A JOURNAL OF ACADEMIC WRITING VOLUME 8

A JOURNAL OF ACADEMIC WRITING 

VOLUME 8

Hohonu 

2 0 1 0 

Academic Journal 

University of Hawai‘i at Hilo • Hawai‘i Community College

2 - HOHONU Volume 8 2010 

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Aloha! 

Welcome to the eighth volume of Hohonu, the academic journal of the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo and Hawai‘i Community 

College. We are proud of the exceptional academic writing it contains and are pleased to present this publication to the community. 

Hohonu, meaning “profound” or “deep” in Hawaiian, has once more lived up to its name. With each journal that is produced, 

we are able to reach higher and attain the goals expressed by our mission statement; for it is the aim of this journal to facilitate in the 

sharing of fine academic writing and to exist as a reference for those who are looking to learn – whether it be something new about 

writing, an attitude, a subject, or themselves. 

I would like to publicly commend the work of our staff. Their commitment, enthusiasm, and love for academic discourse has 

made Hohonu a reality for yet another year. Jenna Antilla, Chaun Ballard, Lindsay Brown, Haley Bufil, Ellie Christensen, and La‘akea 

Yoshida – it has been my privilege and I thank you all. 

Hohonu would not endure every year without the gentle encouragement of our faculty advisor, Professor Luke Bailey. His 

guidance and dedication to the mission of Hohonu is truly incomparable. We thank him for all that he has done for the publication 

over the years. 

A gracious thank you to the student authors for their contributions. It is a brave thing to expose one’s efforts to others and allow 

your writing to be published for all to see. Hohonu would not be Hohonu without your energy and efforts. 

Many mahalos to everyone who has helped to make this volume possible. We thankfully acknowledge the assistance of Ellen 

Kusano and the Campus Center ‘ohana. Their smiling faces and words of wisdom brightened every aspect of the journey. To the 

Board of Student Publications, we thank you for your continued support. I want to extend a very heartfelt thanks to Susan Yugawa 

of the UH Graphics Department. Her skills and generosity have been absolutely essential to the success of Hohonu. 

Hohonu is an asset to our UH Hilo, HawCC, and public community in every sense of the word. Each essay contained within 

these pages breathes the need and passion for progress and societal growth. Turn the page; come see for yourself. 

Enjoy! 

Mahalo nui, 

Tara Ballard 

Editor-in-Chief 

HOHONU Volume 8 2010 - 3

4 - HOHONU Volume 8 2010

Table of Contents 

The Globalized World, by Stacy McKernan ......................................................................................................................................................... 7 

Mahayana Buddhist Philosophy, by Anthony Ridenour .................................................................................................................................... 11 

Nazi Experiments, by Tabitha Gomes ................................................................................................................................................................ 13 

War, Society, and Sexual Violence: A Feminist Analysis of the Origin and Prevention of War Rape, by Kylie Alexandra .................................... 17 

Anthropogenic Causation and Prevention Relating to the Holocene Extinction, by Jesse Browning .................................................................. 23 

“They’re OK if They’re Our S.O.B.s”: United States Involvement in the 1954 Guatemalan Coup d’état, by Robert Franklin ............................ 27 

Can Organic Farming Feed the World?: Perspectives on a Food Movement’s Place in World Food Security, by Holly Miller ............................. 33 

The Criminalization of Pregnant Women and the Illusion of Maternal-Fetal Conflict, by Kylie Alexandra ........................................................ 37 

The Curious Case of Humour and Whoredom: The Concept of ‘Necessary’ Prostitution as it Pertains to the Social, Religious and Sexual Lives of 

‘Common Women’ in Medieval England, by La‘akea Yoshida ............................................................................................................................ 41 

Kukulu Hou ‘Ia Ka Loko I‘a o Ko‘ie‘ie, by Roxie Sylva ...................................................................................................................................... 47 

Racial Disparities in the San Francisco Juvenile Justice System: A 21 st Century Injustice, by Tai Tokeshi ........................................................... 55 

The Chinese Minority in Indonesia, by Felix Da Silva ....................................................................................................................................... 59 

Max Beckmann: Deposition, by Tabitha Gomes ................................................................................................................................................ 63 

Laws, War, and People Caught in Between: The Legal Status of Guantánamo Bay Detainees during the Bush Administration and the Chance for 

Progressive Change Under the Obama Administration, by Kylie Alexandra ....................................................................................................... 67 

Pharmaceutical Pollution in Water, by Geena Chau........................................................................................................................................... 73 

Effects of Advertising on Society: A Literary Review, by Cassandra Hayko ........................................................................................................ 77 

The Fruit of Good and Evil, by Richard Wei ..................................................................................................................................................... 81 

For the Time-Being: Buddhism, Dogen, and Temporality, by Anthony Ridenour ............................................................................................. 85 

Is Television Harmful to Children?, by Tabetha Block ...................................................................................................................................... 89 

Out of Their Fields, Out of Their Diets: The 2002 Food Crisis Reveals why GMOs do not Belong in Africa, by Holly Miller .......................... 93 

Consumerism Revealed, by Katherine Pope ....................................................................................................................................................... 99 



d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d d 

The Globalized World 

Stacy McKernan 

English 215 

Globalization is a phenomenon and a revolution. It is 

enveloping many countries while leaving others behind. Thus, 

many people question if globalization is beneficial to the global 

community. This was seen in the World Trade Organization 

protests held in Seattle a few years ago. To understand the 

debate of the globalization dichotomies, citizens of all nations 

should know what it is and how it affects everyone socially, 

environmentally and economically. It is defined as “a process 

of interaction and integration among people, companies, 

and governments of different nations; a process driven by 

international trade and investment aided by information 

technology” (Carnegie). 

Many countries, such as the United States and Japan, 

have flourished in this world revolution with increasing 

economic wealth, higher standards of living, and new social 

order, with the spread of democracy. On the other hand, many 

underdeveloped nations do not have the resources and capital 

investments to become a part of the phenomenon and are 

consequently left with only the negative impacts while the rest 

of the world progresses around them. Nonetheless, citizens 

of globalized countries are unwilling to give up their high 

standards of living. However good or bad the globalization 

phenomenon may be, it is an inevitable process that will 

continue to cause regions to prosper positively or fall deeper 

into poverty. 

Globalization has been economically beneficial to many 

developed countries such Sweden, Japan, and the U.S.. 

Although most people perceive globalization as a relatively 

new phenomenon, it has been actively concurrent throughout 

history, only recently has it rapidly increased. In the late 

1800s, Sweden was poor and unable to produce enough food 

to meet the needs of its population. Despite the lack of food, 

their land produced numerous amounts of timber and steel 

deposits. The answer was trade: Sweden went to England and 

traded its timber and steel for much needed foods, which 

marked the dawn of its industrial revolution. New companies 

began exporting all over the world and, by 1950, the Swedish 

economy had quadrupled (Norberg). Without globalized trade, 

Sweden would not have imported the food it needed to keep its 

population high, and its people nourished, and, consequently, 

would not have become economically stable. Many globalized 

countries follow this same trend of international importing 

and exporting commodities to stabilize their own individual 

economies. 

Although globalization has been a consistent process 

throughout history, why only now is it being debated if it is a 

positive development for the world community? In the book 

Hot, Flat and Crowded, Thomas Friedman explains that a 

combination of technological, market, and geopolitical events at 

the end of the twentieth century had leveled the playing field in 

a way that was enabling people, from more places than ever to 

take part in the global economy and, in the best case, to enter 

the middle class (Friedman, 29) 

Essentially, the introduction of the computer, the World 

Wide Web, and software and transmission protocols rapidly 

increased the globalization process faster than anytime before. 

These tools of globalization are not going to go away; they 

will only become more advanced, causing globalization to be 

inevitable. This is exemplified in western countries and Japan 

through the ever-increasing technologies that result in economic 

prosperity. 

Japan is the only non-Western country to achieve economic 

stability similar to that of the western countries. How was this 

achieved? In the early 1900s, they hit the financial revolution 

with good central banks, security markets and, with this, 

investments from transnational companies. In this hundred year 

period, they industrialized and produced millions of products 

sold on the world market. By 1998, Japan had reached a gross 

domestic product of $358 billion, relative to the world average 

(Sylla). That is a rate of 10 percent higher than the GDP in the 

United Kingdom (Sylla). 

Leading up to this high GDP was the Japanese automobile. 

In the 1980s, Japan was able to build cars faster and more 

efficiently than any automobile producing company in the 

world. In the early 1990s, Japan had eleven plants in North 

America with more popping up in Western Europe as well 

(Sadler). Japan’s economy relied heavily on its automobile 

industry and without the ability of those companies to become 

transnational, they might not have become as stable. 

Japan is also the leader in research and development 

facilities in the world. Research and development (R&D) 

labs are essential for producing new electronics, computer 

hardware, and software. Japan has about 180 of these labs in the 

United States alone (Florida). Japan perfectly exemplifies the 

economic benefits of globalization through their success in their 

international automobile industries and R&D facilities. 

There are four stages of economic development that 

enhance the understanding of globalization. In the The 


Global Economy, Brian Berry explains there are four stages of 

economic development that all interact with each other. There 

are factor-driven, investment-driven, innovation-driven, and 

wealth-driven countries. Wealth-driven countries have reached 

a level of affluence that reduces the drive to succeed, which 

undermines innovation and investment, thus relying on other 

countries for those aspects (Berry). Innovation driven countries 

are reliant on factor-driven countries that provide them with 

resources and cheap labor. In the same way that wealth-driven 

and innovation-driven societies rely on the lesser, the lesser 

relies on them for opportunity and work. Some countries can 

be incorporated in more than one category, for example: the 

United States. 

Some believe that the United States reaps the most 

economic benefits of globalization. According to the United 

States Bureau of Economic Analysis, the United States’ 

nominal GDP is $10,881,610.00, which is still more than 

twice the amount of the second world economic leader, Japan 

(U.S.). Comparatively, underdeveloped countries such as 

Ecuador accumulate only a fraction of the GDP of the U.S. 

at $54,583.79 billion. The U.S. has managed to surpass many 

nations and has enabled some Americans to become heavy 

consumers with a high standard of living. Some women in 

America walk around with purses that cost enough to feed a 

whole family living in Kenya for a year. Although this is not 

true of all Americans and this behavior does not only pertain 

to United States citizens, it represents the contrasts between 

economically developed countries and underdeveloped 

countries. Even with this knowledge of enormous economic 

differences, should the globalization revolution be perceived as 

bad aspect for the global community? 

Many societies are left out of the globalization process 

causing impoverished nations and low standards of living. 

Globalization requires underdeveloped countries to find some 

part of the economic production process to perform better and 

cheaper than their competitors, even at the expense of their own 

internal needs (Tynes). This is essential to compete in the global 

market. For example, the workers of the Maquiladora factories 

in Mexico earn below minimum wage, in unsafe conditions to 

provide basic necessities for their families. As discussed above, 

the underdeveloped or developing countries are represented 

in the investment-driven or factor-driven economies. In these 

stages, the countries are not only reduced to exploitation of 

outsourcing and raw materials, they are also regulated under the 

businesses of hegemonic, economically-ruling countries. 

Throughout history there has always been some sort 

of hegemonic power between people. In most cases, this 

hegemonic power is linked to economic dominance and the 

ability to modernize and urbanize (Rowntree). After America 

had begun to urbanize and exploit their own resources, it began 


exploring other parts of the world, and subsequently, colonizing 

these new lands for resources. The nation of Hawai‘i is a great 

example of the overthrowing of the existing rule for economic 

increase by the U.S. In the warm climate of Hawai‘i, sugar cane 

could be produced and exported throughout the world for a 

great profit. Because the U.S. had money, land and power, this 

was easy to do. “Overthrow” is not the ethical answer, but many 

countries are willing to jump on the global bandwagon. 

Another instance where underdeveloped countries feel 

the negative impacts of globalization is in Rwanda. Rwanda 

is a small, underdeveloped African country comprised of very 

little land. According to the World Bank statistics, Rwanda’s 

GDP is ranked in the lowest 150 countries in the world (The 

World Bank Group). Because they have little land with a large 

population, they are unable to grow the sufficient amount of 

food needed to sustain their population. This same situation 

worked out well for Sweden because it was able to export 

commodities to obtain the wealth to import food, but Rwanda 

has not been as privileged. Rwanda has very little resources to 

export and, as a result, they import food from other countries 

with the small amount of money they gain from exporting 

(Price). Therefore, they are stuck in an economic ditch, unable 

to advance their way of life. 

In many ways the environment is a limiting factor 

on economics. Basic resources such as petroleum, trees, 

and agricultural crops are extracted from the land and 

commoditized on the global market. Unfortunately, many of 

these resources are non-renewable and are being depleted at 

faster rates than they can be replenished. Globalization is at the 

heart of the over-exploitation or, more specifically, the depletion 

of these types of basic resources. 

The main link to the depletion of resources and 

globalization is over-consumption. Particularly, cultural 

standards facilitate over-consumption and also facilitate the 

need for surplus commodities to be exported. As the United 

States industrialized and globalized, it became part of the 

culture to purchase commodities. There are about 203.1 

million American adults in shopping centers monthly (Besio). 

This statistic does not pertain to grocery markets. It signifies 

the typical mall embodied by The Gap, Macy’s, Nordstrom, 

and other high-end stores selling vast amounts of unnecessary, 

though some do not agree, items. All of these items require a 

significant quantity of resources, including cotton to create the 

clothes, and oil that is required for international transportation. 

Oil is intricately linked with globalization through timespace 

compression. The time-space compression refers to 

technologies, such as transportation, that decrease spatial and 

temporal distances and increase the flow of communications 

and ideas. Unfortunately, oil consumption for transportation 

is one of the biggest problems that the world faces today.

Not only is its depletion harmful to our way of life because 

it is non-renewable, but the byproduct of its energy use is 

even more harmful to our environment. Carbon dioxide is 

emitted after gasoline is burned and causes the Ozone layer to 

thicken. Because of this thickening, less heat can escape into 

the atmosphere. This is essentially considered the “greenhouse 

effect”. As a result, the world’s temperature increases, causing ice 

caps to melt and sea levels to rise. 

The islands of Hawai‘i are a great example of the necessity 

of globalized transportation. The transportation sector leads 

energy demand in Hawai‘i due mainly to heavy jet fuel use by 

military installations. The Hawaiian Islands are thousands of 

miles away from any continent, which requires commercial 

airlines for passengers and cargo. Currently, there are 52,897 

thousand barrels of oil being used annually in Hawai‘i (U.S.). 

The total amount of oil consumed encompasses 64% for 

transportation and almost 30% for aviation fuel, while diesel 

stands at a mere 6.8 %. On the Big Island each year there 

are about 4,460,000 passengers enplaned and deplaned from 

the Kona and Hilo airports (Department of Research and 

Development). Some brief calculations for how much oil is 

consumed on inter-island flights on any given day departing 

and arriving in Hilo are as follows: total travel miles would be 

about 2112 between O‘ahu, Maui and Kona. These routes alone 

would utilize about $13,000 dollars of oil in just one day to 

transport passengers and cargo. 

While globalization has contributed to the depletion of 

natural resources, it has in fact helped by spreading information 

technology that can potentially create a sustainable world. 

Portugal has begun implementing wave power as a source of 

renewable energy called Aquacadoura. It is both the world’s first 

multi-unit wave farm, and the first commercial order for wave 

energy converters (Pelamis). This wave power energy is in the 

process of being used all over the world. Additionally, alternate 

sources of oil such as hydrogen and cellulosic fuels are being 

constructed in research and development labs all over the world. 

With this spread of international information technology, the 

globalized world has the power to become a more sustainable 

entity. 

The process of globalization is economically and 

environmentally beneficial through international information 

technology for many developed countries, but many people 

are starting to notice the environmental degradation and 

inequality throughout nations. Thinking of globalization in the 

black and white terms of “good” or “bad” is not feasible. This 

is because many countries are left out of the economic benefits 

from globalization an inevitable process. Throughout history 

there has never been a society that slowed modernization by 

choice. The key to this continuation is that, with time and the 

increased spread of knowledge, humans will have the potential 

to overcome the obstacles to make the process more equal 

throughout the world - if they choose. 

Works Cited 

Berry, Brian, D. Michael Ray and Edgar Conkling. The Global 

Economy. New York: Prentice Hall College Division, 1993. 

Besio, Kathryn. “Things to do With Shopping Malls.” 

Geography 328, Cultural Geography, Kanaka‘ole Hall 

Room 109, University of Hawai‘i at Hilo, Hilo, Hawai‘i. 3 

Mar 2009. 

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “Welcome to 

the Student’s Guide to Globalization.” Sept 2007. The 

State University of New York. 1 Mar 2009 http://www. 

globalization101.org. 

United States. Department of Research and Development. 

County of Hawai‘i Data Book. Hawai‘i, 2002. 

Florida, Richard. “The Globalization of Japanese R&D: The 

Economic Geography of Japanese R&D Investment in the 

United States.” Economic Geography 70 (1994): 344-369. 

JSTOR. 4 May 2009 < http://www.jstor.org/stable/143728 >. 

Friedman, Thomas. Hot, Flat, and Crowded. New York: Farrar, 

Straus and Girouz, 2008. 

Norberg, Johan. “How Globalization Conquers Poverty.” Cato 

Journal (2003): 249-251. 

Pelamis Wave Power Limited. “The Aguacadoura.” 12 Dec 

2008. 1 Mar 2009 . 

Price, Jon. “Natural Resources.” Kanaka‘ole Hall Room 109, 

University of Hawai‘i at Hilo, Hilo, Hawai‘i. 18 Feb 2009. 

Lecture. 

Rowntree, Lewis, Price and Wyckoff. Globalization. New Jersey: 

Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006. 

Sadler, David. “The Geographies of Just-in-Time: Japanese 

Investment and Automotive Industry.” Economic Geography 

70 (Jan 1994): 41-59. JSTOR. 4 May 2009 . 

Sylla, Richard. “Financial Systems and Economic 

Modernization.” The Journal of Economic History 62 (June 

2002): 277-292. JSTOR. 4 May 2009. . 

The World Bank Group. “Rwanda Data Profile.” 2008. 1 Mar 

2009 . 

Tynes, Scott. “Globalization Harms Developing Nations’ 

Cultures.” Current Controversies: Developing Nations. 2003. 

U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information 

Administration, “State Energy Profiles,” Dec 14, 2006. 1 

Mar 2009 . 




Mahayana Buddhist 

Philosophy* 

Anthony Ridenour 

Philosophy 450 

How is Mahayana Buddhism philosophically different from 

Hinduism and Hinayana Buddhism? 

The philosophy of Mahayana Buddhism developed as 

something of a counter to both Hinduism and Hinayana 

Buddhism. The Mahayana consider the philosophies of both 

Hinduism and Hinayana as extreme, and while Hinduism 

and Hinayana Buddhism are similar in many ways, their core 

philosophies are quite polar. Hindu philosophy asserts the 

existence of atman, the soul, self or ego, and consider this to be 

the essence of man: one and the same as Brahman, the supreme 

reality of the universe. This reality is Absolute, unchanging, 

unformed and unceasing: it is permanent and stands behind all 

the phenomena of the world. 

Hinayana Buddhism, on the other hand, staunchly denies 

such a reality of substantive permanence and self and instead 

declares that all things (dharmas) in the universe are in constant 

flux. Nowhere is there found an abiding self that is independent 

of the five Skandhas, that are permanent and unchanging. 

In fact, there is no Absolute reality other than the reality of 

dependent-origination (pratityasamutpada), the constant flux 

of dharmas. What is taken to be real in Hinayana Buddhism is 

not the atman or soul, but rather the dharmas, each themselves 

possessing no self-nature, but nonetheless real and subject to the 

constant flux of impermanence and karma. 

Quite succinctly, as stated in the general introduction 

of Empty Logic, “the chief philosophical difference between 

Hinayana and Mahayana is that while Hinayanists assert 

the reality of dharmas, elements or entities, Mahayanists 

declare that all things are empty” (Cheng 15). Mahayanists 

claimed that that if the views of orthodox Hinduism were too 

extreme, the opposite views, those of the Hinayanists, were 

also too extreme. So rather than shifting focus of the nature 

of reality as being composed of one thing, Atman-Brahman, 

to another thing, dharmas, Mahayana philosophy proclaimed 

that all aspects of existence are empty of own-being. To the 

Mahayana, to maintain the Atman-Brahman as real, or to argue 

impermanent dharmas are real, are both extreme views, and 

so the Mahayana philosophy refutes both for emptiness, the 

doctrine that “emptiness is an unattached insight that truths 

are not absolutely true. It teaches that discursive knowledge 

does not provide true wisdom and that enlightenment is the 

abandonment of conceptual thinking” (53). 

How did Nagarjuna argue for the emptiness of causality? Do 

you agree to his arguments? Why or why not? 

Nagarjuna said, “Those who adhere to a view of emptiness 

are incorrigible.” The Madhyamika dialectic is a form of reductio 

ad absurdum, used to reveal the absurd or contradictory nature 

of an opponent’s arguments. This dialectic is founded on the 

tetralemma used in Indian logic that assumes four possible 

views: 1) affirmation, 2) negation, 3) both affirmation and 

negation, and 4) neither affirmation nor negation. With this 

four-step formula of analysis, he considered six possibilities 

concerning the relationship between cause and effect, and 

argued its impossibility because any view of causation leads to 

contradiction or absurdity. Thus, Nagarjuna’s argumentative aim 

was a wholesale negation of “attempts to characterize things,” 

(36). He made a point to analyze even his own argumentation 

in this way and advocated a refutation of characterizing or 

conceptualizing emptiness, which is causality, which is the 

Middle Way. Nothing escapes the scrutiny of Nagarjuna’s 

logic as it is applied until there is no position or view left to be 

proved. The wisdom of the emptiness of causality Nagarjuna 

advocates holds no view of its own of anything whatsoever, 

and ultimately what’s left in the wake is the true state of 

things, the Middle Way or causality, as being indescribable and 

incomprehensible to conventional thought and language. 

I wholeheartedly agree with Nagarjuna’s arguments 

concerning the emptiness of emptiness or the Middle Way, 

causality. Cherishing the notion that emptiness is an absolute 

reality unto itself is no different then ascribing a self-existence 

or absolute reality to anything else of the world, whether it be 

a self, a god, or utter non-existence. To realize the emptiness 

of phenomena is one thing, but to come face-to-face with the 

emptiness of emptiness is much more subtle. I believe I have 

had personal experience of this myself, however brief it was, 

and can attest that the wisdom revealed by direct experience 

of emptiness is complete eradication of conceptualization. 

Emptiness then ceases to be a characteristic or attribute of 

anything at all, and even conceptualizing emptiness, or rather 

causality itself, is abandoned. Emptiness, being empty itself, 

is then the full action of causality, and the Middle Way is 

manifest before one’s very eyes. If these truly are the results of 

Nagarjuna’s explanation of the Buddha Dharma as emptiness, 

a restatement of the Middle Way and pratityasamutpada, then I 

am in full agreement with his arguments. 


Who is the Buddha? Is he a divine being or merely a human 

being in the eyes of the Buddhists? 

These questions are not clear-cut, black or white: 

Historically speaking, the Buddha is simply the founder of the 

Dharma and the Sangha if indeed such a singular man existed. 

What made the Buddha the “Awakened One” and significant 

among his peers was his enlightenment. What may help to 

answer the above questions is to investigate how this act of 

awakening or enlightenment transforms the person from an 

historical perspective. The question is then: did the Buddha’s 

enlightenment transform him into the divine, or was he just 

happy? 

