the prostitute that Kaname goes to see by the name of louise. In the book it speaks of how she has a taste for things western and of course money. [6] Given these examples can it honestly be said that the infiltration of western ideology had corrupted the Japanese Culture? Well as we can clearly see, yes there was a big difference between what was acceptable prior to the infiltration of western ideology, then to as it was after. However to say that it was because of the infiltration of western ideology that made this all come to be is rather a foolish statement. The fact is that these ideologies; individualism, liberalism, utilitarianism and materialism are merely nothing more then human nature. It can honestly be said that with the infiltration of western ideology the Japanese people were allowed to be more free to express themselves more freely then before. Then again I maybe wrong, partly because according to the Japanese Ministry of Education I have been corrupted by these western evils. [1]Andrew Gordon: â€Å"A Modern History of Japan† (Oxford University Press,2009), 32 [2]Gordon, 33 [3]Nakano Makiko, â€Å" Makikos Diary†(Stanford University Press,1982),102 [4]Makiko,150-152 [5]Funichiro Tanizaki, â€Å"Some Prefer Nettles† (First Vintage International Edition,1955),4 [6]Tanizaki,165-171

Ethics for a society of humans and automatons Essay

Ethics for a society of humans and automatons - Essay Example Forester and Morrison strongly suggest that â€Å"computer system have often proved to be insecure, unreliable, and unpredictable and that society has yet to come to terms with the consequences†¦.society has become newly vulnerable to human misuse of computers in the form of computer crime, software theft, hacking, the creation of viruses, invasion of privacy, and so on† (ix). The ethical dilemmas however do not rise simply for the fact that there are risks involved with the automatons. More than risks, when the automatons become largely entwined in the daily lives human beings on the earth, we have to deal with many more complex issues which ethically challenge the governance of such a world. Allen, Wallach and Smitt are of the view that â€Å"we can’t just sit back and hope things will turn out for the best. We already have semiautonomous robots and software agents that violate ethical standards as a matter of course. A search engine, for example, might collect data that’s legally considered to be private, unbeknownst to the user who initiated the query† (12). Three Laws of Robotics While we regard ethics in terms of automaton, it is necessary to look at Issac Asimov’s three laws of robotics. These laws were delineated in his famous 1942 short story ‘Runaround’. ... It means if a robot wants to protect in a given situation, it shall not be at the expense of harm to human beings. The ethical laws pertaining to moving machines are considered to be mechanical. Ethics is considered by definition to be anthropocentric. Ethics involves ruminations on living a life which is worthy to live. Asimov’s three laws are an important starting point in understanding machine ethics: â€Å"1. A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. 2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the first law. 3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the first or second law† (as quoted in Anderson, 477-78). These laws as originally proposed by Asimov imagine automatons as slaves of human beings. Moreover, they are not even considered to be able to exit relatively independent of human beings. Asimov has â₠¬Å"provided an explanation for why humans feel the need to treat intelligent robots as slaves, an explanation that shows a weakness in human beings that makes it difficult for them to be ethical paragons. Because of this weakness, it seems likely that machines like Andrew could be more ethical than most human beings† argues Anderson (478). However, in the present world, the complex interactions take place between humans and automatons take us beyond the purview of these three laws concerning ethical governance of mechanized world. Altering the Ethical Man Albert Einstein put forward the question â€Å"Did God have any choice?† as the big question faced by humanity. In a society of automata, human beings are faced with another question. Did human beings have any choice?