Stories abound in the Pali canon and the later Mahayana 

sutras of the Buddha’s superhuman abilities. The Jataka stories 

recount the previous lives of the Buddha as a bodhisattva 

performing miraculous deeds out of his compassion and love for 

all living beings. Other later sutras describe in great poetic detail 

the realms of the Celestial Buddhas, incalculable in number 

and unsurpassed in bliss and beauty. The Buddhist cosmologies 

of both Hinayana and Mahayana are full of all kinds of beings: 

gods, devas, humans, animals, ghosts, and demons. The 

Buddhas, above all, are held in the highest esteem by all beings 

and possess all the qualities of perfect wisdom and compassion. 

Many of these descriptions and stories of the Buddha and 

the universe are fantastical, and it is unclear to what degree 

they were taken literally by Buddhists. Two things are clear 

about these stories: they were often written with the purpose 

of explaining a particular moral or ethical discipline, and they 

often contained explanations of the benefits one receives by 

proclaiming to others the message of the particular text. 

Alternatively, there are disciplines and schools of Buddhist 

thought that express no interest whatsoever in deifying the 


Buddha. First note that Shakyamuni, when asked about 

the existence of God, remained silent. Nagarjuna and the 

Madhyamika, in short, “do not assert that the existence of God 

is false or doubtful, but that God’s existence as the creator of 

the world is unintelligible,” and no special attention is given to 

the Buddha as important (90). Zen Buddhism takes this last 

statement to its end by answering the question, “who is the 

Buddha?” with “Three pounds of flax.” The Master Lin Chi is 

known for saying, “If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha. If 

you meet the Patriarch, kill the Patriarch.” This is, of course, not 

to be taken literally but it is to aid the student in eradicating 

false views of external independence. 

In sum, the Buddha is universally accepted as at least the 

historical founder of the movement. After his parinirvana nearly 

every school developed its own interpretation of his importance 

in their practice. Through the history of Buddhism his 

deification cannot be deemed insignificant, and the true reality 

of his being a divine being or merely a gifted human is left to 

the discretion of each individual Buddhist. 

Work Cited 

Cheng, Hsueh-li. Empty Logic: Madhyamika Buddhism from 

Chinese Sources. Delhi, India, 1991. 

*These three essays were submitted as an exam; a list of eight 

questions were posed, of which the students selected three 

questions to discuss and submit for grading.


Nazi Experiments 

Tabitha Gomes 

History 395 

The Nazi regime began building concentration camps in 

1933, and, by 1945, they had established 20,000 camps, all to 

imprison millions. 1 Along with the Jewish people, many Poles, 

Gypsies, Soviet POWs, homosexuals, and Jehovah Witnesses – 

all of whom were “considered sub-human by Nazi standards” 2 

– were placed into camps throughout Europe; “[t]hese facilities 

were called ‘concentration camps’ because those imprisoned 

there were physically “concentrated” in one location.” 3 In 

December 1941, to help facilitate Hitler’s “final solution,” 

the first extermination camp was opened in Chelmno. 4 Out 

of the thousands of concentration camps, there were a few 

major locations where experiments were performed: Auschwitz, 

Dachau, Buchenwald, Mauthausen, and Ravensbruke. 5 

The Jewish people and other “sub-humans” had no 

chance to escape the Holocaust and were immediately sent to 

either a concentration or an extermination camp. Not only 

were the people discriminated against, torn from their homes 

and families, killed or worked to death, they were also used 

as test subjects. Instead of using rats, the Nazi doctors chose 

to perform inhumane experiments on the Jewish prisoners. 

The experiments were done by force and victims experienced 

excruciating pain because no anesthesia was used; this caused 

many deaths and most survivors left with serious disabilities. 

The Holocaust was a horrific and frightening time for the 

Jewish people, resulting in the killing of nearly six-million 

people; “[i]n addition to the six million Jewish men, women 

and children who were murdered at least an equal number of 

non-Jews was also killed,” by no other means than deliberate 

murder. 6 

1 United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia, 

Nazi Medical experiments. (accessed March 20, 2009).http://www.ushmm. 

org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005168#RelatedLinks 

2 American-Israeli Coopertive Enterprise, Jewish Virtual Library, 2009. 

(accessed April 20, 2009) http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/ 

Holocaust/cclist.html. 







5 Linda M. Woolf, Ph.D. Webster University Nazi Science. (accessed 04 15, 

2009) http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/deathcamps.html.. 




Although many Jewish people suffered as the Nazis 

used their bodies in sadistic experiments, much of the data 

discovered could potentially be used in modern medicine to 

save many lives today. Using the data has been a controversial 

issue over the years and a struggle to decide if it would be a 

greater ethical issue to use data that was taken immorally and 

disrespect those who died, or to not use the data, and allow 

those alive to suffer. 

The Nazi doctors knew exactly what they would do with 

the Jewish people, and Heinrich Himmler, chief of the SS, was 

directly in charge of their orders to exterminate or experiment. 

Every experiment fell into one of three categories: military 

research, pharmaceutical, or racially motivated experiments. 7 

Military experiments were aimed at ensuring the survival of 

soldiers in the German army; these experiments consisted 

of freezing victims for hypothermia research, testing potable 

seawater on gypsies, high-altitude simulation tests to benefit 

pilots, and finding cures for war wounds. Pharmaceutical 

experiments were focused on finding cures or treatment for the 

diseases and illnesses that were a direct threat to the German 

military and citizens. Some of the diseases encountered were 

small pox, tuberculosis, typhus, typhoid fever, yellow fever, 

malaria and hepatitis. This category also included experiments 

with mustard and phosgene gas, bone-grafts, and sulfanilamide 

drugs. The last set of experiments was categorized as racially 

motivated because the Germans sought out to advance the 

Aryan race with genetic and racial goals. The Nazi doctors 

experimented with sterilization, artificial insemination, twins, 

and even had a Jewish bone collection. 8 

Malaria was a common disease among citizens of the 

German-occupied countries; therefore Heinrich Himmler 

ordered Dr. Klaus Karl Schilling 9 to perform experiments in 

concordance with this. Between February 1942 and April 

1945, over 1,200 prisoners at the Dachau concentration camp 

were experimented on to investigate possible treatments, and 

vaccinations, for malaria. 10 Dr. Schilling usually picked healthy 

individuals for his experiments, sent them to get x-rays first, 



Holocaust/cclist.html. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 

“Holocaust Encyclopedia.” Nazi Medical experiments. March 11, 2009. 

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005168# 

RelatedLinks (accessed March 20, 2009). 




9 Dr. Schilling was a member of the League of Nations Malaria 

Commission. Mellanby, Kenneth. British Medical Journal, “Medical 

Experiments in Nazi Concentration Camps.” (1947)p. 147 

10 Spitz, Vivien. Doctors from Hell: The Horrific Account of Nazi Experiments 

on Humans. Boulder: (Sentient Publications, 2005). P.103 


then infected them by either using live infected mosquitoes, 

or by injections using extracts from the mosquito’s mucous 

glands. 11 After a couple of weeks, victims would begin to 

have malaria attacks and that is when the experiment truly 

began. Dr. Schilling’s nurses would then inject the patient with 

medication during an attack; every attack was an opportunity 

to test a new drug as a possible cure for malaria. Some of the 

drugs used were neo-salvasan, quinine, perifere, and atabrine. 

Malaria itself killed 30 prisoners, while the side effects from 

the medications killed three to four hundred. 12 Atabrine was 

developed by the Germans and later used by the U.S. military 

to prevent malaria. 

Experiments on typhus, also known as German flekfieber 

(“spotted fever”), were conducted at Buchenwald and 

Natzweiler concentration camps from December 1941 until 

February 1945 in order to benefit the German military. The 

goal for Dr. Eugene Haagen was to test chemical substances 

and already produced vaccinations for their effectiveness 13 . 

Haagen obtained the healthier inmates and vaccinated them 

with Antityphus vaccine, then injected them with the spotted 

fever germ to test the vaccination effectiveness. At the same 

time, he injected the “control group” with only the spotted 

fever germ for comparison. After a three to four week period, 

the victims had spotted fever symptoms and the doctors could 

determine the effectiveness of having a vaccine compared to the 

effects of the virus. 14 In order to keep the spotted fever virus 

alive for testing purposes, a large amount of healthy inmates 

were also infected with the virus; this resulted in a 90 percent 

death rate. These typhus experiments were connected to the 

Bayer pharmaceutical company because they provided the 

medications to use on ill patients in order to test the various 

drugs and its efficiency. 

Tuberculosis was another threat to the German people, 

and between December 1944 and February 1945, Nazi doctors 

performed experiments to discover whether people could 

possibly have natural immunities to the disease, and also to 

develop a vaccination. To infect the subjects with tuberculosis, 

Doctor Kurt Heissmeyer injected the live bacteria into the 

lungs of his patients at Neuengamme concentration camp. 15 

Heissmeyer also removed the lymph nodes from the arms of 

11 George J. Annas, Micheal A. Grodin. The Nazi doctors and the Nuremberg 

Code : human rights in human experimentation. (New York: Oxford Press: 

2002). P.76 

12 Spitz, Vivien. Doctors from Hell: The Horrific Account of Nazi Experiments 

on Humans. Boulder: Sentient Publications, 2005.p. 106 

13 Eugene Haagen was an officer in the Air Force Medical service and a 

professor at the University of Strasbourg. George J. Annas, Micheal A. 

Grodin. The Nazi doctors and the Nuremberg Code : human rights in human 

experimentation. (New York: Oxford Press, 2002).p.81 

14 American-Israeli Coopertive Enterprise. Jewish Virtual Library. 2009. 

(accessed April 20, 2009).http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/ 






children for testing. About 200 test subjects died, but even 

then, the tuberculosis experiments were not extensive because 

the Allied forces were approaching. 

During WWII, Himmler was afraid that the Allies in 

Africa would attack the Germans using phosgene gas so he 

ordered Doctor Bickenbach to find a means of protection 

against such poisoning. Bickenbach used 52 French 

concentration-camp prisoners at Fort Ney near Strasbourg, 

France, led them into an airtight chamber, and opened a vial 

of phosgene. 16 Four prisoners died from the experiment, while 

the rest had serious lung irritations and later suffered from 

pulmonary edema. 17 

Phosgene, today, is a chemical used in the production of 

plastics and pesticides. In 1989, the Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA) considered air pollution regulations on the 

toxic gas. The EPA conducted research on the effects of the 

phosgene gas for the workers and those who live nearby the 

manufacturing plants. They discovered that it caused skin, eye, 

and upper respiratory tract irritation as well as a fluid buildup 

in the lungs which can result in death by “drowning.” The EPA 

has relied solely on the effects of phosgene gas on animals for 

human research because they feel it would be immoral to use 

Nazi data. Also, the former Chief Administrator did not want 

to use the data because it might open the doors for criticism. 

The Nazi experiments were conducted on humans, therefore the 

results on the amount of phosgene that effects humans could be 

substantially different than those of animals. The choices made 

by Thomas may not be fair to those actually being exposed to 

the gas and the feelings about using the data would most likely 

be different to those exposed. 18 

Sulfanilamide was first being used in 1936 with the 

German Army in order to treat open wounds and kill bacteria. 

From 1941 to 1943, on the Russian fronts, the German army 

had many casualties that suffered due to gangrene infection. 

In order to test the effectiveness of Sulfanilamide on bacteria, 

Nazi doctors created war-like wounds on Jewish prisoners. 

The doctors created wounds on the victims and often rubbed 

ground glass or wood shavings into the wound and then 

infected it with bacteria often, streptococcus, tetanus or gas 

gangrene. As result victims suffered extensive injuries and pain 

while others died. 19 Sulfanilamide is still used today under 

doctor’s prescription to stop the growth of certain bacteria. 

At the Nuremberg “Doctor Trials” of 1946-1947, Telford 




17 PBS. Holocaust on Trial. 2000. (accessed February 11, 2009) http://www. 

pbs.org/wgbh/nova/holocaust/experiintro2.html. 


http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/cclist.html 

(accessed April 20, 2009). 


pbs.org/wgbh/nova/holocaust/experiintro2.html.

Taylor opened with comments that suggested the Nazi Doctors 

had turned Germany into a “lunatic asylum and a charnel 

house.” 20 It is a common notion that the Nazis abandoned 

ethics and created a bad name for German science. Is it true 

to believe that Nazi’s really abandoned ethics, and if they did, 

would that make their experiments bad science? It depends on 

what “bad science” really is and if abandoning ethics is the only 

determining factor in creating “bad science.” Whether people 

want to accept the experiments or not, they have been done 

and they cannot be discounted. From the stand of morals and 

ethics they were unacceptable, but from the stand of science 

and technology they are advancement: “[a]lthough the data is 

morally tainted and soaked with the blood of its victims, one 

cannot escape confronting the dreaded possibility that perhaps 

the doctors at Dachau actually learned something that today 

could help save lives or ‘benefit’ society.” 21 

The argument that Nazi experiments are to be considered 

“bad science,” could be relevant when discussing the health 

of the patients. Experiments were done on the prisoners 

considered to be healthy, which means that they were not as 

wasted away as the rest. However, all the prisoners were “usually 

malnourished, emaciated, and severely weakened, and thus 

their physiological responses to the experiments would likely be 

different from those of normal, healthy people.” 22 It is easy to 

believe that the patients were more susceptible to diseases and 

illnesses since they were malnourished. Yet, if they were so sick, 

how did so many survive? Would you call the survivors lucky, 

or were they the results of “good science?” It would be easier 

to claim the experiments to be pseudoscience if there were no 

survivors. 

If data discovered by the Nazi’s in their sadistic 

experiments could be used to save others, should that data 

still be disregarded because of ethical issues? Wouldn’t that 

now become a new ethical problem if doctors denied care to a 

patient because the data came from Nazi experiments? Who is 

now considered unethical? Arguably, if the Nazi experiments 

were so horrific, then only in a case where the denial of medical 

attention becomes an immense objective and, ultimately, a 

greater ethical issue than the experiments itself, the data could 

then be used. 

An article from the Jewish Virtual Library called “The 

Ethics of Using Medical Data from Nazi Experiments,” 

acknowledged an analogy of using “tainted” or “bad” medicine. 

Cohen pointed out a scenario with two patients in the hospital: 

Patient A is on the verge of death and Patient B is awaiting a 

20 Proctor, Robert N. “Nazi Science and Nazi Medical Ethics: Some Myths 

and Misconceptions.” Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, (2000) 335- 

346.p.335 






possible heart transplant from A. Suppose the doctor did not 

wait until A died and removed his heart anyway. Do you now 

throw the heart away because it was taken in the act of murder 

or do you save B’s life with the murdered heart? Keeping both A 

and B in mind, and ethically-knowing that the doctor killed A, 

should he let B suffer and die because of it? Suppose the doctor 

transplanted the heart into B, is he now A’s killer and B’s hero? 

Where do you draw the line in medical ethics? 23 

Using the data from the Nazi medical experiments has 

been a taboo issue because many believe that using the data will 

validate the torture and inhumanity, sending a message that 

what the Nazi’s did was “okay.” This could potentially make 

those using the data responsible for disrespect and dishonor to 

the victims. One Holocaust survivor said, “As much as I am for 

scientific research for the betterment of humanity, I do feel that 

the scientific data collected from experiments done on inmates 

of Nazi concentration camps should not be used. If I would 

agree, I feel I [would] give a stamp of approval to the ways and 

means [these] experiments have been conducted and quasilegalize 

[them].” 24 

Arguably, not using the experiment data may suggest 

that the victims died for no reason and their suffering meant 

nothing. Another Holocaust survivor stated that, “It appears 

that, at least in some cases, there was an attempt to induce 

illness by injecting bacteria and then an attempt to cure these 

illnesses. [T]hat is to say, we served as laboratory animals in 

the hands of the criminal, Mengele, and this type of research 

should, of course, be made available to the world.” 25 

There is no direct link in data that compares modern 

vaccinations to the pharmaceutical experiments of the Nazi’s; 

however, the notion that Nazis directly contributed data 

to modern-day vaccinations is not farfetched. If the Nazi 

experiments did help with modern vaccinations and the 

evidence was available, would it be fair to discontinue the 

vaccinations in honor of the Holocaust victims? 

Although many Jewish people suffered as the Nazis 

used their bodies in sadistic experiments, much of the data 

discovered could potentially be used in modern medicine 

to save many lives today. It has been over 70 years since the 

atrocities and while the past is not erasable, what is done is 

done and respect is all that can be given. Every individual will 

choose his own path in the controversy and will either use, or 

discount, the Nazi experiment data, whether or not lives can be 

saved: “[w]hat occurred in the Nazi concentration camps has 


http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/cclist.html 


24 Anonymous survivor of Dr. Josef Mengele’s twins experiments at 

Auschwitz. PBS. Holocaust on Trial. 2000. (accessed February 11, 2009) 

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/holocaust/experiintro2.html. 




influenced patient care, the ethics of human experimentation, 

and whether doctors can or should cite these experiments in 

their current research projects.” 26 The data should not be fully 

censored: it should be made available to those doctors with a 

greater intent in mind, and to those with the ability to verify 

that the information will be used only to save human lives. 

Bibliography 

Alan Milchman, Alan Rosenburg. “Experiments in thinking 

the Holocaust: Auschwits, Modernity and Philosophy.” 

Dialogue and Universalism, 2003: 149. 

American-Isralie Cooperative Interprise. Jewish Virtual Library. 

2009. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/ 

Holocaust/medtoc.html (accessed February 11, 2009). 

Bulow, Luis. Medical Experiments the Holocaust. 2007. http:// 

www.deathcamps.info/Experiments/experiments.htm 

(accessed February 9, 2009). 

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Nazi:human:experimentation.html (accessed April 27, 

2009). 

George J. Annas, Micheal A. Grodin. The Nazi doctors and the 

Nuremberg Code : human rights in human experimentation. 

New York: Oxford Press, 2002. 

Kordata, Andrew. “The Nazi Medical Experiments.” ADF 

Health, 2006: 33-37. 

Linda M. Woolf, Ph.D. Webster University Nazi Science. http:// 

www.webster.edu/~woolflm/deathcamps.html (accessed 04 

15, 2009). 

Mellanby, Kenneth. “Medical Experiments in Nazi 

Concentration Camps.” British Medical Journal, 1947: 3. 

PBS. Holocaust on Trial. 2000. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ 

holocaust/experiintro2.html (accessed February 11, 2009). 

Proctor, Robert N. “Nazi Science and Nazi Medical Ethics: 

Some Myths and Misconceptions.” Perspectives in Biology 

and Medicine, 2000: 335-346. 

Quinn, Carol. “Taking Seriously Victims of Unethical 

Experiments: Susan Brison’s Conception of the Self and Its 

Relevance to Bioethics.” Journal of Social Philosophy, 2000: 

316-325. 

Reddy, Navin. The Nazi Experiment Holocaust. December 1, 

2008. http://clinicalresearchzone.blogspot.com/2008/12/ 

nazi-experiment-holocaust.html (accessed April 27, 2009). 

Roelcke, Volker. “Nazi medicine and research on human 

beings.” Lancet, 2004: 6-7. 

Spitz, Vivien. Doctors from Hell: The Horrific Account of Nazi 

26 Kordata, Andrew. “The Nazi Medical Experiments.” ADF Health, (2006) 

33-37. p. 37 


Experiments on Humans. Boulder: Sentient Publications, 

2005. 

Susan Benedict, Jane Georges. “Nurses and the sterilization 

experiments of Auschwitz: a postmodernist perspective.” 

Nursing Iquiry, 2006: 277-288. 

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Encyclopedia.” Nazi Medical experiments. March 11, 2009. 

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleI 

d=10005168#RelatedLinks (accessed March 20, 2009).


War, Society, and Sexual 

Violence: 

A Feminist Analysis of the Origin 

and Prevention of War Rape 

Kylie Alexandra 

Sociology 494 

Armed conflict is a predictor of sexual violence against 

women (Hynes 2004). Rape in war is not a new phenomenon 

but the intensity of the violence inflicted upon victims appears 

to be on the rise (Farr 2009; Gottschall 2004; Hargreaves 2001; 

Hynes and Cardozo 2000; Hynes 2004). Prior to the 1990s, 

theorists ignored war rape as a side-effect of conflict or as isolated 

acts of individual soldiers motivated by sexual desire (Hoglund 

2003). Heightened attention generated by the efforts of female 

reporters, activists, and scholars to document the sexual violence 

committed as part of the civil wars in Rwanda and the former 

Yugoslavia prompted international outrage. This outrage 

redirected scholars to understand the origin and dynamics of 

war rape (Gottschall 2004; Gunhammer 2005; Hoglund 2003; 

Hynes 2004; Jennings and Swiss 2001; Seifert 1996; Shanks and 

Schull 2000). 

War rape is a complex dynamic encompassed by layers of 

meaning which vary between conflicts. However, many feminist 

scholars are beginning to argue that a common thread underlies 

most, if not all, manifestations of war rape. Popular explanations 

for war rape range from sociobiological theory undergirded by 

male sexual desire, to strategic or genocidal theory that posits 

rape as a ‘weapon of war.’ These theories are inadequate in their 

explanatory power and insufficient when it comes to exploring 

ways to prevent war rape. 

In contrast, feminist theory points to the gendered social, 

political, and economic hierarchies that produce misogynistic 

cultural norms which are exacerbated in the chaos of war (Baaz 

and Stern 2009; Caprioli 2000; Farr 2009; Seifert 1996; Turpin 

2003). Understanding war rape involves an analysis of the social 

structures that precede and situate the conflict and an awareness 

of how war reifies, and celebrates militant masculinity (Baaz 

and Stern 2009; Henry 2006; Turpin 2003). War rape is an 

extreme manifestation of cultural and political norms that stratify 

gender and commodify women. Preventing war rape flows from 

reconfiguring the entrenched social norms that provide the fertile 

soil for sexual violence to occur. 

Throughout this essay, the terms “war rape” and “sexual 

violence” will be used interchangeably, primarily because acts of 

war rape often coincide with additional forms of sexual violence. 

According to a United Nations Development Fund for Women 

report released in 2002, sexual violence against women in war 

includes being raped at home or in public, often in front of 

family members; deliberate HIV infection to ‘contaminate’ the 

enemy population; sexual slavery and sex trafficking; and, forced 

impregnation or abortion (Hynes 2004). Rape includes forced 

penetration with a penis or other foreign object, such as a stick or 

weapon, as well as genital stabbing, and can be perpetrated by a 

single combatant, gangs, or by a series of combatants in the form 

of sex trafficking of women and girls between soldiers. War rape 

frequently results in serious physical and psychological harm, and 

can be accompanied by torture (or indeed, regarded as torture 

[Hoglund 2003; Seifert 1996]) and death (Farr 2009). 

Similarly, for the purpose of this essay “war” and “armed 

conflict” will be used interchangeably and generally defined as 

political conflicts which involve at least one state or sub-state 

armed group (Farr 2009; Melander 2005). Hence, armed 

conflicts include both civil and international disputes. This 

definition is deliberately broad in order to include small scale 

conflicts within the analysis – such as the recent spate of violence 

and retaliatory rapes committed by Guinean armed forces against 

female political protestors (Quist-Arcton 2009). Moreover, in 

line with Hynes (2004), an important aim of this essay is to 

broaden the popular conception of war to include sexual violence 

and shed light on war-related discourses concerning social and 

economic institutions and gender construction in both peace and 

war. Appropriate use of personal narratives can help to illustrate 

these connections. 

Personal narratives are often difficult to read, but it is 

through them that we can approach an understanding of the 

lived suffering of thousands of women (Farr 2009). Doug 

Henry (2006) refers to personal narratives as “privileged forms 

of knowledge” (P.382). By this, Henry (2006) differentiates 

between knowledge derived from lived experience and knowledge 

derived through academic study. He further explains that 

one must be careful not to cloak human suffering in academic 

language or transform an understanding of violence into a 

rationalization for violence. Personal narratives remind us to be 

vigilant of that boundary, including the following experience told 

by a rape survivor from the Ugandan civil war: 

I was 30 years old and married when I was gang-raped. I 

had temporarily separated from my husband amidst fleeing 

and insecurity when the village was attacked by government 


soldiers. I … ran into the bush where I met my first ordeal. 

Six soldiers found me hiding and raped me one after 

another. Before I had recovered I was again gang raped at a 

military check-point. This time I was raped by 15 soldiers. 

This left me shattered. I was once again torn to an extent 

that I could not control my biological functions. The 

cervix was dislocated and the uterus started hanging out. 

Whenever I am bathing I have to push it back in. (Turshen 

2000:819) 

The above narrative touches upon multiple themes packaged 

into war rape: the tendency for modern conflict to play out on 

the battlefield of women’s homes and bodies (Farr 2009; Hynes 

2004; Henry 2006; Turpin 2003); the vulnerability of women 

to rape in “flight” when they seek protection in refugee camps or 

neighboring towns (Farr 2009; Hynes and Cardozo 2000; Shanks 

and Schull 2000; Turpin 2003); and the abject dehumanization 

of women that are appropriated as sex objects in the most 

heinous manner. 

In modern warfare, civilians increasingly find themselves 

caught in the frontlines of battle (Seifert 1996). Estimates of the 

civilian death toll range from 75 – 90% with the majority being 

women and children (Farr 2009). The proximate convergence 

of combatants and civilians prompts Kathryn Farr (2009) to 

describe war rape as “site-ubiquitous,” meaning that it occurs 

anywhere, including homes, streets, road blocks, border checkpoints, 

detention centers, and refugee camps (P.6). 

Numerous obstacles prevent a complete understanding of 

the amount of sexual violence in any particular conflict. During 

war, legitimate agencies cannot always be situated to collect data 

or receive reports (Farr 2009). A significant barrier to reporting 

stems from women’s internalization of guilt and shame as a result 

of cultural views that blame women for men’s sexual deviance 

(Hynes 2004). The strong stigma associated with rape causes 

many women to fear being rejected by their husbands and 

community (Hynes and Cardozo 2000; Hynes 2004; Jennings 

and Swiss 2001; Mukamana and Brysiewicz 2008). Methods 

for data collection also vary considerably. Statistics on war rape 

generally overlook variations between number of victims and 

number of incidents, which is important in light of the fact that 

many women are often repeatedly raped. Rapes of women who 

are also killed are frequently missing from the data. Fully 25% of 

the indigenous Shan women raped by the Myanmar armed forces 

were also killed (Farr 2009). 

As a result, figures for the prevalence of war rape vary widely. 

Nonetheless, they are still useful for understanding the scope of 

the violence – and for refuting claims that war rape is committed 

by a few rogue soldiers (Hoglund 2003; Quist-Arcton 2009). For 

example: 

• Estimates on the number of Muslim women raped by 

Bosnian Serbs during the civil war in the former Yugoslavia 


range from 20,000 to 60,000 (Hoglund 2003; Seifert 1996); 

• Estimates on the number of Rwandan Tutsis raped by Hutus 

in 1994 range from 250,000 to 500,000 (Hynes 2004; 

Mukamana and Brysiewicz 2008); 

• Figures for the number of women raped by Soviet forces 

in 1945 Berlin range from 20,000 to 100,000 (Gottschall 

2004; Hoglund 2003; Hynes and Cardozo 2000) and 

120,000 to 900,00 (Seifert 1996); numbers increase to two 

million if one considers all of Eastern Germany (Turpin 

2003); 

• From 1971 – 1972 Pakistani soldiers raped approximately 

200,000 Bangladeshi women (Gottschall 2004; Seifert 1996; 

Turpin 2003); and 

• Approximately 94% of surveyed households reported sexual 

violence during the Sierra Leonean civil war (Hynes 2004). 

Until recently, the international community remained silent 

on the prevalence of war rape (Farr 2009; Shanks and Shull 

2000). Anna T. Hogland (2003) points to the public/private 

paradox of war rape: the sexual aspect of the violence coupled 

with cultural taboos confines war rape to the personal or private 

realm, yet its pervasiveness within and across conflicts places rape 

firmly within the scope of “public” violence. To ensure women’s 

protection and women’s justice this paradox must be cast off 

(Hoglund 2003). The Bassiouni Report produced by a United 

Nations investigator for the International Criminal Tribunal for 

the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) represented a groundbreaking 

attempt to document war rape and formed a critical part of the 

ICTY’s ability to prosecute rape as a war crime (Gunhammer 

2005). 

Acknowledgment and documentation of war rape is the 

first step toward its prevention. Scholarship on the subject 

traces an arc from explanations that focus on individual behavior 

to feminist explanations that point to how cumulative social 

practices and institutions shape the collective and individual 

psyches that perpetrate war rape. 

Traditional discourse viewed the rape of enemy women 

as the “victor’s reward” or as a property crime violated against 

men (Hoglund 2003; Pistono 1988). Article 27 of the Fourth 

Geneva Convention adopted in 1949 states that “women shall 

be especially protected against any attack on their honor, in 

particular against rape, enforced prostitution, or any form of 

indecent assault” (Hoglund 2003:355). Depicting rape and 

sexual violence as an attack on a woman’s honor rather than an 

attack on her body suggests that women have no recourse against 

attacks on their bodies – and that they do not “own” their bodies. 

The traditional view of war rape reifies an essentialist portrait that 

depicts aggressive and sexualized males sullying ‘pure’ women. It 

reinforces cultural customs that prize women’s sexual purity and 

which are strongly correlative with gender inequalities. 

Jonathan Gottschall (2004) embraces the sociobiological

view which explains war rape through a combination of male 

sexual desire and environmental influences. This perspective 

claims that sexual desire underlies war rape since anecdotal 

evidence suggests that young, reproductive-age women are 

the primary targets. He further argues that war rape must 

be “natural” because of its cross-cultural manifestation and 

prehistoric origin (Gottschall 2004:134). When soldiers refrain 

from raping women, sociocultural forces are preventing them 

from acting on their otherwise “natural” inclination to rape. 

Thwarted or repressed sexual desire may form a component 

of some incidences of war rape, what Farr (2009) refers to as 

“opportunistic” rape, but it does not account for the massive scale 

of war rape (p.14). Rape makes a literal and symbolic statement 

that denies a woman her personhood. In each case, something 

else functions to undergird soldiers’ belief that it is acceptable to 

rape women by force. Sociobiologists may be confusing sexual 

desire for a motivational factor when it is more an operational 

necessity. Moreover, research suggests that women and girls of all 

ages are victims of war rape. In the Democratic Republic of the 

Congo (DRC), females aged five to 80 suffered gang rapes and 

had their genitalia punctured with foreign objects (Hynes 2004); 

in Liberia, 50% of women aged 15 to 70 experienced rape or 

physical abuse during the 1989 – 1997 civil conflict (Hynes and 

Cardozo 2000). 

Ruth Seifert (1996) responds to the sociobiological view 

with rape studies that consistently show that desire for power 

and domination over the victim trumps sexual desire as the 

motivation to rape. Michael Kimmel (2008) argues that crosscultural 

studies provide evidence that gender inequality is the 

primary predictor of gender violence, which clearly includes 

sexual violence by men against women. Thus, sexual violence 

is not hinged on biological drives but on social constructions of 

gender and sexuality. In the context of war, sexual violence tends 

to be enacted by groups with multiple layers of personal and 

collective meaning (Seifert 1996). 

The scope of war rape documented in Rwanda and the 

former Yugoslavia prompted scholarly and popular discourse to 

frame war rape as strategic military policy. Rape as a weapon or 

strategy of war represents an important paradigm shift that places 

sexual violence at the center of scholarly discourse regarding 

war ethics and the perils faced by females in modern conflict. 

Framing war rape as an instrumental act versus an essentialist or 

incidental act is the gateway through which we can deconstruct 

the mechanisms which underlie its use (Buss 2009). 

In 1975, Susan Brownmiller first drew attention to the 

instrumental use of rape in her book Against Our Will: Men, 

Women, and Rape. Brownmiller writes that “[m]an’s discovery 

that his genitalia could serve as a weapon to generate fear must 

rank as one of the most important discoveries” (Buss 2009:148). 

Brownmiller later qualified some of her controversial statements 

and alleged that even though not all men rape, all men benefit 

from the actions of rapists because women’s fear of being raped 

prevents them from challenging the patriarchal order (Pistono 

1988). Brownmiller’s theory is evident in the recent spate of 

retaliatory rapes in the West African nation of Guinea. On 

September 28, 2009, members of the Guinea armed forces 

reacted to women’s political protests with rampant and violent 

rapes in broad daylight. One woman reported being told by 

a soldier who raped her that “a woman’s place is in the home” 

and that the rapes were intended to intimidate women into 

surrendering their shred of political power to the men in charge 

of the country (Quist-Arcton 2009). 

In the former Yugoslavia, the war rape committed by 

Bosnian Serb soldiers exemplifies sexual terrorism since the 

primary, although indirect, targets were the male enemy soldiers. 

Rape became a way to humiliate enemy forces through their 

inability to protect the community (Farr 2009; Gottschall 2004; 

Shanks and Shull 2000). From Yugoslavia to the DRC, extensive 

war rape destroys the social fabric because raped women are 

frequently ostracized by their communities (Shanks and Shull 

2000). Still, locating proof of war rape’s official sanctioning is 

extremely difficult. The clearest evidence comes from Rwanda, 

when Hutu leaders gave explicit orders for their soldiers to rape 

Tutsi women (Mukamana and Brysiewicz 2008). As a result, the 

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), the court 

charged with prosecuting war crimes committed during the 1994 

civil war, characterized the widespread rape of Tutsi women as 

“genocidal rape” (Buss 2009). 

However, Doris Buss (2009) cautions against ceasing our 

analysis of war rape at the point of genocidal or strategic rape. 

By framing rape as a weapon that one side uses against another, 

we enact a “rape script” that “naturalize[s]” sexual violence and 

ignores rapes that contradict the rape script (Buss 2009:155). 

According to the record for the ICTR, genocidal rape is defined 

as a crime against a particular group: Tutsi women. It therefore 

renders some of the sexual violence invisible; for example, the 

rape of Hutu women, Tutsi men and boys, and young Hutu boys 

who were punished for resisting acts of violence. Although these 

rape dynamics did not occur along the same magnitude as did 

the rapes of Tutsi women, it is troubling that the victims were 

ignored by the ICTR (Buss 2009). 

The concept of strategic or genocidal rape is an improvement 

on sociobiological theory, but it still misses the deeper truth 

that cultural norms about women’s bodies and women’s 

sexuality underlie the use of rape as a viable or effective weapon. 

Consistent with Mukamana and Brysiewicz (2008), it is the 

“public ownership of women’s sexuality that makes it possible to 

translate an attack against one woman into an attack against an 

entire community” (P.383). 

Macro-level social systems that subordinate women become 


misogynistic when internalized and acted out with sexualized 

brutality. Seifert (1996) emphasizes the hostility towards women 

that becomes evident when the most vicious forms of war rape 

concentrate on the uniquely “feminine” parts of the body: 

women whose breasts are sliced off, stomachs slashed open, 

and vaginas brutalized during or after the rape. The 200,000 

women and girls kidnapped by the Japanese armed forces for 

sexual slavery during World War II were mutilated to prevent 

pregnancy, thus making them constantly available, and were 

referred to as “war supplies” (Hynes 2004:438). 

Parallel with this dynamic is the appropriation of women’s 

bodies as symbols for the larger tribal/ethnic/religious or political 

collectivity (Buss 2009; Turshen 2000). Women’s bodies are 

targeted for sexual violence as combatants attempt to wreak 

havoc on the existing social fabric and inscribe a new social and 

political ideology (Buss 2009; Henry 2006). A consistent theme 

throughout is the abrogation of women’s full selfhood and the 

characterization of women as property – whether they “belong” 

to their husbands, fathers, communities, or the enemy (Turshen 

2000). 

A recent and revealing study connected the extant economic 

and political conditions with entrenched cultural norms and the 

gendered strain produced by prolonged armed conflict. Maria 

Baaz and Maria Stern (2009) analyze war rape and masculinity 

through interviews with members of the Congolese state 

armed forces, one of the main perpetrators of rape in the fragile 

country’s long civil war. The soldiers identified two types of rape, 

“lust rape” and “evil rape” (Baaz and Stern 2009:500,511). 

Lust rape is associated with male sexual desire and viewed 

by soldiers as more excusable than evil rapes. However, the 

interviews drew attention to a deeper motivation that is reflected 

by the soldiers’ feelings of failure to embody the prescribed 

expectations of militarized masculinity. The idealized portrait 

of the masculine soldier combines sexual potency with the 

provision of material wealth for the family. Women are expected 

to provide sexual favors in return for material goods, meaning 

that their sexuality is defined in service of men, and for a 

price. In the context of a dysfunctional and corrupt military 

institution, soldiers often go unpaid which leaves their families 

bereft of support and women with little obligation to satisfy their 

husbands’ sexual desire. Hence, the ideal militarized masculinity 

is unattainable given the conditions in which the soldiers live 

(Baaz and Stern 2009). 

Persistent poverty, “fueled by war and backed by patriarchal 

or racist rationalizations” breaks down social control mechanisms 

that usually guard against massive sexual violence (Farr 2009:22). 

Drawing upon beliefs that women ought to sexually fulfill men, 

rape serves to reinforce their masculinity as the sexually potent 

fighter. That women do not own their sexuality or control over 

their bodies is exemplified in an account given by one soldier, 


who claimed that a rape victim should have agreed to have sex 

with at least one or two of the soldiers who gang-raped her. In 

peace-time, rape is considered an aberration; in war, it is normal 

(Baaz and Stern 2009). This war-normative view of rape is not 

confined to the DRC; similar sentiments were reported by local 

villagers in the Côte d’Ivoire (Farr 2009). 

Evil rape is viewed as distinct from lust rape because, as 

one soldier cogently reflects: “If it is only lust, then why do you 

sometimes kill her?” (Baaz and Stern 2009:511). Evil rape is 

born from anger that is then directed at the enemy population 

through its women, often committed in the fog of drugs and 

alcohol. But the soldiers’ themes of poverty, frustration, and 

sense of powerlessness that underlie evil rape are the same as 

those that underlie lust rape, even though they are interpreted 

differently by the soldiers interviewed. The explanations for both 

types of rape are molded out of particular gendered discourses 

which combine unattainable ideals of masculinity, sexualized 

femininities, failing socioeconomic institutions, and a corrupt 

military, all within the context of a bloody and protracted civil 

war that has claimed 5.4 million lives (Baaz and Stern 2009). 

The research conducted by Baaz and Stern (2009) is 

extremely useful for highlighting how larger societal processes 

often get obscured in the analysis. Meredith Turshen (2000) 

agrees that sexual violence has social, political, and economic 

roots. In her assessment of war rape committed during the 

Ugandan civil war, Turshen (2000) points to the history of 

colonial practices that engendered regional and ethnic rivalries. 

Hostilities are further complicated by present-day transnational 

entities that mandate “structural adjustment” programs, divert 

money away from essential social programs, interfere in the 

political process, and sell weapons (Buss 2009; Farr 2009; 

Turshen 2000). The recent war in Uganda pits the Ugandan 

government forces in alliance with the rebel Sudanese People’s 

Liberation Army against the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army which 

is allied with the Sudanese government. Women are targeted as 

the wives and mothers of enemy soldiers, punished as gendered 

vessels for factional reproduction. This twisted logic also provides 

the indefensible justification behind appropriating women in 

the sexual service of the enemy group. The commoditization of 

women is indicated in the following narrative from Uganda: 

In the dawn of peace, governments have to determine how 

to provide justice for past atrocities while ensuring that 

the concept and practice of justice is enfolded into future 

governance; what law professor Martha Minnow eloquently 

calls, “steering a path between too much memory and too 

much forgetting” (Franke 2006:813). The importance 

of prosecuting rape as a war crime should not be 

underestimated; but prosecution’s preventive strength is 

limited (Hargreaves 2001). A feminist theory of war rape 

emphasizes the structural arrangements that form the

foundation for sexual violence and so reconstituting these arrangements assumes critical importance. 

Numerous authors agree that gender inequalities are a predictor of armed conflict (Caprioli 2000; Farr 2009; Melander 2005), 

which in turn, predicts sexual violence (Hynes 2004; Kimmel 2008). Mary Caprioli (2000) tests this hypothesis using the Militarized 

Interstate Dispute dataset, which maintains records of 2187 international disputes involving 159 states. Her study design calculates 

gender equality in terms of social equality (determined by fertility rates, which are closely linked with female social status), political 

equality (with respect to the percentage of women in parliament and the number of years since women were given the right to vote), 

and economic equality (indicated by the percentage of women in the labor force). The dependant variable, state militarism, was assessed 

using a hostility level that ranged from one (absence of state militarism) to five (outright war). Using sophisticated statistical analysis, 

Caprioli (2000) presented her findings in a digestible two-state comparison. Her findings are summarized in Table One. 

Although the results are premised on international disputes, they offer important guidance for mitigating both civil and crossborder 

disputes. The domestic inequalities that Caprioli (2000) cites are analogous to those that render women vulnerable to war rape 

in many conflict configurations. A comparable study conducted by Erik Melander (2005) focused on intrastate conflict and found 

similar results. 

TABLE ONE: Impact of Gender Equity Variables on State Militarism 

Independent Variables 

Two-State Comparison 

Change in 

Independent Variable 

Effect on State Militarism 

Political Equality 

Years of Suffrage Double the number of years 4.94 times less likely to use violence 

% Women in Parliament Five percent decrease 4.91 times more likely to use violence 

Social Equality 

Fertility Rate One third decrease 4.67 times less likely to use violence 

Economic Equality 

Percent Women in Labor Force Five percent increase 4.95 times less likely to use violence 

Source: Caprioli, Mary. 2000. “Gendered Conflict.” Journal of Peace Research 37:51-68. 

Understanding the constellation of factors that produce war rape is vital for the enactment of sound polices. The policy 

implications that follow from Caprioli’s study stress the need for stronger incentives to increase women’s political participation, especially 

in light of the fact that most states contain a disproportionately small number of women in politics. The Melander (2005) study also 

shows a connection between women’s political participation and gender equality. The connection did not appear to be predicated on a 

particular quota of female representation and was strengthened by the presence of institutional democracy (Melander 2005). 

In Uganda, women perform 80% of the agricultural labor but own as little as 7% of the land (Turshen 2000). Therefore, in 

certain regions programs that advance women’s property rights will help secure their economic independence (Jennings and Swiss 2001; 

Turshen 2000). Most importantly, improving females’ access to education increases their social status and economic independence 

(Melander 2005). Implementing structural reforms may not prevent every instance of war or war rape, but it will undoubtedly help to 

repair the broken and failed systems that provide the fertile soil for misogynistic sexual violence to occur on a massive scale. 

At their core, egalitarian societies are modeled on norms of respect and reject the hierarchical structures that privilege or subordinate 

certain groups. In large part, this is why heightened gender equality is a predictor of internal and international peace, because it 

typically functions alongside general social equalities. This suggests that a grass roots approach to challenging gender inequalities must 

work alongside policy enactment. Policy mandates will only be successful when they are accompanied by efforts to change popular 

cultural norms and customs (Melander 2005). 

Sally Engle Merry (2006) reminds us that privileged groups will resist the major social adjustments necessary to prevent gender and 

sexual violence. To that end, and in line with Melander (2005), local non-governmental organizations are essential to the task of using 

of using local language to challenge local customs. To advance, human rights language concerning the rights and protection of women 

must be encased “within local contexts of power and meaning” (Merry 2006:1). 

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Sierra Leone (TRC) constituted in 2002 is one example of how local activists can 


challenge the deep-seated gender inequalities that contribute to 

rampant and violent war rape. The final report produced by the 

TRC embodied the feminist perspective and found that sexual 

violence was predicated on women’s traditionally low social status 

combined with men’s perception of women as property and 

symbols of collective honor. In response, the TRC mandated 

that women occupy 30% of parliamentary seats and struck down 

a variety of gender discriminatory laws concerning the right of 

women to inherit property (Franke 2006). Hopefully, this effort 

by the TRC to spearhead important change will be backed up 

on the local level, in particular, to promote education for women 

and girls. 

War rape is an act of unspeakable violence but it is an 

act that draws its power from the social, cultural, political, 

and economic structures that frame our existence as gendered 

creatures. The sociobiological perspective peers through a very 

narrow lens at but one element of the individual and offers no 

evidence to explain why that individual crosses the line from 

consensual intercourse to rape. Strategic rape theory offers 

greater, yet not full, explanatory power; but as a stand-alone 

theory it offers little in the way of prevention. 

Feminist theory attempts to defuse war rape at its source 

and tells us how. The analysis shows that gender inequalities 

increase the likelihood of armed conflict and that armed conflict 

frequently results in sexual violence against women. It enlarges 

our sphere of understanding concerning the relationship between 

society, war, and gender violence. Mitigating gender inequalities 

not only reduces the potential for armed conflict, but also reduces 

the likelihood that when conflict occurs it will result in sexual 

violence. It is not a linear, but a multi-faceted relationship. 

Importantly, the application of a feminist analysis of war rape 

extends beyond sexual violence in highly patriarchal societies and 

can be utilized to examine more nuanced gender inequalities. 

Making needed changes will not be easy; they will be resisted. 

But resistance is perhaps a sign that we are on the right track. 


References 

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53:495-518. 

Buss, Doris E. 2009. “Rethinking ‘Rape as a Weapon of War’.” 

Feminist Legal Studies 17:145-163. 

Caprioli, Mary. 2000. “Gendered Conflict.” Journal of Peace 

Research 37:51-68. 

Farr, Kathryn. 2009. “Extreme War Rape in Today’s Civil-War- 

Torn States: A Contextual and Comparative Analysis.” 

Gender Issues 26:1-41. 

Franke, Katherine M. 2006. “Gendered Subjects of Transitional 

Justice.” Columbia Journal of Gender and Law 15:813-828. 

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Conflict.” International Studies Quarterly 49:695-714. 

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Experience of Genocide Rape Survivors in Rwanda.” Journal 

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Anthropogenic 

Causation and 

Prevention Relating to 

the Holocene Extinction 

Jesse S. Browning 

English 225 

Introduction 

The tumultuous state of the biosphere is largely attributable 

to anthropogenic input and several aspects of this complex 

situation are worthy of consideration. The aim of this paper is 

to further understand the loss of biodiversity that is currently 

taking place. Opinions tend to differ regarding the relative 

importance of issues of such magnitude. The current loss 

of biodiversity is evolutionarily important as it is currently 

impacting the trend of life on Earth. 

In order to achieve a better understanding of said issue it 

is useful to examine the estimates regarding both current, and 

background, rates of extinction—as well as how Homo sapiens 

factor into the equation. First, we must account for the idea 

that human values shape our goals in regards to maintaining 

biodiversity. Then, explore how anthropogenic factors may 

be directly influencing this phenomenon by surveying some 

human causes of biodiversity loss. Subsequently, it is possible 

to look at courses of action that will uphold human values 

regarding our relationships with other organisms and natural 

processes. 

Importance of Biodiversity 

Preservation of biodiversity is essentially the preservation of 

nature and is considered important based primarily on human 

values. Jepson and Canney (225-226) present a well-compiled 

list of the preeminent reasons for maintaining biodiversity, or 

“nature,” they state: 

(1) aesthetic and intellectual contemplation of nature is 

integral to the biological and cultural inheritance of many 

peoples (Wilson, 1984); 

(2) humans lack the right to cause knowingly the extinctions 

of another life form (Leopold, 1949); 

(3) species are critical components of the healthy ecosystems 

necessary to support economic and social development 

(Ehrlich & Ehrlich, 1992); and 

(4) it is prudent to maintain the Earth’s genetic library from 

which society has derived the basis of its agriculture and 

medicine (Myers, 1979). 

The first reason highlights the cultural importance 

of nature. The existence of organisms are an integral part 

of human cultures; many flora and fauna are essential to 

human livelihoods, traditions, art, and aesthetically pleasing 

natural environments. The idea that the “observation and 

contemplation” of the natural world has essentially shaped 

many aspects of human civilization implies that loss of nature 

will in turn have a detrimental impact on Humanity (Jepson 

and Canney, 2001). This establishes one reason why humans 

value conservation of nature. 

Second, it is unethical for human beings to drive other 

species to extinction. This belief implies that the human 

capacity for compassion, and the propensity for people to be 

compassionate towards other organisms, is one of the “tools” 

that conservationists often use in the name of conservation. 

Conservationists focus efforts on what are considered 

“charismatic” creatures. Charismatic creatures are those species 

considered by many to be cute, cuddly, or beautiful animals 

such as Pandas, Tigers, and Polar Bears, etc. 

Third, is the importance of socioeconomic matters as 

they relate to the natural world. The relationship between 

the health and function of the natural world, ecosystems, 

and the health and function of societies and their economies 

is inextricable, and often overlooked. In order to continue 

to enjoy the benefits of functional societies and economies, 

humans must devote more energy towards maintaining 

healthful ecosystems. Biotic and abiotic natural resources are 

an integral part of human activities, and as these resources 

diminish, so will the condition of society. Some maintenance 

of the natural world that sustains humanity is unavoidable. 

Lastly, agriculture and medicine are both highly derived 

from organisms, especially flora. As we decrease the numbers of 

plants and animals, we also decrease the possibilities of finding 

new ways in which these organisms can benefit humanity. 

Extinction Rate Estimates 

Presented extinction rates often compare current and 

background estimates. Extrapolations from available data 

tend to yield variable results due to limitations inherent to 

establishing both current and background rates of extinction. 

It is suggested that we may currently be experiencing a mass 

extinction, which is defined as a loss in greater than 60% of 

species within one million years. The definition itself is difficult 

to apply due to the large temporal scale and reliance on an 

estimated total number of species. 


There is much uncertainty in establishing extinction rates 

because historical extinction rate estimates are dependent 

on the fossil record, and therefore subject to biases and gaps 

found within the fossil record. The current rate estimates 

also have limitations, mainly that we really do not know how 

many species existed. Estimates for currently extant species 

range widely “between 3 million and 30 million” (May 1990; 

Erwin 1991; Gaston 1991 [Regan 2001]). This illustrates 

the great amount of uncertainty in such estimates. Similarly, 

the fossil record offers little insight into numbers of species 

that were present since life began on Earth—extinction rate 

estimates should therefore be considered critically. Extinction 

rate estimates which are often presented have the ability to 

grab the attention of people and raise concern over the state of 

biota. Critical observers should realize that such estimates are 

potentially inaccurate. 

The authors of the article “The Currency and Tempo of 

Extinction,” feel confident enough in their interpretation of 

available data to conclude: “There is little doubt that species 

are going extinct extremely rapidly and that we are in the 

midst of a major extinction interval” (Regan 8). Such a 

statement is supported by data suggesting “that there have been 

approximately 490 animal extinctions and 580 plant extinctions 

recorded globally since 1600” (May et al. 1995). The available 

data also suggest that the frequency of these extinctions has 

increased dramatically in the past 100 yrs (Regan 1). There is a 

consensus that we are in a period of rapid extinction, and that 

humans are partly responsible. 

Anthropogenic Causation 

Human activities have greatly impacted many of the 

other organisms on earth. Such processes include pollution, 

overexploitation, introduction of invasive species, habitat 

destruction, and disease. Introduced non-native, or “invasive” 

species have had a tremendous impact on native species that did 

not co-evolve with such competitors or predators—resulting 

in the introduction invasive species and habitat fragmentation. 

As a result, the native species exhibit naiveté and rarely out 

compete the recently introduced species. One profound 

example of this is birds on islands where predators were 

previously absent (Blackburn 2005). 

European arrival on oceanic islands has resulted in the 

introduction of mammalian predators. There is a positive 

correlation between this phenomenon and bird species decline 

(Blackburn 2005). Introduced cat and rat species top the 

list of detrimental introduced predators, and these predator 

populations increase the extent of species decline. Nonmammalian 

predators have had a destructive effect on animal 

populations as well. The introduction of the brown tree snake 

(Boiga irregularis) is a striking example of this. The arrival of 


this invasive species correlates to a dramatic decline in both 

appreciable habitat reduction and extinction among native 

bird species on the island of Guam (Savidge 1987). Habitat 

destruction, more specifically habitat fragmentation has had 

a similarly negative impact on numerous species. Habitat 

fragmentation increases extinction thresholds of selected species, 

and in the wake of habitat fragmentation, species subsequently 

require greater habitat areas to remain viable (Fahrig 2002). 

Anthropogenic Prevention 

There are numerous ways to approach the problem of 

conserving biodiversity. One of the more prominent global 

approaches is that of hotspot identification. Hotspots are areas 

that exhibit high levels of endemism, species richness and suffer 

from habitat degradation (Reid 1998). Twenty-five of these 

regions have been identified worldwide. 

The general aim of the hotspot approach is to maintain 

the greatest number of species for the least cost. This objective 

is fine for a private organization such as Conservation 

International; governments and other agencies that implement 

conservation efforts, however, must consider the values of 

the people they represent. A narrow objective such as that of 

the hotspot approach might fail to account for many of these 

human values (Jepson 2001). Humans tend to place different 

values on different species due to biases based on cultural 

importance. The hotspot approach fails to differentiate between 

the relative values of individual species. 

Another program aimed at maintaining biological 

diversity is the GAP analysis program. This program is not 

yet global, instead it functions primarily in the United States. 

Considerable headway has been made in mapping the biological 

resources of the country on a state-by-state basis (Jennings 

1995). This proactive approach compiles data concerning 

extant species and their current levels of protection. 

From this data, it is evident where the ‘gaps’ in 

conservation are. In an effort to achieve representativeness 

in conservation, underrepresented species and habitat types 

can thus be given additional attention. Through a better 

understanding of the biological inventory in the country, the 

GAP program is then able to influence land management 

practices. An interesting element of this proactive approach is 

that it attempts to maintain viability of populations before they 

are reduced to the point of becoming endangered or federally 

listed. This approach is important, especially since many 

conservation efforts are reactive (trying to bring species back 

from the brink of extinction or merely working to slow down 

habitat loss). 

Rewilding is another proactive conservation idea. It has 

been hypothesized and argued at length whether or not humans 

were responsible for the extinction of megafauna in Europe,

Australia, the Americas, and on continental islands. In this 

ongoing debate, there appears to be a correlation between the 

arrival of humans and the disappearance of large animals as 

humans dispersed throughout the Americas approximately 

10,000-12,000 years ago (Vernon 1975). 

These large carnivores and herbivores played important 

roles in the pristine ecosystems were once present in 

North America and beyond. In addition to being reactive, 

conservation efforts are often limited by a small temporal 

scale. They typically aim to restore ecosystem processes to the 

way they were no more than several hundred years ago. This 

disparity in temporal scale poses a problem; if ecosystems in 

North America have been degraded for more than 10,000 years, 

and we aim to restore them to a state similar to that before 

the arrival of Columbus (~500 yrs ago), healthy ecosystem 

function is not likely to be achieved. The article, “Pleistocene 

Rewilding: An Optimistic Agenda for Twenty-First Century 

Conservation,” addresses this issue among others, arguing for 

ecosystem restorations including the extinct megafauna, via 

taxon substitutions that once were important parts of landscape 

regimes. 

Interestingly, two conservation efforts have already been 

implemented that may set a precedent for such a seemingly 

radical effort. First, the Giant Vulture or California Condor 

(Gymnogyps californianus) is a species has not only benefited 

greatly, and perhaps even been saved from extinction by 

conservation efforts, but has been re-introduced to parts of 

the historical range that it has not enjoyed due to human 

disturbance since megafaunal extinction. Second, the North 

American Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus) was also brought 

back from the verge of extinction through conservation efforts. 

This time however the “species,” or perhaps more importantly, 

the ecological role that the species once filled, was maintained 

by the introduction of genetically similar sub-species whose 

origins spanned four continents. This success story shows that 

inter-continental taxon substitutions can be an effective means 

of conservation (Donlan et al. 2006). 

Genetic diversity is defined as “any measure of the genetic 

variation at neutral or adaptive loci of a population or a species; 

in other words, how diverse are the populations” (Holderegger, 

Kamm, and Gugerli 799). Genetic diversity is an important 

consideration in conservation of biodiversity. Populations and 

landscapes are dynamic in order for organisms to effectively 

adapt or change to match its changing environment: a certain 

level of genetic diversity must be maintained. Greater genetic 

diversity within a population results in greater ability to adapt 

to changes in the organisms environment. This definition 

introduces the neutral and adaptive nature of genetic diversity, 

and alludes to the idea that we are concerned with varying, 

especially decreased, levels of diversity within species. Neutral 

as well as adaptive variation are important to maintenance of 

populations therefore it is necessary to understand both. 

Neutral loci or genes are those that do not affect an 

organism’s level of fitness, or ability to adapt to it’s changing 

environment. These neutral genotypes are not expressed as 

phenotypes that are subject selective pressures, therefore these 

characters are considered selectively neutral. Neutral genetic 

markers do not offer insight into the “adaptive or evolutionary 

potential of populations or species.” (Holderegger, Kamm, 

and Gugerli 798). They do however provide information 

about other aspects of population dynamics such as gene flow 

that should not be discounted while considering the adaptive 

potential of populations. 

Adaptive genetic variation is very important to maintaining 

viable populations in that it does have a direct impact on fitness. 

When environmental factors change, a greater range of genes 

provides for a greater possibility that organisms will be present 

that are fit for the newly emergent environment. When the 

population is small and genetic diversity is low, environmental 

change is more likely to have drastic consequences. Thus 

conservation efforts should strive to maintain maximum levels 

of genetic variation within species. 

Conclusion 

Though it is difficult to ascertain accurate background 

or present rates of extinction, it is widely accepted that we 

are experiencing a high extinction rate resulting in loss of 

biodiversity. It is also accepted that this alarming progression 

is due in part to human activity. This concept may be thrown 

around too liberally but must not be ignored (Jepson 2001). 

As humans we have the ability to drive species extinct, 

and have been doing so for quite some time. Conversely, we 

have the ability to slow down, stop, or possibly even reverse 

this disturbing trend. And if we decide this is what we value, 

we should utilize available knowledge and resources in order 

to maximize conservations efforts—through hotspot approach, 

GAP Analysis, and others, species can possibly be saved (Mech 

1996; Doerner et al. 2005). 

It is important to diversify our efforts and refrain from 

relying too heavily on one approach and conservationists should 

broaden their efforts tremendously. It is prudent to examine 

how well such efforts support the values of people that are 

affected by their implementation, because once decisions are 

made, there may be no recourse (Kati et al. 2004). 

When considering conservation methods, maximum 

effectiveness must be strived for as outlined by Kati et al. There 

are different approaches to conservation: the most effective 

means of achieving the desired outcome should be explored to 

the greatest extent that is feasible based on availability of time 

and resources. In many cases, time is the primary variable when 


establishing reserves or taking similar measures to maintain 

biodiversity. 

The current methods employed in maintaining, preserving 

and restoring ecosystems fall short in many ways. They are 

often limited both spatially and temporally. While economic 

and political factors often limit spatial scale, bigger (yet 

well planned and managed) reserves are potentially more 

beneficial—this idea carries over into the temporal realm. 

While conservation efforts often aim to restore ecosystems 

to the state they enjoyed 50-100 years ago (or more ambitiously, 

to the way they were when Columbus discovered the Americas), 

this is often inadequate. Conservationists should strive to 

expand the geographic boundaries of conservation efforts, 

and temporal boundaries as well, if we wish to appreciate the 

benefits that healthy functioning ecosystems have to offer all 

species, including our own. Fortunately, precedents have been 

set that lead the way for recognition of much larger temporal 

and spatial scales that span epochs and continents respectively. 

This is no easy task, and will require outreach and education in 

order to appeal to the masses. 

Through examination, humans may arrive at the 

conclusion that maintaining biodiversity does not fit into our 

values. All of the species that we now value, and exploit, are the 

result of evolutionary processes since the last great extinction. 

Perhaps we should cast aside this idea of slowing, preventing, or 

reversing a mass extinction and simply let nature run its course. 

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“They’re OK if They’re 

Our S.O.B’s” 

United States involvement in the 

1954 Guatemalan Coup d’état 

Robert Franklin 

History 383 

The United States Cold War history is shrouded in 

secrecy, and when revealed, it is approached with feelings of 

shame, anger, and frustration at events perpetuated by the U.S. 

government and foreign interests. Peering into recently opened 

Central Intelligence Agency documents and the memoirs of 

those prominent individuals in the Truman and Eisenhower 

Administrations, casts new light on the U. S. role in shaping 

the emerging governments of underdeveloped nations in Latin 

America. Of these, the 1954 Guatemalan Coup d’état bears 

an obvious U. S. signature, both in the particular form of the 

coup (similar tactics were used in Iran in 1953) and the colossal 

misunderstandings in which the Coup succeeded. The U. S. 

misjudged the socialist reforms and communist presence in 

Guatemala’s new revolutionary government as the work of 

international communism looking to establish a Latin American 

Kremlin that would destabilize the United States economic and 

political interests in Latin America. The U.S. felt this view gave 

them the justification to instigate the 1954 Coup d’état that, 

due to a crucial lack of military support for the revolutionary 

government, replaced the Jacobo Arbenz administration with 

the U.S. supported Castillo Armas. This intervention by the 

U. S. in overthrowing a democratically elected government ran 

counter to its pro-democracy rhetoric, but fit perfectly in the 

line of Cold War foreign policy that sought to protect, at any 

cost, U.S. hegemony in the Western hemisphere. 

From independence to the establishment of a 

democratically elected government in 1944, Guatemala 

progressed through a series of dictators. In 1872, a liberal 

government under President Justo Rufino Barrios took power, 

marking a transition from a largely internal and atrophied 

economy to nascent industrialization and foreign investment. 1 

Barrios established freedom of religion on March 15, 1873, in 

an attempt to weaken the control of the Catholic Church, while 

simultaneously encouraging immigration from “protestant and 

1 Virginia Garrard Burnett, “Protestantism In Rural Guatemala, 1872- 

1954,” Latin American Research Review 24, no. 2 (1989): 127. 

modern countries” such as the United States and Germany. 2 

Barrios hoped that an influx of Protestant missionaries would 

bring the values and appetites of their capitalist societies 

with them to Guatemala and act as a subtle influence on the 

Guatemalan people. 

Pro-western reforms by the “liberals” had the effect of 

changing land ownership, but not in a way that benefited the 

majority of the population 3 . The system of unequal distribution 

of land was a major cause of the 1944 revolution and the issue 

of land reform is crucial to understanding the events leading up 

to the 1954 Coup. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth 

centuries, Caudillos (elite landowners) and the government 

increasingly sold land to foreign business interests in the banana 

and coffee export markets. These companies offered low wages 

and relied on a system of forced labor to staff the ever-growing 

Latifundias, or large scale export farms 4 . The power of export 

agriculture in Guatemala cannot be overstated—at the time of 

the 1944 revolution bananas and coffee grown for export made 

up 90% of agricultural production. 5 Bananas were the majority 

of crops grown on these Latifundias, and require periodic 

rotation on different plots of land to fallow, making large 

scale ownership of prime agricultural land necessary by export 

companies. Ethnic Mayan Indians often owned very small 

plots of agriculturally poor land, or Minifundias. 6 Due to the 

shortage of land available for personal cultivation, Minifundias 

were heavily planted on with no room to fallow, creating poor 

soil conditions and an ever increasing reliance on the poor 

wages provided from agricultural labor. 

The United Fruit Company, or UFCO, was the main 

exporter of bananas in Guatemala, and the source of serious 

resentment from the population and later Arevalo and Arbenz 

governments. From its formation in 1899, UFCO, known 

in Guatemala as el pulpo (the octopus), worked to secure a 

very profitable and monopolistic business environment in 

Guatemala. UFCO was the largest private landowner in 

Guatemala with just over three million acres, bringing its 

total property to more than the combined holdings of half of 

Guatemala’s landowning population. 7 UFCO garnered an 

exclusive contract to transport the country’s mail to the United 

States, owned 690 out of 719 miles of railroad track and the 

shipping company (the International Railways of Central 

2 Burnett, “Protestantism In Rural Guatemala,” 128. 

3 Ibid, 127. 

4 José M. Aybar de Soto, Dependency and Intervention: The Case of 

Guatemala in 1954, (Boulder: Westview Press, Inc., 1978), 160 

5 Richard H. Immerman, The CIA in Guatemala: The Foreign Policy of 

Intervention, (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1982), 30. 

6 Aybar de Soto, Dependency and Intervention, 160. 

7 Immerman, The CIA In Guatemala, 71. 


America or IRCA), built and maintained the telegraph system 

and owned the wharves at both of Guatemala’s ports in the 

Pacific and Caribbean. 8 Control of the railroad company 

meant that UFCO “arbitrarily increase[d] the costs of all its 

competitors by raising transportation rates,” while keeping their 

own rates low 9 . In one of the largest abuses of its influence on 

Guatemalan politics, UFCO, in 1936, extracted from President 

Jorge Ubico a contract that stipulated a ninety-nine year lease 

on its land holdings, freedom from almost all taxes, import 

duties, regulation, and the ability to severely undervalue its 

property tax holdings (an issue that would cause problems 

during the Arbenz administration). The tentacles of el pulpo 

reached deep into the fabric of Guatemala; the monopolistic 

control of the economy combined with their heavy political 

influence bred an anti-Ubico and anti-foreign investment 

sentiment that culminated in the Revolution of 1944. 

The Revolution of 1944 ended a period of Guatemalan 

history filled with a succession of dictators and strongmen. The 

last of these, Jorge Ubico (president from 1931-1944), started 

his reign with the support of the Caudillos and the military, 

but thirteen years of massive concessions to foreign companies 

(mainly UFCO), imprisonment of political opponents, and a 

general neglect of social inequality combined in a groundswell 

of opposition. Resentment was most profound in the emerging 

middle class of Guatemalan society, located primarily in urban 

areas like Guatemala City. These blue and white-collar workers 

became politically radicalized during the Great Depression 

and were influenced by World War II rhetoric like that in the 

Atlantic Charter, with its call for freedom, advancement of 

social welfare, and self-determination. 10 On October 19, 1944 

a collation of students, intellectuals and young officers, led by 

Major Francisco Arana, Jorge Toriello, and Captain Jacobo 

Arbenz attacked the National Palace and forced the Ubico 

government to step down. 

The United States initial reaction to the October 

Revolution was initially one of support, Sectary of State 

Cordell Hull stated in 1944 that “the United States has no 

intention of interfering in Guatemalan internal affairs.” 11 

The revolutionary government went on to hold “the first 

free election in Guatemala’s history” on December 19, 

1944 12 . That the revolutionary administration held elections 

was promising (previous administrations had often reneged 

on such promises) and even more open was the fact that 

none of the revolutionary leaders sought office the first 

term. Guatemalans overwhelmingly elected Juan Jose 

8 Paul J. Dosal, Doing Business With The Dictators: A Political History 

of United Fruit in Guatemala, 1899-1944, (Wilimington: Scholarly 

Resources Inc., 1993), 2. 

9 Immerman, The CIA In Guatemala, 70. 

10 Immerman, The CIA in Guatemala, 37. 

11 Ibid, 42. 

12 Ibid, 44. 


Arevalo Bermej, an intellectual who had no ties to previous 

administrations. 13 Arevalo was a contradictory person to the 

Truman administration; a staunch democrat and defender of 

capitalism, he nevertheless believed in “Spiritual Socialism” 

or the idea that a “’harmonious society’ could be achieved 

through psychological liberation rather than a redistribution 

of wealth.” 14 15 Arevalos path to modernization and equality 

was through education and labor reform for the Mayan 

majority, thereby hoping to draw this group into government 

participation, and strengthening and widening the support of 

the revolutionary coalition while sapping influence from the 

Caudillos. 

The new Guatemalan Constitution very much resembled 

that of the United States, but to encourage more variety in 

elections it banned foreign or international political parties 

such as Soviet Communism. 16 Arevalo included Guatemalan 

communists in his government begrudgingly; the organizational 

and political experience was something the new government 

needed. 17 Arevalo feared too much communist control in 

his government as it could be linked to the Soviet Union 

and used against him by his enemies. But correcting years of 

underdevelopment and economic exploitation brought on by 

United States business interests forced him to use the people at 

his disposal, realizing the U.S. as a direct threat more pressing 

than communism. 18 Supportive at first, the United States soon 

became critical of the Arevalo administration. The existence 

of communists along with legislation to protect agricultural 

workers on Latifundias (which hurt UFCO interests), and 

Arevalos entrance into the anti-U.S. Caribbean Legion drew 

harsh criticism and ire from the Truman administration19 . 

Arevalo was not popular with the Caudillos, many of 

whom wanted to oust him from power, often accusing him of 

fermenting class warfare. Twenty-five coups were attempted 

during his six years in power—none were successful and in 

November of 1950, Jacobo Arbenz was elected president20 . 

Arbenz faced stiff competition in the election from his partner 

in the revolutionary coup, Major Francisco Arana, until he 

was conveniently eliminated in July 18, 1949. 21 Arbenz soon 

13 Ibid, 45. 

14 Stephen M. Streeter, Managing The Counterrevolution: The United 

States and Guatemala, 1954-1961, (Athens: Ohio University Center for 

International Studies, 2000), 14. 

15 Psychological liberation entailed that “each citizen has a responsibility to 

Guatemala and that the government had a responsibility to each citizen.” 

From: Streeter, Managing The Counterrevolution, 14. 

16 Immerman, CIA in Guatemala, 49. 

17 Ronald M. Schneider, Communism In Guatemala, 1944-1954 (New York: 

Frederick A. Praeger, Inc., 1958), 23. 

18 Ibid, 23. 

19 The Caribbean Legion was an organization comprised of radical 

democrats looking to oust dictators (often U.S. supported) from Latin 

American governments in hopes of creating a united Latin America to 

rival U.S. influence in the hemisphere. 

20 Immerman, CIA in Guatemala, 57. 

21 The revolutionary government has been linked to Arana’s assassination, 

but its role is suspect. Arana was reportedly on his way to uncover a stash

faced even bigger threats to his government as he tried to steer 

Guatemalan policy to one of self-sufficiency and freedom of 

foreign intervention, unfavorable to both foreign businesses and 

United States control in Guatemala. 

Hoping to end the “development of underdevelopment” 

that resulted from Guatemala’s primary focus on export 

agriculture due to the stranglehold of foreign business interests, 

Arbenz set about attempting to modernize Guatemala and take 

the revolution farther than Arevalo 22 . In his inaugural address 

he expressed his desire to “convert Guatemala from a country 

bound by a predominantly feudal economy into a modern, 

capitalist one.” 23 To do this, Arbenz wanted to increase the role 

of government in the lives of citizens—funding educational, 

health, and social programs, while ensuring a smooth transition 

that would keep the masses behind his administration. 

The greatest of all these programs, and the fulfillment of his 

campaign promise, was Decree 900 in 1952. Decree 900, 

which one U.S. scholar has compared to the Homestead Act, 

was influenced by the United Nations General Assembly 

Resolution 401, which “sanctioned the use of agrarian reforms 

as an appropriate method for underdeveloped countries to 

restructure the agricultural sector of the economy.” 24 25 Decree 

900 had two goals: (1) to destroy the latifundo-minifundio 

system; confiscating unused export agricultural lands and 

redistributing it to farmers who could grow staple foods— 

decreasing Guatemalan reliance on imports, and (2) refocusing 

the newly unfettered export agriculture workers into an 

industrial labor workforce. 26 The promise of land reached 

across class and ethnic lines to draw support from the Maya, 

while further alienating the Caudillos, who claimed that 

of weapons hidden by the Caribbean legion for use by Arbenz to arm 

his supporters. His limousine was stopped and “some 20 men jumped 

out from under a bridge, riddling the limousine with submachine gun 

fire. Arana died instantly.” (Immerman, The CIA in Guatemala, 59). 

The driver of the limousine, Lieutenant Chico Palacios, survived and 

claims to have seen Arbenz’s personal chauffeur and Lieutenant Alfonso 

Martinez Estevez (who later occupied several influential positions in 

the Arbenz administration) among the men, linking the assassination 

to Arbenz. Palacios’s survival to give these firsthand accounts, however, 

draws suspicion and questioning of the assassination as the work of 

counterrevolutionaries looking to incite anti-Arbenz sentiment. The 

Arbenz government did not investigate the killing and several days later 

fighting broke out between Arana supports and the government. The 

Arbenz government won thanks to a raised militia made up of workers 

and students. The CIA took this opportunity during the fighting to 

attempt a coup; two U.S. pilots were arrested along with the coup leader, 

Carlos Castillo Armas. Armas was subsequently exiled from Guatemala 

and would not return until 1954 as the leader of that successful coup. 

From: Immerman, The CIA in Guatemala, 60. 

22 Aybar de Soto, Dependency and Intervention: The Case of Guatemala in 

1954, 6. 


24 Streeter, Managing the Counterrevolution: The United States and 

Guatemala, 1954-1961, 19. 


1954, 170. 

26 Decree 900 only targeted latifundios of over 233 acres; this was meant to 

single out foreign export agriculture companies such as UFCO. From: 

Immerman, The CIA in Guatemala, 64. 

communists were running the Arbenz government. 

The United Fruit Company was the very symbol 

of “Yankee imperialism,” a combination of bribery and 

intimidation used to gain government concessions and 

racist, exploitative treatment of the native population that 

the revolutionary government was trying to excise from 

Guatemala. 27 Because of UFCO’s association with the Ubico 

regime, it was the major target of Decree 900. The bill provided 

compensation for land seized by the government according 

to the property tax value paid. The Arbenz government 

appropriated more than 500,000 acres of UFCO land, and 

when the government offered $1.85 million (the amount on 

the last tax return) UFCO insisted the land was worth $19.35 

million. 28 The Guatemalan government refused to pay and 

UFCO took its claim to the United States government in 1953. 

Economic and political connections between UFCO 

and the United States government in the beginning of the 

cold war are the subject of much axe grinding by scholars; 

however, it was an uneven relationship in favor of the United 

States government. 29 Despite deep personal connections and 

shared ideological affinities, U.S. government officials realized 

that UFCO’s corrupt relationships with Latin American 

dictators and contribution to the underdevelopment in the 

region were directly associated with the U.S. government and 

“Yankee imperialism.” 30 31 The Justice Department during 

the Eisenhower Administration was pursuing an anti-trust 

suit against UFCO, which was suspended in 1954 during the 

Coup d’état but later that year resulted in a conviction against 

UFCO. From the end of the 1940s through the early 1950s, 

UFCO engaged in a vigorous press campaign against the 

Arbenz government in an attempt to win support for timely 

U.S. intervention in the wake of land appropriations under 

Degree 900. 32 The campaign originally focused on the damage 


28 UFCO had delebreatly undervalued the property tax value of the land 

under the agreement reached with Jorge Ubico in 1936. See pg. 4. 

29 See Immerman, The CIA in Guatemala pg. 124 and Schneider, 

Communism in Guatemala pg. 48. The connections between the United 

States and UFCO reach past coincidence and these links could be used to 

explain the acceptance of UFCO control of Guatemala and the delay in 

which UFCO was prosecuted for its anti-trust suit in 1954. 

30 Eisenhower Secretary of State John Foster Dulles previously worked 

for Sullivan and Cromwell, a legal firm that represented UFCO in 

negotiations with Ubico in 1936. Allen Dulles, Director of the CIA 

during the Coup, was also a partner in Sullivan and Cromwell and owned 

a “strong interest” in IRCA. John Cabot, assistant secretary of state for 

inter-American affairs in 1953 and former ambassador to Guatemala 

held a large amount of stock in UFCO. Ann Whitman, the president’s 

personal secretary, was the ex-wife of a UFCO director who was then vicepresident 

for public relations. General Robert Cutler, first special assistant 

to the president for national security affairs and head of the PBSUCCESS 

planning board, had been board chairman of UFCO and its transfer 

bank, Old Colony Trust. Numerous other officials in the Truman and 

Eisenhower administrations had connections to UFCO, ICRA, Old 

Colony Trust, and Sullivan and Cromwell. From The CIA in Guatemala, 

124-125. 

31 The CIA in Guatemala, 74. 

32 Ibid, 111. 


to the company, but finding little sympathy from the Truman 

administration the company decided to link the damage it 

sustained to its Guatemalan operations by the Arevalo and 

Arbenz administrations to the growing U.S. anti-communist 

cold war ethos. This was so successful that by 1953 the New York 

Times declared that the “immediate aims of the [Guatemalan] 

government and Communists are indistinguishable.” 33 Like a 

barometer, U.S. policymakers gauged the relative stability of 

Latin American governments and their willingness to collude 

with U.S. foreign policy interests based on the relationship 

between foreign investment companies and the Latin American 

governments. Companies like UFCO did not want U.S. 

paternalism of their interests—their aim was to make money for 

shareholders. But in 1954, both UFCO and the U.S. wanted the 

removal of the Arbenz government and the return of favorable 

economic and foreign policy conditions. 

The Truman and Eisenhower administrations perceived 

Guatemalan reform actions like Decree 900 not as agriculture 

reform created to undo the unequal distribution of land, 

but as symptoms of an international communist takeover in 

Guatemalan politics. U.S. policymakers used the existence of 

4000 registered Guatemalan communists in 1954 to claim 

widespread communist infiltration of the Arbenz government. 34 

Communists like Jose Manuel Fortuny Arana, the Secretary 

General of the National Agrarian Department, occupied 

key roles in the government and often enjoyed the personal 

support of Arbenz, whose wife was a communist. However, 

this was an organic form of communism that was separate from 

the Soviet version. Guatemalan communists, following the 

teachings of Karl Marx, believed that their country needed to 

develop capitalism before it could reach socialism. 35 The Cold 

War scholar Ronald M. Schneider admitted in 1958 that the 

“Communists seemed preferable to the eternally quarrelling, 

thoroughly opportunistic and often corrupt leaders of the other 

revolutionary parties.” 36 Communist supported programs such 

as state funded compulsory education, workers organization, 

and agriculture reform, connected with many segments of 

Guatemalan society. Arbenz relied on the communists to be a 

core member, of his governmental coalition, a reliance that U.S. 

leaders viewed as promoting international communism. 

The reforms of the revolutionary government threatened 

the goal of United States foreign policy that Guatemala remains 

“a place for capital investment.” 37 Decree 900 represented a 

“radical measure against a United States business” and thus 

33 Ibid, 125. 

34 Schneider, Communism in Guatemala, 1944-1954, 101. 

35 Stephen M. Streeter, “Interpreting the 1954 U.S. Intervention in 

Guatemala: Realist, Revisionist, and Post-revisionist Perspectives,” The 

History Teacher 34, no. 1 (2000): 67. 




Guatemala was “dominated by Communists.” 38 39 This broad 

generalization of communism created categories like that 

of “crypto-Communism,” or those who did not identify as 

communists but allied or sympathized with the communist 

cause, which U.S. policy makers believed were more dangerous 

40 41 

because they were hard to indentify and could be anywhere. 

To replace the Arbenz government without provoking a domestic 

or international outcry, the U.S. needed to link the recent events 

in Guatemala to the United States ideological enemy: the Soviet 

Union. Richard Immerman outlines how this was accomplished: 

The identification of the Soviet Union as the mastermind 

behind the Guatemalan conspiracy presented much less of a 

problem. In the bipolar world of the cold war, United States 

leaders used “Communist” and “Soviet” interchangeably. 

In the words of the Eighty-third Congress’ Senate Foreign 

Relations Committee chairman, Alexander Wiley, “There is 

no communism but the Communism which takes it orders 

from the despots of the Kremlin in Moscow. It is an absolute 

myth to believe that there is such a thing as homegrown 

Communism, a so-called native or local communism.” 42 

Having linked the events transpiring in Guatemala to the 

inroads of international communism via the Soviet Union, 

the Truman administration in 1950 decided on taking greater 

involvement to reinstate United States hegemony in the region. 

Afraid that support to the enemies of Arevalo and Arbenz would 

be seen as Yankee imperialism, the Truman administration 

decided to “withhold favors from the Guatemalan Government” 

which amounted to the suspension of military and economic aid 

in 1950. 43 In 1952, the U.S. denied Guatemala Mutual Security 

Aid while giving generous amounts to its hostile neighbors. 44 

The newly elected Eisenhower administration decided in 

early 1953 to get rid of Arbenz and started planning a Coup 

d’état. Eisenhower administration officials and the CIA prized 

secrecy and covert tactics. They needed to provide an invasion 

force which would engage the Arbenz government in what 

looked like a civil war while using U.S. international power to 

condemn Arbenz for being a Soviet puppet and delaying any 

United Nations or Organization of American States action in 


39 Ibid, 81. 


41 The U.S. ambassador to Guatemala from 1949-1955, Richard Patterson 

recommended a rather nacogdoches method for identifying a communist: 

the “duck test.” “Suppose you see a bird walking around in a farm yard. 

This bird wears no label that says “duck.” But the bird certainly looks like 

a duck. Also, he goes to the pond and you notice that he swims like a 

duck. Then he opens his beak and quacks like a duck. Well, by this time 

you have probably reached the conclusion that the bird is a duck, whether 

he’s wearing a label or not.” From: Immerman, The CIA in Guatemala, 

102. 

42 Immerman, The CIA in Guatemala, 102-103. 

43 Ibid, 109. 

44 Andrew J. Schlewitz, “Imperial Incompetence and Guatemalan 

Militarism, 1931-1966,” International Journal of Politics, Culture and 

Society 17, no. 4 (2004): 599.

Guatemala until the secret Coup d’état ran its course. During 

this time the CIA recruited Carlos Enrique Castillo Armas, a 

Guatemalan exile who had previously tried to overthrow the 

government in 1951, and was living in Honduras trying to build 

a counterrevolutionary force. 45 Armas was everything the U.S. 

government was hoping for in a Latin American ally: a military 

man who was anti-communist, held liberal economic ideas, 

and was pro-Catholic. 46 Later in 1953, Eisenhower appointed 

John Peurifoy ambassador to Guatemala. As “a man of action,” 

Peurifoy would serve as a vital link between the State Department 

and the CIA in Guatemala, and as a democrat he would serve 

as an effective patsy in case the coup failed. 47 48 The State 

Departments most vitriolic attacks against Guatemala came at 

the tenth Inter-American Conference, held in Caracas, Venezuela 

from March 1 to 28, 1954. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles 

established the chief interest of the U.S. at the conference as 

“secur[ing] a strong anti-Communist resolution which would 

recognize Communism as an international conspiracy instead 

of regarding it merely as an indigenous movement.” 49 At the 

conference Dulles proposed that “Communist domination 

or control of any country would justify ‘appropriate action 

in accordance with existing treaties’”—giving the U.S. a legal 

background for intervention. 50 The United States built on its 

reasoning that all communisms are international communism in 

disguise; its existence in Latin America is not voluntary but must 

originate in the Soviet Union. Dulles’s proposition, known as the 

Caracas Resolution, passed with only Guatemala voting against. 51 

By tying the Caracas Resolution with other existing hemispheric 

defense treaties, the United States had diplomatic carte blanche to 

move against Guatemala. 

By mid-1954, Arbenz knew that an invasion led by Castillo 

Armas was only a matter of time. In an attempt to remove the 

reason for United States intervention he proposed arbitration 

between Guatemala and United Fruit in early 1954. 52 When 

this failed, Arbenz took drastic action to secure military aid 

for Guatemala; risking the ire of the United States and his 

own military, Arbenz turned to the Soviets for assistance— 

reinforcing the U.S. claims of Soviet intervention in Guatemala. 

Czechoslovakia agreed to send two thousand tons of WWII 

surplus small arms aboard a Swedish freighter, the Alfhem. 53 

The Alfhem made port in Guatemala but the military, fearful 

of Arbenz arming his civilian supporters, seized the shipment 

in port. The CIA spotted the shipment in Poland, informing 


46 Streeter, Managing the Counterrevolution, 25. 


48 Ibid, 136. 

49 Ibid, 145. 



1954, 240. 


53 Ibid, 155. 

President Eisenhower who decided to invoke the Caracas 

agreement to arrange a meeting of the OAS while simultaneously 

stepping up planning for the Coup d’état. 54 

Castillo Armas and 300 mercenaries crossed the Honduran- 

Guatemalan border in the early hours of June 18, 1954, backed 

up by United States planes, a covert radio station playing anti- 

Arbenz propaganda, and full support of the Catholic Church. 55 

Initally, Armas moved only six miles into Guatemala, called 

for Arbenz’s unconditional surrender, and then moved no 

further. 56 Armas’s planes continued to make bombing runs on 

the capital, Guatemala City, causing panic and fear among the 

populace and the military, the latter knowing that Armas was 

being supplied by the United States. 57 Arbenz decided to use 

diplomatic channels to resolve the situation, as he was hesitant to 

attack an U.S. backed force. On June 19, Guatemalan Foreign 

Minister Guillermo Toriello cabled the UN, asking for the 

Security Council to send an observation team to Guatemala. 58 

The U.S. dominated Security Council voted 10 to 1 (the Soviet 

Union casting the nay vote) in favor of returning Guatemala’s 

complaints to the Inter-American Peace Committee, an arm of 

the Organization of American States, whose members “generally 

share U.S. views [and] a greater degree of control exists.” 59 

Arbenz then called for the military to release arms to his civilian 

supporters, but the military refused and Arbenz, blocked in the 

international system by the U.S. and pressured by his military 

officers, resigned his presidency on June 27, 1954. Stephen M. 

Streeter offers an analysis of the pivotal role the military played in 

the success of the coup: 

Had the high command chosen to fight seriously they could 

have easily crushed Castillo Armas’s ragtag band. Most 

military officers chose to abandon Arbenz, however, because 

they had grown weary of the ethnic conflict triggered by 

54 The discovery of the shipment reads like a page from a spy novel. “Posing 

as a bird-watcher, the agency’s operative in Stettin [Poland] spied what 

he believed to be arms. He then wrote a seemingly innocuous letter to a 

Parisian automobile parts concern. He meticulously pasted a microfilm 

dot over one period. The agent in Paris translated the microfilm message 

into code and immediately transmitted it by shortwave to Washington. 

The message read like the twenty-second prayer of David in the Book of 

Psalms: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Decoded, this 

meant that military supplies were on board the ship.” From: Immerman, 

The CIA in Guatemala, pg. 155. 

55 The three aircraft given to Armas were lost after the first day, and 

upon hearing the news Eisenhower decided to send more the next day. 

Needing to get the planes covertly to Castillo Armas, the CIA working 

with the Eisenhower administration used the services of William Pawley, 

a Latin American businessman currently working for the Eisenhower 

administration. Pawley reportedly handed a briefcase filled with 

$150,000 to the Nicaraguan ambassador, Guillermo Sevilla-Sacasa, who 

purchased the planes from the Pentagon and then flew them to Panama, 

where they were turned over to Armas. From Max Holland, “Private 

Sources of U.S. Foreign Policy, William Pawley and the 1954 Coup d’État 

in Guatemala.” Journal of Cold War Studies 7 no. 4 (2005): 61-62. 


57 Max Holland, “Private Sources of U.S. Foreign Policy, William Pawley 

and the 1954 Coup d’État in Guatemala.” Journal of Cold War Studies 7 

no. 4 (2005): 63. 


59 Ibid, 170. 


the land reform and because they feared that thwarting 

PBSUCCESS would only invite a much larger U.S. military 

intervention. The transition between Arbenz and Castillo 

Armas represented, in reality, military coup, not a mass-based 

revolution against communism. 60 

The Guatemalan military role in the coup was lost to the 

planners of PBSUCCESS who ascribe Armas’s success to U.S. 

support and planning. This shortsightedness came back to haunt 

President John F. Kennedy’s administration as the Bay of Pigs 

invasion was based on the faulty CIA logic overstating the role of 

the U.S. in the 1954 Coup d’état. 

On July 7, 1954 Castillo Armas was elected president by the 

military junta placed in power after Arbenz’s resignation. 61 Armas 

immediately set out to reverse the policies of the revolutionary 

government. He banned the communist party, arrested anyone 

he deemed a communist, reversed the land seizures under Decree 

900, and repealed the constitution of 1945. 62 It was clear that 

Armas wished to be just another dictator in Guatemala’s long 

history of repressive politics. To the U.S. the coup represented 

a “foreign policy panacea,” a way to combat what they viewed as 

international communism, but what was really a democratically 

elected government looking to reverse the long history of 

underdevelopment in Guatemala. 63 This type of foreign 

policy would in the end do the U.S. great harm, as emerging 

governments in Latin America would remember how the U.S. 

treated Guatemala from 1947-1954. 

In 1957, a Guatemalan Embassy official was overheard 

saying to the U.S. State Department that “though it was a 

difficult thing for a Guatemalan to admit, no government could 

survive in Guatemala unless it was acceptable to the United 

States Government.” 64 From independence in 1821 through the 

democratic revolution of 1944, Guatemalan politics saw the rise 

and fall of a series of dictators, most of whom opened the country 

up to exploitative U.S. business interests. The revolution of 

1944 looked to reverse this “development of underdevelopment” 

by instituting a series of social and agrarian reforms that would 

empower both the middle class and ethnic Mayan Indians while 

drawing their support to the struggling government. 65 These 

reforms first brought the Guatemalan government into conflict 

with the United Fruit Company, a powerful U.S. business 

interest with connections to members in the U.S. government. 

Seeing these reforms as a threat to its economic and political 

hegemony in Latin America, the United States noted the presence 

60 Streeter, “Interpreting the 1954 U.S. Intervention in Guatemala: Realist, 

Revisionist and Postrevisionist Perspectives,” 70 


62 Ibid, 198-199. 

63 Holland, “Private Sources of U.S. Foreign Policy, William Pawley and the 

1954 Coup d’État in Guatemala,” 51. 

64 Schlewitz, “Imperial Incompetence and Guatemalan Militarism, 1931- 

1966,” 586. 


1954, 6. 


of communists in the Guatemalan government and condemned 

them with Cold War rhetoric that linked Guatemala to the Soviet 

Union. Decree 900, enacted by the Jacobo Arbenz government, 

was the largest of these agrarian reform and brought the U.S. 

into increased conflict with Guatemala. Cutting off all aid, and 

looking to curtain what it saw as a beachhead of international 

communism, the U.S. government started to take legal and 

covert action against Guatemala. On June 18, 1954 the U.S. 

government supported a coup d’état led by Castillo Armas that 

was ultimately successful in replacing the Arbenz government 

due to a lack of military support to fight the invasion. The 

installation of Castillo Armas provided security for U.S. 

hegemony in Latin America at the cost of self-determination 

for the Guatemalan people and irreparable damage to the U.S. 

reputation in Latin America. 

Bibliography 

Aybar de Soto, José M. Dependency and Intervention: The Case of 

Guatemala in 1954. (Boulder: Westview Press, 1978.) 

Burnett, Virginia Garrard. “Protestantism in Rural Guatemala.” 

Latin American Research Review. Vol. 24, No. 2 (1989): 127- 

142. 

Dosal, Paul J. Doing Business With The Dictators: A Political 

History of United Fruit In Guatemala, 1899-1944. 

(Wilmington: Scholarly Resources Inc., 1993.) 

Holland, Max. “William Pawley and the 1954 Coup D’état in 

Guatemala.” Journal of Cold War Studies. Vol. 7 No.4 (2005): 

36-73. 

Immerman, Richard H. The CIA in Guatemala. (Austin: 

University of Texas Press, 1982.) 

Schlewitz, Andrew J. “Imperial Incompetence and Guatemalan 

Militarism, 1931-1966.” 

International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society. Vol. 17 No. 

4 (2004): 585-618 Schneider, Ronald M., Communism in 

Guatemala, 1944-1954. (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 

Inc., Publishers, 1959.) 

Soderlund, Walter C. “An Analysis of the Guatemalan Insurgency 

and Coup D’état as Techniques of Indirect Aggression.” 

International Studies Quarterly. Vol.14 No. 4 (1970): 335- 

360. 

Streeter, Stephen M. Managing the Counterrevolution: The United 

States and Guatemala, 1954-1961. (Athens: Ohio University 

Center for International Studies, 2000.)------ “Interpreting 

the 1954 U.S. Intervention in Guatemala: Realist, 

Revisionist, and Post-Revisionist Perspectives.” The History 

Teacher. Vol. 34 No. 1 (2000): 61-74.


Can Organic Farming 

Feed the World? 

Perspectives on a Food 

Movement’s Place in World Food 

Security 

Holly Miller 

English 215 

Advances in crop science and mechanization in the 1940s 

ultimately led to what is now known as the Green Revolution. 

Chemical fertilizers and pesticides, hybridization, irrigation 

technology and motorized farm machinery doubled and 

sometimes tripled crop yields, achieving unprecedented food 

security for countless people. However, the high-intensity, 

high-input techniques have come into serious scrutiny because 

of concerns over adverse health affects and environmental 

degradation. With an expected world population of nearly 10 

billion by the year 2050, the debate over how to sustainably 

feed such a multitude of people without destroying the Earth 

has emerged as one of the most important topics of our time. 

Some experts believe that a widespread shift to organic farming 

could both feed the world and restore environmental and 

human health. 1 Their critics argue that there is no way organic 

agriculture, or farming without the use of synthetic fertilizers, 

pesticides, genetically-engineered crops or any other unnatural 

additives, could feed the world—that it simply could not feed 

10 billion people. 2 For others, the issue is not so simple. Many 

experts believe that a combination of high-technology and 

organic techniques provide a more realistic and sustainable 

solution. 3 

1 Catherine Badgley et al., “Organic agriculture and the global food 

supply,” Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems 22, no. 2 (2006): 86-108, 

www.ebscohost.com and Brian Halweil, “Can organic farming feed us 

all?” World Watch 19, no. 3 (2006): 18-24, www.ebscohost.com. and Ed 

Hamer and Mark Anslow, “10 reasons why organic farming can feed the 

world,” The Ecologist, March 1, 2008, http://www.theecologist.org/trial_ 

investigations/268287/10_reasons_why_organic_can_feed_the_world. 

html 

2 Norman E. Borlaug, “Feeding a World of 10 Billion People: The Miracle 

Ahead,” In Vitro Cellular and Developmental Biology, Plant 38, no. 2 

(2002): 221-228, www.jstor.org. and D.J. Connor, “Organic Agriculture 

Cannot Feed the World,” Field Crops Research 106, no. 2 (2008): 187- 

190, www.sciencedirect.com and John J. Miller, “The Organic Myth,” 

National Review 56, no. 2 (2006): 35-37, www.lexisnexis.com. 

3 Klaus Ammann, “Why Farming With High Tech Methods Should 

Integrate Elements of Organic Agriculture,” New Biotechnology 25, no. 

6 (2009): 378-388, www.sciencedirect.com and Pamela C. Ronald and 

Raoul W. Adamchak, Tomorrow’s Table: Organic Farming, Genetics, and 

For those researchers who believe organic agriculture 

(OA) can feed the world, their arguments are often defensive. 

Green Revolution agriculture, or what will be referred to as 

conventional agriculture (CA), has erased hunger problems 

in many areas. Therefore, rejecting CA puts these researchers 

in an awkward position. It is common knowledge that in the 

developed world, OA does not consistently outperform CA; 

otherwise this issue would be moot. The issue at hand is born 

of ecological and agricultural sustainability, and therefore, the 

proponents of a massive conversion to OA must come from the 

position of defending its viability as a supplier of food for 10 

billion people without expanding current agricultural lands. 

Each paper reviewed that supported a massive conversion 

to organic agriculture focused on a few main points. First, they 

addressed the issue of crop yield—many of their critics claim 

OA yields could in no way rival CA yields. Catherine Badgley 

et al. conducted a study comparing average organic yields to 

average conventional yields. 4 They calculated a ratio correlating 

OA yields with CA yields and then applied it to current data 

on world food supply. Both developing and developed areas 

were taken into consideration Although their results indicated 

a decline in yield for developed nations where inputs are high 

(about ninety percent of CA yields), their results for developing 

countries, where current inputs are typically much lower than 

those of developing nations, suggested a significant increase, 

in some cases more than fifty percent greater. 5 Badgley et al. 

wrote, “Our models demonstrate that organic agriculture can 

contribute substantially to a more sustainable system of food 

production.” 6 They add, “[We do not] claim that yields by 

organic methods are routinely higher than yields from greenrevolution 

methods. Rather, the results show the potential 

for serious alternatives to green-revolution agriculture as the 

dominant mode of food production.” 7 Although Pamela C. 

Ronald and Raoul W. Adamchak’s book Tomorrow’s Table 

advocates synthesizing genetic modification with organic 

technology, they wrote that “[…] skilled farmers, using best 

organic practices and technologies, can achieve high yields while 

caring for the environment.” 8 Their point is that OA can rival 

CA in production while bringing the earth back into balance 

ecologically. 

the Future of Food, New York: Oxford University Press, 2008 and Lori 

Ann Thrupp, “Linking Agricultural Biodiversity and Food Security: The 

Valuable Role of Sustainable Agriculture,” International Affairs 76, no. 2 

(2000): 265-281, www.jstor.org. 

4 Badgley et al., “Organic agriculture and the global food supply.” 

5 Ibid, 91. 

6 Badgley et al., “Organic agriculture,”, 94. 

7 Ibid, 94. 

8 Ronald and Adamchak, Tomorrow’s Table, 27. 


In the article, “Can Organic Farming Feed Us All?,” 

Brian Halweil asserts the same position, using several studies 

to support it, including Badgley et al.’s. 9 He cites a study 

conducted by Niels Halberg at the Danish Institute of 

Agricultural Sciences, admitting that OA output would not 

equal CA output in the developed world, but developing 

countries would see an increase. 10 Halweil quotes Halberg’s 

team: “Modern non-certified organic farming is a potentially 

sustainable approach to agricultural development in areas with 

low yields due to poor access to inputs or low yield potential 

because it involves lower economic risk than comparative 

interventions based on purchased inputs and may increase farm 

level resilience against climatic fluctuations.” 11 Ed Hamer and 

Mark Anslow, in their article “10 Reasons Why Organic Can 

Feed the World,” argue that research conducted in the U.S. 

by the University of Essex found that after a period of lower 

yields with OA following conversion from CA, crop yields soon 

returned to normal and even became more productive. 12 These 

findings suggest that poor OA output in developed countries 

may only be temporary, boosting the argument for the massive 

conversion to organic farming by all agriculturalists. 

According to Badgley et al., CA farming used 

approximately 82 million metric tons of synthetic nitrogen 

fertilizer in 2001. 13 They argue that nitrogen-fixing cover crops 

have the potential of providing 58 million metric tons more 

nitrogen than synthetic sources. Halweil cites their findings at 

length in an endnote to his article, while Hamer and Anslow 

go into detail about the dangers of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer’s 

contribution to global warming. They wrote that, “In fact, 

the production of one tonne of ammonium nitrate creates 6.7 

tonnes of greenhouse gases (CO2), and was responsible for 

around 10 per cent of all industrial greenhouse gas emissions 

in Europe in 2003.” 14 They argue that cover crops, and both 

animal and green manure fertilizers increase organic matter in 

the soil. 15 This effectively keeps the damaging carbon dioxide 

from entering the atmosphere. 

Proponents of a massive conversion to OA believe that 

it would serve an economic and social benefit. Hamer and 

Anslow point out that “by its nature, organic production relies 

on labour-intensive management practices.” 16 Their article cites 

a report finding that organic farms create 32 percent more jobs 

than conventional ones in the UK. 17 Hence, the question must 

be: will this labor-intensive process drive up food prices? Brian 

Halweil addresses the issue by citing Niels Halberg’s study, 

9 Halweil, “Can organic farming feed us all?,” 2. 

10 Ibid, 4. 

11 Ibid, 4. 

12 Hamer and Anslow, “10 reasons,” 1. 

13 Badgley et al., “Organic agriculture and the global food supply,” 92. 

14 Hamer and Anslow, “10 reasons,” 2. 

15 Ibid, 2. 

16 Ibid, 4. 

17 Ibid, 4. 


which found that a conversion to OA would have a minimal 

impact on world food prices. 18 He also argues that since OA 

doesn’t require expensive fertilizers or pesticides, it could open 

up the industry to small farms, having a particularly positive 

impact in developing nations. 19 

Cuba’s food system presents the most unlikely argument 

for the conversion to organic farming. When Soviet Russia 

collapsed in 1991, Cuba was left without access to imports of 

food, fuel and fertilizer. 20 The Cuban people were essentially 

forced to revert to manually-driven labor and organic inputs 

in order to feed themselves. In his article, “The Cuba Diet,” 

Bill McKibben wrote, “In so doing they have created what 

may be the world’s largest working model of semi-sustainable 

agriculture, one that doesn’t rely nearly as heavily as the rest of 

the world does on oil, on chemicals, on shipping vast quantities 

of food back and forth.” 21 The point here is to illustrate that 

feeding a nation of people organically can be done—Cuba does 

it every day. 

In sharp contrast to the previous arguments for a transition 

to OA, certain experts believe it could never feed the world, 

and that a massive conversion to OA would require more land 

to produce enough food to feed the burgeoning population. 

In the article “Organic Agriculture Cannot Feed the World,” 

D.J. Connor dives head-first into the argument that OA could 

never be as productive as CA. 22 Connor directly addresses 

Badgley et al.’s research and claims they’ve misinterpreted their 

data. He says they seriously overestimated output and “failed 

to realize that any significant increase in OA from its current 

small base of world agriculture (0.3%) will increase competition 

for limited organic nutrients.” 23 Finally, he cites three studies 

that estimate organic agriculture could only feed a maximum 

of three to four billion people. 24 John J. Miller, in his article 

“The Organic Myth,” accuses proponents of OA to be “enemies 

of environmental conservation” because OA is less efficient 

than CA. 25 Miller argues that the only way to feed upwards 

of 10 billion people is to get more yield from currently farmed 

land, something he believes OA couldn’t accomplish. 26 Nobel 

Peace Prize laureate, Norman Borlaug, in his article “Feeding 

a World of 10 Billion People: the Miracle Ahead,” argues that 

the only way the world will feed such a population is through 

advances in biotechnology, fertilizer and pesticide technology. 27 

He wrote that if the world were to produce the same amount of 

food today without the advances in CA technology since 1961, 

18 Halweil, “Can Organic Farming,” 4. 

19 Ibid, 4. 

20 Bill McKibben, “The Cuba Diet,” Harper’s Magazine 310, no. 1859 

(2005): 61-69, www.ebscohost.com, 61. 

21 Ibid, 62. 

22 Connor, “Organic Agriculture Cannot…,” 187. 

23 Connor, “Organic Agriculture Cannot…,” 188. 

24 Ibid, 187. 

25 Miller, “The Organic Myth,” 37. 

26 Ibid, 37. 

27 Borlaug, “Feeding a World.”

three times more land in the U.S. and China and two times 

more land in India would need to be cultivated to match 1992 

levels. 28 

In the article “Saving the Planet with Pesticides,” John 

Avery simply becomes a clear advocate of Green Revolution 

techniques. Avery writes that “Researchers continue to achieve 

major gains from cross-breeding, chemical fertilizers, and other 

established research approaches.” 29 These experts agree that if 

the world were to go to an all-OA system, agriculture would 

need to expand into natural areas in order to provide enough 

calories to feed the world. 

John J. Miller goes on to argue that there’s no scientific 

data to prove that organic food is healthier; and that it is 

actually less healthy because of fungi, bacteria and animal 

manure that have been found on organic items. 30 He cites 

several examples of organic foods that were found to have 

dangerous amounts of these substances on them, and reminds 

his readers that chemical pesticides would have eradicated 

those dangers. 31 “Conventional wisdom says that we should 

avoid food that’s been drenched in herbicides, pesticides, and 

fungicides. Half a century ago, there was some truth in this: 

sprays were primitive and left behind chemical deposits that 

often survived all the way to the dinner table. Today’s sprays, 

however, are largely biodegradable,” he assures his readers. 32 

Avery echoes this sentiment: “Farmers started with DDT and 

have now progressed to narrow-toxicity, low-volume, rapidly 

degrading pesticides and Integrated Pest Management.” 33 

Critics of OA conversion argue that there is a significant 

lack of natural sources of nitrogen to fertilize enough 

crops to feed the world. Connor once again argues against 

Badgley et al.’s study findings. He says their findings that 

nitrogen-fixing cover crops could fertilize all world crops 

are an overestimation. 34 Connor states that growing a cover 

crop would disrupt production because many of the world’s 

croplands produce cash crops up to 2.5 times per year, especially 

in tropical and sub-tropical areas like Bangladesh. 35 Growing 

a nitrogen-fixing crop would effectively limit the time those 

lands had to produce food crops. Miller addresses the issue of 

fertilizer more plainly: “There just isn’t enough cow poop to go 

around.” 36 He does not consider other natural fertilizers in the 

article, however. Avery argues that sewage sources of nitrogen 

could only equate to two percent of the synthetic nitrogen 

currently used to fertilize crops, and that huge swaths of land 

28 Ibid, 226. 

29 Dennis Avery, “From Saving the Planet with Pesticides,” in The True State 

of the Planet, ed. Ronald Bailey (New York: The Free Press, 1995), 63. 


31 Ibid, 35. 

32 Ibid, 36. 

33 Avery, “Saving the Planet,” 69. 

34 Connor, “Organic Agriculture Cannot,” 188. 

35 Ibid, 188. 


would need to be plowed up to get at new sources of nitrogen. 37 

He concludes that “Moreover, the world cannot realistically 

expect organic farming to grow the same amount of food 

produced by modern agrochemical farming, let alone tripling 

production for the future.” 38 

Some experts believe synthesizing OA and CA methods 

provides the answer to feeding a population of 10 billion 

people. The common definition of organic agriculture prohibits 

the use of unnatural pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers and 

most recently genetically engineered (GE) crops. Advocates 

of synthesized agriculture, or SA, believe the only way to 

realistically preserve the environment, promote human health 

and feed the world is by making compromises. They argue that 

CA practitioners could adopt certain OA techniques to improve 

the sustainability of their system and reduce negative ecological 

impact. Halweil, who figures strongly in the argument for a 

conversion to OA, admits a “middle path” might be a more 

reasonable alternative because it offers a less risky option to 

farmers. 39 

Certified organic agriculture in the United States and 

Europe currently prohibits the use of GE crops. Pamela C. 

Ronald and Raoul W. Adamchak, who co-wrote the book 

Tomorrow’s Table, admit that for organic agriculture to feed 

the world, changes to OA practices would need to be made. 40 

They argue that allowing GE crops in OA is a solution and 

that “GE has the potential to increase resistance of plants to 

insects, diseases, and nematodes, and help plants adapt to 

environmental stresses like drought, flooding, cold, and salt.” 41 

In a response to questions of GE crop safety pertaining to 

human consumption, Ronald, a plant geneticist, states that “the 

fluoridated toothpaste on your toothbrush or the soft drinks in 

your refrigerator likely present greater risks to your health than 

the genetically engineered papaya you had for breakfast.” 42 

Klaus Ammann, in his article “Why Farming with 

High Tech Methods Should Integrate Elements of Organic 

Agriculture,” agrees that GE crops could boost OA production. 

He believes that synthesized agricultural techniques should be 

the goal for attaining a sustainable, environmentally-friendly 

system. Ammann argues that “transgenic crops and all high 

technology practices . . . could very well fit into ecoagriculture 

and, vice versa, that ecoagricultural strategies could very well be 

introduced into high tech agriculture.” 43 

Ammann recognizes the importance of biodiversity to 

protecting the world food supply. He argues that mixed 

cropping, which is a common OA technique, protects crops 

37 Avery, Saving the Planet, 70. 

38 Ibid, 69. 

39 Halweil, “Can organic farming feed us all?,” 6. 



42 Ibid, 87. 

43 Ammann, “Why Farming with High Tech,” 383. 


from pests and preserves soil fertility better than the typical 

CA monoculture system does. 44 Ammann suggests using seed 

mixtures containing a variety of genomes that could be applied 

just as easily as non-varietal seeds on highly-mechanized farms. 45 

Lori Ann Thrupp, in her article “Linking Agricultural 

Biodiversity and Food Security: the Valuable Role of 

Agrobiodiversity for Sustainable Agriculture,” argues that 

preserving biodiversity is essential for protecting food security 

and the environment. 46 She believes that “the model and 

patterns of industrial agriculture and the Green Revolution 

have exacted significant biophysical and socio-economic costs 

and disadvantages in many parts of the world, in both North 

and South.” 47 She says CA monoculture makes crops more 

susceptible to pests and disease, and reminds her readers 

that many insects and fungi that chemicals kill are actually 

beneficial to plants. 48 She believes that moving to and all-OA 

system is not realistic, but incorporating organic techniques 

into CA could improve environmental health and make world 

agriculture a sustainable practice. 49 

The debate over how to increase and maintain world food 

supply is one of the most important issues of our time. Green 

Revolution farming has proved to offer the high yields necessary 

for feeding billions, but its practices undoubtedly contribute to 

climate change and ecological degradation. Organic agriculture, 

when practiced responsibly, can help alleviate environmental 

stresses and contribute to the healing of the earth. However, 

can it realistically feed the 10 billion people who are expected 

to live on this earth by 2050? While some people believe it can, 

others are adamant that it can not, and some people suggest the 

solution is a synthesized system. Regardless of whether there is 

one correct answer or several, the issue is very real and present. 

It must be considered objectively and consistently researched 

so that the world can come to a solution that successfully 

perpetuates the human race and preserves the earth for future 

generations. 

44 Ibid, 382. 

45 Ibid, 382. 

46 Thrupp, “Linking Agricultural Biodiversity,” 265. 

47 Thrupp, “Linking Agricultural Biodiversity,” 269. 

48 Ibid, 272 

49 Ibid. 


Bibliography 

Ammann, Klaus. “Why Farming With High Tech Methods 

Should Integrate Elements of Organic Agriculture.” New 

Biotechnology 25, no. 6 (2009): 378-388. 

www.sciencedirect.com. 

Badgley, Catherine and others. “Organic agriculture and the 

global food supply.”Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems 

22, no. 2 (2006): 86-108. 

Bailey, Ronald, ed. The True State of the Planet: Ten of the World’s 

Premier Environemental Researchers in a Major Challenge 

to the Environmental Movemement. New York: The Free 

Press, 1995. 

Borlaug, Norman E. “Feeding a World of 10 Billion People: 

The Miracle Ahead.” In Vitro Cellular and Developmental 

Biology, Plant 38, no. 2 (2002): 221-228. www.jstor.org. 

Connor, D.J. “Organic Agriculture Cannot Feed the World.” 

Field Crops Research 106, no. 2 (2008): 187-190. www. 

sciencedirect.com. 

Halweil, Brian. “Can organic farming feed us all?” World Watch 

19, no. 3 (May 2006):18-24. www.ebscohost.com. 

Hamer, Ed and Mark Anslow. “10 reasons why organic farming 

can feed the world.” The Ecologist, March 1, 2008. http:// 

www.theecologist.org/trial_investigations/268287/10_ 

reasons_why_organic_can_feed_the_world.html 

McKibben, Bill. “The Cuba Diet.” Harper’s Magazine 310, no. 

1859 (April 2005): 61-69. www.ebscohost.com. 

Miller, John J. “The Organic Myth.” National Review 56, no. 2 

(2006): 35-37. www.lexisnexis.com. 

Ronald, Pamela C., and Raoul W. Adamchak. Tomorrow’s Table: 

Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food. New 

York: Oxford University Press, 2008. 

Thrupp, Lori Ann. “Linking Agricultural Biodiversity and Food 

Security: The Valuable Role of Sustainable Agriculture.” 

International Affairs 76, no. 2 (2000): 265-281.www.jstor. 

org.


The Criminalization of 

Pregnant Women and 

the Illusion of Maternal- 

Fetal Conflict 


Sociology 324 

In the mid-1980s, the criminalization of pregnant drugaddicted 

women came to light as a significant prosecutorial 

trend, with an emphasis on crack-cocaine (Hirschenbaum 

2001). Between 1985 and 1995, prosecutors charged more 

than 200 women with taking drugs while pregnant. Many of 

these women spent time in prison as a result of their arrest 

and some lost custody of their children (Toscano 2005; Lim 

2008). The offenses ranged from delivering drugs to a minor 

via the umbilical cord to child abuse and child endangerment 

(Gustavsson and MacEachron 1997; Lim 2008). According 

to Nora S. Gustavsson (1991), the War on Drugs amounted 

to nothing more than a war on women, in particular, African 

American women. 

Prosecutors cloak their efforts to criminalize women 

with numerous philosophical justifications. Utilitarianism 

presupposes that legal remedies will protect the fetus from harm 

and motivate drug-addicted women to seek treatment; the 

favored outcomes justify the prosecutorial means (Lim 2008; 

Toscano 2005). Arguments for deterrence assume that drugaddicted 

women engage in free and rational decision-making 

analyses and that fear of prosecution will tip the scales in 

favor of drug-abstention. In contrast, Lisa Eckenwiler (2004) 

succinctly suggests that “keen attention to the particulars of 

these women’s lives reveals that freedom is not a fully realized 

ideal” (p.91). Vicki Toscano (2005) draws the distinction 

that retributive justifications apply not just to the form of 

sentencing imposed on convicted women, but also to the 

effects the sentencing has on public discourse concerning 

pregnant women’s responsibilities toward their unborn baby. 

Criminalization transforms a moral responsibility into a legal 

responsibility and promotes the idea that pregnant women who 

take drugs have abandoned this responsibility, are intentionally 

inflicting harm on their unborn baby, and deserve punishment 

(Toscano 2005). 

The attempts to rationalize prosecution emphasize how 

criminalization flourishes within an emergent social discourse 

that conceptualizes maternal and fetal rights in conflict. 

Criminalizing pregnant women characterizes mothers as “agents 

of harm” and considers the interests of the fetus separate to 

those of the mother (Gustavsson 1991:65). The belief in 

mother and fetus as separate entities represents a critical element 

in the ability of prosecutors to charge and convict women for 

crimes against their unborn child. 

The social construction of maternal-fetal conflict effectively 

individualizes women’s responsibility for producing healthy 

babies and ignores structural problems that infringe upon their 

ability to do so (Eckenwiler 2004). This discourse produces 

a variety of negative outcomes for both mothers and babies. 

Research indicates that prosecutions discourage pregnant 

women from seeking treatment for their addiction and prenatal 

care (Gustavsson and MacEachron 1997; Toscano 2005). 

Moreover, fear of prosecution represents a motivating force for 

drug-addicted women to consent to sterilization (Lim 2008). 

In perhaps the most striking example of belief in maternalfetal 

conflict, a non-profit organization named Children 

Requiring a Caring Kommunity (CRACK) emerged during the 

height of the War on Drugs in the mid-1990s and continues to 

offer drug-addicted women $300 upon proof of sterilization. 

Based in California, CRACK claims 39 chapters across the 

mainland United States (CRACK 2009). Although ostensibly 

offering cash to both men and women, their most recent data 

indicate that CRACK paid a total of 912 women in return 

for sterilization compared with 29 men (CRACK 2009). At 

least part of the reason for this discrepancy can be found in the 

prosecutorial bias towards women and the lack of attention 

paid to the effects of male drug taking on the developing fetus 

(Gustavsson and MacEachron 1997; Solomon 1991; Toscano 

2005). Men have little to fear that would convince them to 

permanently trade their reproductive ability for such a paltry 

sum of money. 

This paper reviews the media obsession and questionable 

scientific literature that underlies the prosecutorial trend of the 

past two decades and the concurrent establishment of maternalfetal 

conflict. The maternal-fetal conflict will be revealed as 

a false dichotomy and CRACK exposed as misguided and 

discriminatorily punitive. A paradigm shift is recommended 

towards recognition of the intrinsically shared interests of 

mother and baby and that a better alternative to prosecution 

involves the reallocation of resources to treatment programs and 

prenatal health services. 

The prosecution of pregnant drug-addicted women is 


intimately connected with the manner in which the media 

framed the rise in crack-cocaine. Various media outlets 

depicted drug-addicted women as promiscuous prostitutes 

whose consumption of crack destroyed their maternal instinct 

while they simultaneously produced multitudes of substanceexposed 

babies (Lim 2008; Roberts 2005; Toscano 2005). 

Dorothy Roberts (2005) highlights how the media wove a 

disparaging stereotype of black women into their portrayal of 

the crack epidemic by linking it with high rates of black infant 

mortality – despite the fact that high infant mortality rates 

were recorded long before widespread use of crack. Racial 

biases channeled blame for a complex social problem onto the 

individual backs of poor African American women who were 

prosecuted at a disproportionately high rate (Roberts 2005; 

Solomon 1991). 

Media attention pressured the scientific literature to 

support the idea that prenatal drug exposure represented 

an urgent problem even though the effects on infants were 

not conclusive (Toscano 2005). Nora Gustavsson and Ann 

MacEachron (1997) reviewed studies that attempted to 

ascertain the incidence and prevalence of prenatal drug exposure 

and found that the rates are unclear. Most research was 

conducted in public hospitals that attend to poor and minority 

women. A survey of 36 urban hospitals in 1989 reported an 

average perinatal illicit drug rate of 11%. A Florida study in 

1990 attempted to remove the class and ethnic bias found in 

prior studies and discovered that little difference exists between 

illicit drug rates for white and black women (Gustavsson and 

MacEachron 1997). 

Composite data from numerous studies show that 2 – 

3% of infants suffer from prenatal cocaine exposure annually 

(Gustavsson and MacEachron 1997). The precise causal 

effects of cocaine on the developing fetus are not conclusively 

established (Bono et al. 2007). Earlier studies indicate that 

cocaine may cause premature birth, a small head circumference, 

and abnormality of the urinary tract (Gustavsson and 

MacEachron 1997). Additional research suggests that cocaineexposed 

infants may suffer disproportionately from certain 

types of stress, shortened attention span, and slight problems 

in language development (Bono et al. 2007). Some studies do 

not find any significant differences between infants exposed 

to cocaine in utero and those that were not (Gustavsson 1991; 

Gustavsson and MacEachron 1997). Moreover, rampant 

methodological concerns in many of the early studies illustrate 

that caution is warranted when trying to draw conclusions; 

for example, studies did not control for confounding 

environmental factors or the presence of other drugs in the 

pregnant woman’s system and often relied on small, nonrepresentative 

samples (Gustavsson 1991; Gustavsson and 

MacEachron 1997). Gustavsson and MacEachron (1997) 


assert that much of the research published during the height 

of the War on Drugs supports particular political ideologies by 

focusing on women’s role in reproduction only. Studies that did 

not establish connections between maternal prenatal drug use 

and poor fetal outcomes were less likely to receive publication 

(Gustavsson and MacEachron 1997; Toscano 2005). 

Recent research indicates that few infant health problems 

can be confidently attributed to prenatal cocaine exposure 

(Bono et al. 2007; Toscano 2005). Systemic issues such as lack 

of access to prenatal medical care, inadequate housing, poor 

nutrition, and persistent poverty affect pregnancy outcomes 

(Gustavsson and MacEachron 1997; Toscano 2005). In 

particular, living with male partners that are substance abusers 

or violent (or both) is a predictor of poor pregnancy outcomes 

(Gustavsson and MacEachron 1997). An analysis of 36 

peer-reviewed studies on the teratogenic impact of cocaine 

found no conclusive evidence for negative effects on physical 

or cognitive development (Bono et al. 2007). Studies which 

found otherwise usually indicate minimal damage when 

environmental factors are controlled for. Indeed, Katherine 

E. Bono et al. (2007) report that characteristics of the home 

environment impact cognitive development more consistently 

than does prenatal cocaine exposure. 

Nonetheless, prosecutors relied on the speculative risks 

of prenatal drug exposure to use a combination of child abuse 

and drug-related statutes to criminalize pregnant drug-addicted 

women (Lim 2008). Appellate courts largely overturned 

prosecutorial attempts but nonetheless legal precedence 

for criminalizing pregnant women exists (Gustavsson and 

MacEachron 1997; Lim 2008). In one of the earliest cases 

attempted, a Florida court convicted a woman of delivering 

cocaine to a minor via her umbilical cord immediately after 

birth. The Florida Supreme Court later overturned the decision 

but nonetheless it paved the way for future prosecutions 

(Gustavsson and MacEachron 1997; Hirschenbaum 2001). 

In 1985 California prosecutors charged Pamela Rae Stewart- 

Monson with child neglect for failing to follow her doctor’s 

orders to refrain from smoking marijuana and having sexual 

intercourse while pregnant. She was arrested after her infant, 

suffering from brain-damage, died aged six-weeks (Solomon 

1991; Toscano 2005). Notably, prosecutors chose not to charge 

her husband, even though he participated in the proscribed 

activities and had a history of violent behavior. Results from a 

medical exam suggested that physical abuse against the mother 

potentially caused the baby’s death (Toscano 2005). Prosecutors 

eventually dropped the charges but not before the case received 

widespread media publicity (Solomon 1991). 

Courts in South Carolina appear especially willing to 

convict drug-addicted pregnant women. In Whitner v. 

State, a South Carolina court convicted Cornelia Whitner of

criminal child neglect for consuming cocaine during pregnancy 

when traces of the drug were found in her infant’s system, 

even though the infant did not suffer any apparent effects 

(Hirschenbaum 2001; Toscano 2005). The South Carolina 

Supreme Court upheld her eight-year sentence (Toscano 

2005). The same court upheld Regina McKnight’s conviction 

and twelve-year sentence for homicide by child abuse after 

prosecutors successfully argued that her cocaine use during 

pregnancy led to the infant being stillborn (Eckenwiler 2004). 

There is scant support in the literature to suggest that 

prosecuting pregnant women promotes healthy fetal outcomes. 

In a related argument, George Schedler (1991) contends that 

society maintains the right to force pregnant drug-addicted 

women to undergo abortions. His utilitarian justification 

argues that the perceived social and economic costs of caring for 

substance-exposed babies outweigh the benefits, even though 

harmful effects are far from certain. CRACK relies on a similar 

argument to suggest that its program of sterilization alleviates 

social costs incurred by taxpayers that would otherwise be 

spent on the care and raising of children born to drug-addicted 

women (CRACK, 2009). In both cases, the solution to a social 

problem is sought by regulating women’s reproduction (Toscano 

2005). However, more than two decades of prosecuting 

pregnant drug-addicted women has not produced lower rates of 

drug use during pregnancy (Lim 2008). 

In fact, the criminalization of pregnant drug-addicted 

women precipitates actions that are harmful to both mother 

and baby. A judge in the District of Columbia sentenced a 

cocaine-addicted woman convicted of forgery to prison solely 

on the basis of her pregnancy, allegedly to protect her unborn 

fetus. His misguided rationale ignored evidence that illicit 

drugs are rampant in correctional institutions and that rates of 

miscarriage are far higher than the national average (Gustavsson 

1991; Gustavsson and MacEachron 1997). Endangering 

women’s health by placing them in prison endangers the fetus; 

it further discourages other pregnant drug-addicted women 

from seeking the healthcare and treatment that is vital to fetal 

and maternal wellbeing (Gustavsson and MacEachron 1997; 

Toscano 2005). Following the South Carolina Supreme Court’s 

decision in Whitner v. State, local treatment clinics reported 

significantly lower pregnant female admission rates (Toscano 

2005). 

The attempt to separate maternal and fetal interests for the 

purpose of criminalizing drug use and promoting fetal wellbeing 

is counterproductive. Toscano (2005) draws attention to the 

contradiction inherent in maternal-fetal conflict: the unborn 

fetus is considered legally separate from the mother but it is 

the dependant nature of the relationship between the two that 

is used to justify prosecution. Consideration of the mutual 

interests of the mother and fetus will result in better pregnancy 

outcomes and is more cost effective than incarceration. Assisting 

pregnant women to carry their infants to term is far less 

expensive than providing care for a premature baby (Gustavsson 

and MacEachron 1997). This approach recognizes that druguse 

among pregnant women warrants a public health response, 

not a criminal response; especially in light of the fact that many 

women self-medicate the effects of depression through the use 

of illicit drugs (Eckenwiler 2004; Lester 2000). 

A British study conducted from 1999 – 2006 provides 

evidence for the success of encouraging prenatal healthcare 

amongst pregnant drug-addicted women. Pregnancy outcomes 

such as birth weight, gestational period, and breast feeding 

rates were measured and found to substantially improve in cases 

where the mother received support from a midwife (Leggate 

2008). Pregnant mothers responded to the personal care and 

as a result were more compliant with prenatal advice (Leggate 

2008). Results such as these highlight the positive agency drugaddicted 

women use to limit the harmful effects of prenatal 

drug exposure and present a strong case for “empowering 

[pregnant] women instead of punishing them” (Eckenwiler 

2004:91). Pregnant women and their children benefit when the 

distribution of resources recognizes the mutuality of maternalfetal 

existence. 

CRACK raises a number of serious ethical concerns. It 

stratifies reproduction by classifying the reproductive capacity 

of certain groups of women as undesirable, often in a raciallybiased 

manner (Roberts 2005). A prominent quote on the 

CRACK website singles out African Americans to support the 

organization (CRACK 2009). The dollar value assigned to 

child-bearing implicitly derogates some women’s reproductive 

potential and reinforces a reproductive hierarchy (Roberts 

2005). It artificially reduces complex social problems to 

reproductive capacity instead of highlighting systemic issues 

in women’s drug addiction, and perpetuates the idea that 

women can and should be held responsible for ameliorating 

a social problem (Lim 2008; Roberts 2005; Solomon 1991; 

Toscano 2005). CRACK reinforces the discourse that 

supports criminalization through their controversial billboard 

advertisements: “Prevent Child Abuse… [$300] cash 

for drug-addicts who participate in long-term birth control” 

(Hirschenbaum 2001:327) and continues the historic trend 

of monitoring women’s sexual and reproductive behavior. 

Fundamentally, CRACK represents an extreme form of 

maternal-fetal conflict by actively promoting the idea that 

certain women should permanently suffer the loss of their 

reproductive capacity. 

The criminalization of pregnant drug-addicted women 

provides the fertile soil necessary for programs like CRACK 

to emerge. While there are many divisive elements within the 

CRACK program, it powerfully illustrates the oppressive nature 


of the separation of maternal and fetal interests; indeed, any 

interest in maternal wellbeing is noticeably absent. 

The American Public Health Association (APHA) charges 

that CRACK relies upon unsound data concerning the effects of 

prenatal cocaine-exposure and ignores the far more widespread 

incidence of alcohol-exposure in its racially-biased campaign 

to sterilize women (APHA 2001). In doing so, it violates basic 

human and civil rights by “attacking the reproductive capacity 

of women rather than the conditions of oppression under 

which poor women live” (APHA 2001:517). CRACK does 

not provide social or financial support to women that seek drug 

treatment. Barry Lester (2000) suggests that the societal stigma 

attached to drug use inhibits the provision of treatment options. 

CRACK reinforces this stigma which is especially harmful 

given the dearth of drug treatment programs for pregnant drugaddicted 

women and the dire need for additional resources. 

In a survey of drug-treatment programs conducted in 1990, 

54% excluded pregnant women; 67% excluded women under 

Medicaid; and fully 87% excluded pregnant cocaine-addicted 

Medicaid patients; all categories of women in which CRACK 

clients are likely to fall (Hirschenbaum 2001; Solomon 1991). 

Social problems are collectively created and defined. The 

social construction of the myth of the perpetually pregnant 

crack-addicted woman reflected public anxiety and imbued 

itself into the early scientific literature. Both provided the 

foundation for criminalizing pregnant drug-addicted women 

and formed the scaffolding for the conceptualization of 

maternal-fetal conflict. Prosecutors around the country seized 

upon the idea of maternal-fetal conflict to hold mothers 

singularly responsible for negative pregnancy outcomes out 

of the mistaken belief that punishing mothers would herald 

better outcomes for babies. Although convictions have been 

overturned in most states with the exception of South Carolina, 

this has not translated into a rejection of the philosophies 

underlying criminalization (Toscano 2005). 

Maternal-fetal conflict represents a dangerous illusion that 

depicts mothers as agents of harm and inhibits those most in 

need of pregnancy care from seeking it. CRACK reifies this 

illusion and reinforces the social discourse that blames women 

for the complex social problem of pregnant drug-addiction. 

Their willingness to pay women for sterilization makes it 

easier to demote support for services that assist pregnant drugaddicted 

women; services that are proven to promote healthy 

babies. 

A better alternative is to recognize that women’s drug use 

evolves in response to a myriad of personal and environmental 

factors, including depression, physical and emotional abuse, 

entrenched poverty, and the concomitant absence of adequate 

housing, nutrition, or healthcare. Moreover, all of these factors 

contribute to poor pregnancy outcomes. Acknowledging this 


means that society has a collective responsibility to provide 

services aimed toward healthy reproduction. Abandoning the 

falsehood of maternal-fetal conflict is a necessary step in the 

direction of healthy mothers and healthy babies. 

References 

American Public Health Association (APHA). 2001. “00-LB-2: 

Opposition to the CRACK Campaign.” American Journal 

of Public Health 91:516-17. 

Bono, Katherine E., Nurit Sheinberg, Keith G. Scott, and 

Angelika H. Claussen. 2007. “Early Intervention for 

Children Prenatally Exposed to Cocaine.” Infants & 

Young Children: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Special Care 

Practices 20: 26-37. 

*Children Requiring A Caring Kommunity (CRACK). 2009. 

Accessed April 19, 2009 (http:projectprevention.org). 

Eckenwiler, Lisa. 2004. “Why Not Retribution? The 

Particularized Imagination and Justice for Pregnant 

Addicts.” Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics 32:89-99. 

Gustavsson, Nora S. 1991. “Pregnant Chemically-Dependant 

Women: The New Criminals.” Affilia 6:61-73. 

Gustavsson, Nora S., and Ann E. MacEachron. 1997. 

“Criminalizing Women’s Behavior.” Journal of Drug Issues 

27:673-87. 

Hirschenbaum, Dana. 2000. “When CRACK is the Only 

Choice: The Effect of a Negative Right of Privacy on Drug- 

Addicted Women.” Berkeley Women’s Law Journal 15:327- 

37. 

Leggate, Joyce. 2008. “Improving Pregnancy Outcomes: 

Mothers and Substance Misuse.” British Journal of 

Midwifery 16:160-65. 

Lester, Barry. 2000. “Drug-Addicted Mothers Need Treatment, 

Not Punishment.” Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Weekly 12:5. 

Lim, Stephanie Yu. 2008. “Protecting the Unborn as Modern 

Day Eugenics.” Health Matrix 18:127-36. 

Roberts, Dorothy E. “Privatization and Punishment in the New 

Age of Reprogenetics.” Emory Law Journal 54:1343-60. 

Schedler, George. 1991. “Does Society Have the Right to Force 

Pregnant Drug Addicts to Abort their Fetuses?” Social 

Theory & Practice 17:369-84. 

Solomon, Renee I. 1991. “Future Fear: Prenatal Duties 

Imposed By Private Parties.” American Journal of Law & 

Medicine 17:411-34. 

Toscano, Vicki. 2005. “Misguided Retribution: Criminalization 

of Pregnant Women Who Take Drugs.” Social Legal Studies 

14:360-86. 

*CRACK is now known as “Project Prevention.”


The Curious Case 

of Humour and 

Whoredom: 

The Concept of ‘Necessary’ 

Prostitution as it Pertains to the 

Social, Religious, and Sexual 

Lives of ‘Common Women’ in 

Medieval England 

La‘akea Yoshida 

History 356 

Chivalry, courtly love, and knights in shining armor are 

products of the medieval imagination; Arthurian tales of love, 

and quests to attain that love, are strange shifts in the social 

norm compared to the true nature of medieval society. The 

lives of medieval women were difficult and demanding. They 

were servants, mothers, cooks, and responsible for the care 

of the home, nothing like their courtly counterparts who 

graced the pages of medieval scribes. Nonetheless, there was 

a group of women who did live in a world apart, a world 

separate from the social expectations of their society: the 

prostitutes. While “common women” in medieval England 

lived as outcasts of the Western Church and were viewed as 

problems in their civic societies, remarkably, they were able to 

move openly in traditional male spaces as essential members 

of both communities. Their status as sinful, but essential 

members of medieval English society was due largely in part to 

acceptance of the humours, theories that stated that the body 

was kept in balance by bodily substances and their release. 

The Church acknowledged the need for sexual release even 

though many people did not have any “moral” means of sexual 

expression. Therefore, prostitution existed as a service to the 

curious contradiction of the humours. Common women were 

religiously condemned and socially shunned for sexual deviancy, 

but public acceptance of the humours enabled prostitutes to 

exist within male dominated spaces in medieval English towns 

as an ironic necessity, as the challengers of virginity and the 

unlikely protectors of female chastity. 

In tales of courtly love, according to Dr. Derek Brewer, 

women are “regarded as dominant, in contrast to women’s 

normally inferior social position, the aspiring lover her 

servant.” 1 Indeed, women were subservient members of 

society and the most sexually oppressed, but not every woman 

conformed to the model set by the Church and courtly 

myth. The whore existed as a member of medieval English 

society, yet, as a member slightly separated from it. Their 

disconnection from the expectations of the western Church 

challenged accepted ideas of morality in a Europe where the 

Church served as the beacon of moral stability for most people. 

Nevertheless, the Church could not control widespread beliefs 

that sexuality was acceptable as part of the natural order. 

Thanks to the acceptance of ancient medical theories, sexuality 

was condemned but viewed as necessary. In turn, whores were 

condemned and considered necessary as well. 

Medieval sexuality was, by our modern world-view, unique 

because ideas and opinions relating to sexuality were both 

medically and religiously influenced. Practitioners of medieval 

medicine reasoned that substances called humours governed the 

body, and were responsible for maintaining balance. Because 

the body could not be studied by autopsy (which was illegal, 

except in very rare occasions), the Greek theory of humours 

offered an explanation of how the body functioned. 2 Since 

these substances were considered to be controlling forces behind 

the human body, physicians believed sex was vitally important 

to releasing a “dangerous buildup of the ‘seminal humour’ 

in men.” 3 Church authorities reluctantly agreed that sexual 

desire was part of natural law and although these laws were 

“universally shared,” Church officials condemned sexuality 

because “sexual desire could lead to sin—and usually did.” 4 

Although church officials differed in their acceptance of sex as 

either good, or evil, there was a distinctly common opinion of 

women’s sexuality: women were considered sexually ravenous 

creatures and were held to higher standards of sexual morality 

because they were “so susceptible to sexual temptations, great 

care had to be taken to confine their sexual activities within 

a properly structured marriage relationship.” 5 The humours 

1 Derek Brewer, “Chivalry,” in A Companion to Chaucer, ed. Peter Brown 

(Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers, 2000), 61. 

2 The theory of the humours was developed because of stringent laws 

pertaining working with the human body. “In predominantly Christian 

Europe, the body was seen as sacred in many ways, and to mutilate a 

human body through dissection was not only disrespectful, but also 

sacrilegious. Therefore, dissections were only rarely performed—perhaps 

once or twice a year at the larger medical academies—and physicians’ 

knowledge of the human body was limited to gross anatomy. This is where 

natural philosophy came in; what physicians could not observe, they had 

to infer.” N.M. Heckle, “Sex, Society, and Medieval Women.” http:// 

www.library.rochester.edu/camelot/medsex/text.htm. 

3 Heckle, “Sex, Society, and Medieval Women.” 

4 James A. Brundage. “Prostitution in the Medieval Canon Law.” Signs, 

Vol. 1, no. 4 (Summer, 1976): 831. 

5 Brundage, “Prostitution in the Medieval Canon Law,” 832. 


justified prostitution, which the Church vehemently disagreed 

with but ultimately adapted to it because of public belief in the 

theory. 

The general attitude of the early church towards sex was 

mixed. Almost every member, if not all of the early church 

believed that prostitution was a sin and an abomination in the 

eyes of God. Christian leaders like Augustine of Hippo and 

Saint Jerome promoted the opinion that sexual intercourse 

should be between couples united in marriage only. Augustine 

condemned prostitution and considered the creation of 

offspring to be “the only good excuse for such intercourse.” 6 

Saint Jerome supported marriage and sexual intercourse 

between partners for pleasure. He worried, however, about 

the plight of fragile widows who might turn to prostitution 

for money after their husbands died. He reasoned that it was 

more “tolerable that a woman should marry again than that she 

should be a prostitute, and better that she should have a second 

husband than several paramours. The first alternative brings 

relief in a miserable plight, but the second involves a sin and its 

punishment.” 7 Given that the opinions of the early medieval 

Christian fathers became the backbone of later medieval 

thought, a great contradiction began to form, one where 

marriage was necessary for intercourse to occur at all. And 

because of this, a natural conflict was born from the progressive 

assimilation of humour theory among common towns people, 

many of whom did not have wives or husbands to satisfy sexual 

desires. 

Medieval canonists who were challenged by conflicts of 

morality accepted prostitution as a necessary evil in maintaining 

social order in growing urban centers. Common everyday 

people of a medieval English town did not share the same 

affixation to the rules of moral order laid out by the Church 

because “the laity did not always agree with the church’s 

definition of sexual morality.” 8 Due to thriving economic 

opportunity in English towns, migrants flooded into population 

centers, creating a necessity for whores to fulfill the needs 

of those people unfortunate enough to remain spouseless. 

Furthermore, rising male populations, and the fear that those 

men were seeking to rid themselves of their growing seminal 

humour, would have caused most growing towns to accept 

the incursion of prostitution. 9 Dr. Ruth Karras and Dr. 

6 Philip Schaff, Saint Augustine: The Writings Against the Manichaeans and 

Against the Donatists, 18.65, “A Select Library of the Nicene and Post- 

Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church,” Internet on-line, available from 

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf104.i.html [25 September 2009] 

7 Philip Schaff, Saint Jerome: The Principal Works of St. Jerome, Letter 

CXXIII, To Ageruchia, 231.4, “A Select Library of the Nicene and Post- 

Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church,” Internet on-line, available from 

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf104.i.html [25 September 2009] 

8 Norman Tanner, Sethina Watson. “Least of the Laity: The Minimum 

Requirements of a Medieval Christian.” Journal of Medieval History, 32 

(2006): 412. 

9 Population numbers fluctuated because of famine and the plague. Using 

London as an indicator of population figures in English urban centers, 

the Museum of London states, “in 1066 London’s population was about 


James Brundage agree that both Church authorities and civic 

officials understood the contradictory need for prostitutes in 

maintaining a good and chaste society. According to Brundage: 

Medieval society recognized prostitution as a necessary 

evil. Sinful men, theologians held would corrupt respectable 

women—even their own wives—or turn to sodomy if they did 

not have the prostitute as a sexual outlet: ‘remove the prostitute 

and you will destroy everything with lust’…Prostitution 

may be treated as a moral category…Or prostitution may be 

treated primarily as a legal category, a type of trade which has 

implications for public order and policy. 10 

Thus, it is a paradox that the medieval whore was not only 

part of maintaining social control in English urban centers, but 

that they were absolutely necessary in doing so. English streets 

crowded by wandering males with a belly of ale, and a mind 

full of lust, was not an alternative that most towns were willing 

to accept—no matter what the church decreed that towns 

should do, prostitutes were need to satisfy this segment of the 

population. 

Public acceptance of the humours created a dilemma 

for church authorities because prostitution fell under civic 

authority. The church essentially had to contend with civic 

authorities in various towns and decide whether they would 

conform to religious standards of prosecution or not. 11 Even if 

it was the expectation that every man and woman understand 

the religiously moral teachings of the church, Dr. Norman 

Tanner and Dr. Sethina Wilson argue: 

The distinction between explicit and implicit knowledge 

could mean that Christians were bound to a surprisingly 

minimal understanding of their religion. Innocent IV argued 

that intelligent laypeople might seek to learn more, but there 

was no sin if they did not since it was sufficient for them to 

devote themselves to good works. 12 

Often villages and towns only fined whores for practicing 

their trade in town boundaries because to remove prostitution 

completely might be disastrous. The brothel was the “societal 

safety valve” 13 in many English towns, serving a wide variety of 

clientele: peasants, aristocrats, and religious leaders—although 

10,000. By 1300 it expanded to over 80,000, but after famines and the 

Black Death it fell again to about 40,000. People moved to London 

from all over England to find work and better lives for their families. 

The wealthiest people lived in mansions, usually along the Strand close 

to Westminster.” Museum of London. “What was life like in medieval 

London?” [Who lived there?]. http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/ 

English/Learning/Learningonline/features/viking/viking_4.htm [24 

October 2009]. 

10 Brundage, “Prostitution in the Medieval Cannon Law,” 826. 

11 Ruth M. Karras, “The Regulation of Brothels in Later Medieval 

England,” Signs, Vol. 14, no. 2 (Winter 1989): 404. 

12 Norman Tanner, Sethina Watson, “Least of the Laity: The Minimum 

Requirements of a Medieval Christian,” 400. 

13 “Despite their recognition that prostitution was a necessary feature of 

society, the municipalities of continental Europe still paid lip service to 

the Church’s ideals of sexual purity.” Karras, “The Regulation of Brothels 

in Later Medieval England,” 401.

technically, religious leaders were not supposed to visit them, 

along with married men and Jews. Without the brothel and 

the service of whores, the medieval man might turn his sexual 

needs to married women, good Christian women. Prostitutes, 

therefore, became essential participants in the Church’s quest 

to preserve the chastity of married women and the virginity of 

sexually unfamiliar young ladies. 

Medieval prostitutes lived as women split between two 

worlds: the unlikely wardens of virginity and the ambassadors 

of sexual impurity. Medieval attitudes towards the chaste and 

virtuous woman were created by romantic literature focused 

on promoting the concepts of courtly love and virginity, both 

of which were idealistic myths. In addressing these myths, Dr. 

Derek Brewer remarks that the “lady is regarded as dominant, 

in contrast to women’s normally inferior social position, the 

aspiring lover her servant.” 14 Dominate but submissive females 

were echoes of Church belief: women should be strong in faith 

and character, they should strive to marry in order to fulfill her 

duty as a noble woman, and she must be pure in virginity as the 

example set by Mary. A woman’s virginity remained a complex 

issue in medieval England, and despite considerable Church 

support for marriage and virginity, some women possibly 

scrutinized issues pertaining to virginity heavily. 15 

The finest literary example of a combatant attitude 

towards virginity comes from The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey 

Chaucer. “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue,” although written by 

a man, contains interesting commentary on the way Church 

cannon affected sexual attitudes. Chaucer crafts the Wife’s 

speech around loopholes in scripture: “Please answer me…when 

did [God] command virginity…a woman may be counseled 

to be pure, but counsel and commandment aren’t the same… 

for if God commanded virginity, then marriage he condemned 

concurrently; and surely if no seed were ever sown, from where 

then would virginity be grown?” 16 Inferring that Chaucer’s 

Wife represented a percentage of the English female population, 

the ostensible purpose of her speech is to express the opinion 

of this group. She is a direct challenge to chastity, calling for 

the end of hypocrisy in church doctrine that maintains women 

must conform to marriage in order to be sexual at all. 

People relied on the humours to explain the natural desires 

for sex, concepts of virginity supported the need for whores 

14 Derek Brewer, “Chivalry,” in A Companion to Chaucer, ed. Peter Brown, 

(Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers, 2000), 61. 

15 “Religious authorities saw virginity as a way to salvation, a treasure to 

be locked away and promised only to the Divine Bridegroom, Christ. 

It was a way to keep the filth of earthly existence from soiling the soul, 

and allowed a woman to distance herself from the distractions of worldly 

existence and hopefully, therefore, sin. Secular authorities, on the other 

hand, saw virginity as something to be guarded and kept, but eventually 

dispended in a legal and faithful marriage.” Heckle, “Sex, Society, and 

Medieval Women.” 

16 Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, Translated by Ronald L. Ecker 

and Eugene J. Crook, (Palatka, FL: Hodge & Braddock, Publishers, 

1993), 155-156. 

in male dominated medieval English society. Because good 

Christian women were expected to guard their virginity, streets 

full of sexually charged men looking to realize their desires 

represented the greatest challenge to Church teachings against 

sins of the flesh. 17 Given that most medieval English urban 

populations were unmarried Christian individuals, a moral 

debate ensued regarding the ability of sexual intercourse for 

that fragment of the population. Segments of the unmarried 

population undoubtedly turned to activities like masturbation 

to relieve sexual need. Further complicating the matter were the 

teachings of Saint Thomas Aquinas, who damned masturbation 

as being a practice against natural law. Many people, therefore, 

turned to prostitutes because they did not have any moral outlet 

for their sexual humours. By occupying the minds of men 

consumed with lust, whores became the sexual focus for men 

attempting to violate good Christian wives and daughters. The 

services of the prostitute, however, were ultimately a necessity 

because society was male dominated. 

Medieval European women existed within the limits of 

patriarchal governance that firmly delegated their ability to 

move freely in their own society. Women were often confined 

to spaces considered proper and acceptable in a male dominated 

world. These spaces consisted of physical domains that women 

traversed, which might be “a house, village, or city quarter 

depending on her economic activity and her social class.” 18 

Inoculated to the spaces over years, medieval women were 

immersed in this system under control of their fathers, and 

later, under the control of their husbands. Spaces were not 

exclusive habitations for men or women alone, rather, they were 

simply physical places understood to be the domain of either 

males or females, but not restricted to either. For instance, 

women walked the busy town streets among men to shop for 

their household, but did so accompanied by other women 

because the outside was considered the space of men. Despite 

being able to travel in male dominated physical spaces, women 

were still noticeably differentiated by other methods: their space 

“could be confined by means other than simple geography: 

clothing, the way of walking, and even injunctions of speech 

could regulate a woman’s access to physical space.” 19 Whores, 

who are undeniably the opposite of medieval utopian female 

ideals, challenged the established acceptance of physical spaces 

by existing in male dominated realms without feeling the strain 

of maintaining behavior deemed acceptable by their patriarchal 

17 Women had to contend with the many crimes against them being referred 

to as sins of the flesh. Even though “sins of the flesh were not all sexual in 

nature, of course, but a woman’s sin was inevitably represented as such.” 

Katherine L. Jansen, “Mary Magdalen and the Mendicants: The Preaching 

of Penance in the Late Middle Ages,” Journal of Medieval History, 21 

(1995): 19. 

18 Barbara A. Hanawalt, “Medieval English Women in Rural and Urban 

Domestic Space,” Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Vol. 52 (1998): 19. 

19 Hanawalt, “Medieval English Women in Rural and Urban Domestic 

Space,” 22. 


society. Prostitution allowed those women who worked in the 

trade to have spaces of their own. 

Civic regulations in medieval England were another way 

for men to maintain control over prostitutes because they could 

do little to stop prostitution, and town authorities claimed 

regulations were needed to “keep sexually active women from 

threatening social order.” 20 Working as both brothel women 

and as independent operators, prostitutes controlled their 

own trade and money. As members of taverns and brothels, 

prostitutes did experience some legal protection under malecentered 

urban regulations. A surviving example of these 

civic regulations comes from Southwark in London. Written 

in 1162 CE during the rule of Henry II, the Southwark 

regulations demanded that the owners of “stewholders [†] 

be men; they could be accompanied by their wives, but no 

unmarried woman could keep a stewhouse.” 21 Again, the 

connections to marriage continue to persist—the theory is 

such that if a man cannot control sexuality, it might be better 

to make it so women can practice the trade but not own it. 

Regardless of civic incursion, women’s activities outside of their 

traditional spaces challenged male control, and men identified 

their behavior with “tainted womanhood.” 22 Nevertheless, 

whores maintained a decent amount of control over their trade, 

and in several instances women were fined for running brothels 

in London, proving that women were using their status as a 

necessary sex source to run thriving business ventures. Since 

some women who decided to work taverns were “at risk of 

being pimped by their master and mistress,” 23 many turned 

to private practice, opting to rent space from people who had 

rooms to spare. Understanding the need for prostitution, town 

authorities did not actively attempt to “stamp out prostitution” 

as the church would have liked, “but rather to control it as 

disorderly” 24 and profit from it by imposing tax regulations on 

the trade. 25 As a result, town regulations in medieval England 

sought to reap the monetary benefits that their conformity to 

the humours provided, a conformity that whores used to wedge 

20 Karras, “The Regulation of Brothels in Later Medieval England,” 406. 

† A term for brothel. 


22 Barbara Hanawalt, “The Host, the Law, and the Ambiguous Space 

of Medieval London Taverns,” in Medieval Crime and Social Control, 

ed. Barbara Hanawalt and David Wallace (Minneapolis: University of 

Minnesota Press, 1998), 17. 

23 Hanawalt, “Medieval English Women in Rural and Urban Domestic 

Space,” 25. 


25 “The London government as a whole showed a greater interest in 

prosecuting these types of offences than is found in the provincial towns. 

Letter Book I contains a (possibly incomplete) list of those convicted 

of immorality before the mayor between January 1400 and July 1439, 

which features 69 cases, of which 66 are clearly convictions for sexual 

offences, involving both lay people and clerics. Of the 66, punishments 

are specified in 32 cases. There were six cases which clearly involved 

prostitution, procuring or other acts against public morality, and these 

were punished by the civic authorities.” H Carrel, “Disputing Legal 

Privilege: Civic Relations with the Church in Late Medieval England,” 

Journal of Medieval History, 35 (2009): 290. 


themselves into a society of patriarchal control that believed it 

could not survive without them. 

Medieval English literature, with its stories of courtly love 

and chivalry have become the ideas we equate with medieval 

English women. The truth, however, is much less appealing. 

Women were sexually oppressed and their ability to move freely 

in their own society was minimal at the most. Thanks to the 

accepted cannon of the western Church, sex had to be within 

the confines of marriage, and women were the greatest threat to 

marriage’s sanctity because of their ‘sexual nature.’ Ironically, 

the women who were able to exist in the sexually oppressive 

world of medieval England were the ones whose livelihood 

existed because of sex. Prostitutes relished public and religious 

approval of humour theory because it made their services 

necessary. Even though Church cannon firmly disapproved 

of prostitution, acceptance of the humours created a sexual 

contradiction for the unmarried segments of the population. 

Prostitutes served as a method of sexual satisfaction for men 

looking to release sexual humours—which civic leaders believed 

was necessary to maintain social harmony because sexual need 

greatly endangered chaste society. For this reason, prostitutes 

became unlikely but necessary wardens of chastity, protecting 

virginity by offering an alternative. Their trade offered an 

alternative to normal female existence. Whores could walk 

city streets, drink in taverns, rent rooms for their business 

activities, and look men in the eye if they wished. By no 

means were prostitutes free in the way we understand freedom 

today. Nevertheless, these uniquely different women used 

public acceptance of the humours to exist outside traditional 

boundaries within male dominated spaces in medieval English 

towns, serving as the unlikely protectors of virginity and as a 

socially necessary sexual outlet. 

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Kūkulu Hou ‘Ia Ka Loko 

I‘a o Kō‘ie‘ie 

(Rebuilding Kō‘ie‘ie Fishpond) 

Roxie Sylva 

PIPES Internship 

Abstract 

Kō‘ie‘ie Fishpond is located in Kalepolepo Park of Kīhei, 

Maui. It is one of Maui’s 44 fishponds and, due to its condition, 

Kō‘ie‘ie Fishpond has the potential to be restored. In 1996, it 

was designated as a historic place. Of those 44 fishponds, ten 

are considered loko kuapā, fish ponds that are built on a reef. 

Kō‘ie‘ie fishpond is one of the 44 loko kuapā that is about three 

acres in size. It is unknown who lead the original building of the 

fishpond, but since its destruction over time, many ali‘i (chiefs) 

have led restoration efforts toward rebuilding the fishpond. 

This fishpond was known for the raising of mullet and milkfish, 

which served as sustenance for the people of that ahupua‘a 

(land division): the Ka‘ono‘ulu ahupua‘a. This fishpond has 

been steadily uneconomically productive over the years due to 

the development in the area. Silt and limu (seaweed) have been 

accumulating in the pond, the fishpond currently has more 

recreational value than traditional value, and it is no longer used 

for sustenance. Therefore, the main purpose of this internship 

was to assist in the rebuilding of the Kō‘ie‘ie Fishpond. Besides 

this, I conducted a telephone survey and created a brochure. 

Water quality tests and beach profiles were also conducted. 

I assisted my partner in creating a video for advertising the 

restoration project and we were involved in a fundraiser for the 

restoration project. Educationally, we supervised many summer 

groups and informed them of the history and importance 

of the area. Culturally, we danced hula (Hawaiian form of 

cultural dance) weekly and planted kalo (taro) and maintained 

it. The future goals of this restoration project are to continue 

maintenance of the fishpond and use the area for educational 

purposes. 

Introduction 

History 

In the heart of Kīhei, Maui lies a historic landmark called 

Kō‘ie‘ie Fishpond (also named Ka‘ono‘ulu Kai and Kalepolepo), 

located in Kalepolepo Park. The Kīhei area is best suitable 

for aquaculture instead of agriculture because of the climate 

there which is very dry with little rain. This therefore makes 

fishponds the ideal means of subsistence in the area. There 

is no documentation of who led the original building of the 

fishpond, but there are traditional mo‘olelo (oral history) about 

menehune (mythical race of people) building the wall in the 

1400s. However, throughout the years, the original fishpond 

has been affected by erosion from wave action and other natural 

events such as hurricanes and earthquakes (National Register of 

Historic Places Registration Form, 1990). 

In the 1500s, ‘Umi a Līloa, a High Chief of Hawai‘i Island, 

also the District Chief of Kula, had the wall rebuilt. Shortly 

after the first rebuilding of the fishpond, Kō‘ie‘ie was later 

renamed Kalepolepo, meaning “the dirt,” because the activities 

of over 10,000 people rebuilding the fishpond caused dust to 

rise into the air. In the early to mid-1700s, Kekaulike, the mō‘ī 

(island chief) of Maui led the second effort of repair work at 

Kō‘ie‘ie. During the 1800s, Kamehameha I led the third effort 

of repair work on the fishpond. The most recent reconstruction 

was in the 1840s under Governor Hoapili and a penal colony 

from Kaho‘olawe (National Register, 1990). 

Between AD 1500 and 1880, Kō‘ie‘ie Fishpond was an 

economic resource that was important for its subsistence value 

to the people of the Kula District of Maui. Until the nineteenth 

century, Kō‘ie‘ie Fishpond was still utilized in raising and 

cultivating mullet. The fishpond serves as an example of the 

technological achievements associated with the development of 

Hawaiian aquaculture (National Register, 1990). 

In 1974, the pond was included in the Hawai‘i Register 

of Historic Places Archaeological Registration Form: “This 

fishpond is not only a good representative of its type, but it is 

one of the few remaining fishponds on Maui. This fact adds to 

its interpretive potential and increases the need for protection 

of the site.” It was then removed from the register in 1980, due 

to technicalities involving owner notification. It finally became 

redesignated as a historic place on the register in 1996 (National 

Register, 1990). In 1998, ‘Ao‘ao o Nā Loko I‘a o Maui (the 

Association of the Fishponds of Maui) was created. This group 

oversees fishpond restoration projects on Maui. 

Description 

Kō‘ie‘ie Fishpond is located on a fringing coral reef, along 

the shoreline of Ka‘ono‘ulu Ahupua‘a (also known as Kula Kai), 

a 5,715 acre ahupua‘a. Kō‘ie‘ie Fishpond is the smallest and 

northernmost of three documented ponds that were present 

in Kula Kai (refer to Images 1 & 2). It is a loko kuapā type of 

fishpond, where the reef provides protection from wave action. 

This type of fishpond contains brackish water as the sea water 


mixes with fresh water springs or nearby streams. For Kō‘ie‘ie 

Fishpond, previous freshwater input came from the original 

wetlands above the fishpond. However those wetlands no longer 

exist due to development in the area. This type of fishpond is a 

rock wall that is built higher than the highest tide of the year. 

It consists of round basalt boulders, coral, and pebble fill, and 

usually contains one or more mākāhā (sluice grates). These 

sluice grates contain vertical slates that allow small fish to enter 

the pond and prevent the larger fish from exiting (The Maui 

Fishpond Association). Kō‘ie‘ie Fishpond is considered to be 

of fair to poor condition and has the potential to be restored 

(National Register, 1990). 

From the deforestation activities that occurred upcountry, 

the pond was filled with silt. This was during the late nineteenth 

century and caused a decrease in the original size of the pond 

(National Register, 1990). As of today, current measurements 

are as follows: the fishpond wall is about 295 meters in length, 

five meters wide, and two meters in height. The depth of the 

fishpond ranges from two to seven feet. The fishpond encloses 

an area of about three acres. During minus and low tide, most 

of the wall is visible; during high tide, the center portion, which 

still needs to be restored, of the wall is submerged. 

Currently, the beach area at the northern end of Kalepolepo 

Park is owned by Maui County. The site is a popular fishing 

and swimming area, and a portion of the shoreline serves as a 

base for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 

(NOAA) Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale Sanctuary 

(HIHWS). 

Importance 

Kō‘ie‘ie Fishpond holds great importance traditionally 

and culturally as seen through mo‘olelo and ali‘i presence and 

other prominent Native Hawaiian figures in Hawai‘i’s history. 

One well-known figure to impact Kō‘ie‘ie was David Malo, a 

Native Hawaiian historian. In 1843, he established a Christian 

Congregationalist Church (National Register, 1990). Some 

mo‘olelo tell of the menehune who built the wall and Kīkau (a 

kilokilo or divining priest), who was skilled in communicating 

with the menehune. Other mo‘olelo talk of Mokuhinia, the mo‘o 

(gecko) deity that visited the area when a son of Kekūanao‘a, 

Lot Kapuāiwa Kamehameha, passed away (Ka Po‘e Kahiko: The 

People of Old, 83). This loko kuapā was mainly reserved for the 

ali‘i and was visited frequently by several high ranking ali‘i: 

• Kahekili II, a mō‘ī of Maui, used the fishpond as a food 

source during the late 1700s 

• Kekūāiwa, the child of Kamehameha I and Kaheiheimālie, 

died in the area in 1815 

• Hapakuka Hewahewa lived and had local control there 

until he died in 1848 


• The area was visited by Kamehameha III, IV, and V 

between 1850 and 1870 

National Register, 1990 

Fishponds in the ancient days were a means of subsistence. 

It is an aquacultural structure that is designed and built 

for purposes of raising fish and other aquatic resources. In 

order for the future to be sustained with food, it is very 

important to bring back the ancient ways of sustainability and 

management. Thus, the future generations can also benefit from 

the rebuilding of the fishpond. Rebuilding the fishpond will 

allow the area to be replenished with fishes and other marine 

organisms, as we have seen an increase of organisms in the 

fishpond over the years. Rebuilding the fishpond will give us the 

opportunity to use the site as a reference point, where the past 

and the present can be brought together and be compared. 

Recent studies in fishpond dynamics have demonstrated 

the economic benefits of understanding traditional fishpond 

technology and its application to modern aquaculture 

management. The economic, political, and religious importance 

of aquaculture to the Hawaiian culture is well-represented in 

the history and setting of Kō‘ie‘ie Fishpond. The presence of the 

many ali‘i at the fishpond indicates that the pond was royal; in 

that its produce was the property of the high chief. The political 

and religious importance of the fishpond was indicated by the 

presence of two heiau (place of worship) inland of the ponds: 

Kala‘ihi and Ke‘alalīpoa (National Register, 1990). 

There is very high potential for the restoration of the 

pond because of its historic and archival significance. Through 

the efforts of ‘Ao‘ao o Nā Loko I‘a o Maui, the fishpond has 

been able to be rebuilt, however, without enough funding, 

production is sporadic. The area currently provides public 

education, and will serve this purpose throughout the future. 

One of the main ideas it teaches is traditional aquaculture 

as a means of subsistence. Future threats of rebuilding the 

Kō‘ie‘ie Fishpond still include natural events such as erosion 

from wave action and earthquakes. The wall has to be built as 

strong as possible without machinery so it will be able to with 

stand the pounding waves and rising tides over time. Regular 

maintenance is needed for the fishpond to once again become 

sustainable. 

Methods 

Before conducting activities at the Kō’ie’ie Fishpond, we 

(the restoration crew) participated in protocol. An oli (chant) 

named “He Mele No Kō‘ie‘ie” was created for this fishpond 

by Luana Kawa‘a (refer to Fig. 2). Every morning before we 

started work on the wall we chanted this oli. In rebuilding the 

Kō‘ie‘ie Fishpond, one of the things we did was gather ‘ili‘ili 

(coral rubble and small rocks) into buckets and poured them

on top of the wall; this served as a cement, which filled the gaps 

between the larger rocks and made the wall stronger. We also 

stacked rocks into piles, then moved those piles through a train 

of people, to be stacked onto the rock-wall. To conduct these 

tasks, the proper equipment is needed: tabis, gloves, back-brace, 

long sleeve shirt, shovels, and buckets. Tabis and gloves protect 

against certain marine life, such as wana (sea urchin), shells, 

and fire-worms. Long sleeve shirts help protect against scratches 

and cuts when grabbing rocks, and it helps protect against fireworms. 

As a part of ‘Ao’ao o Nā Loko I‘a o Maui, we wanted to 

know, through a random telephone survey, how well aware 

the Maui residents were about our restoration project. In 

conducting the telephone surveys, I went through the Maui 

phone book and randomly selected households. I followed 

a questionnaire that took about two minutes to complete 

(refer to Fig. 3). The questionnaire asked people about the 

Hawaiian culture, preservation of Maui’s fishponds, if they had 

heard of the restoration project at Kō‘ie‘ie, and if they wanted 

information about the fishpond and/or the project itself. 

The results of the survey could also help gain funding for the 

restoration project. 

Another project I conducted was creating a brochure 

about Kō‘ie‘ie Fishpond, which will be handed out to visitors 

of the area. This brochure focuses on Hawaiian values that can 

be exercised at Kō‘ie‘ie Fishpond and/or other cultural sites 

throughout Hawai‘i. The brochure includes simple ideas, such 

as mālama (take care), kōkua (help), maka‘ala (safety), laulima 

(cooperation), mahalo (respect), and kuleana (responsibility). 

It also includes reasons why the fishpond is special and why it’s 

important to respect the values there. 

In order for the restoration process to continue, I assisted 

my partner in creating a few videos of the fishpond to hopefully 

be broadcasted on Maui’s Akakū channel (#54). Our mentor 

chose one of these videos, which will serve as an advertisement 

for the fishpond, informing Maui resident’s of the restoration 

project at Kō‘ie‘ie Fishpond and when and/or how they can 

contribute to the rebuilding of the fishpond. In carrying out 

this method, the association borrowed video equipment from 

Akakū. 

My partner and I helped Joylynn Paman (our mentor and 

the association’s executive director) with conducting a fundraiser 

for the fishpond. We have participated in Kamehameha Golf 

Course’s “Closest to the Hole” competition on Maui, with the 

purpose of raising money for the restoration project. It was 

a day-long event where we informed golfers of our nonprofit 

organization. We measured the distance of participants’ golf 

balls from the hole, and the winner would be the person whose 

ball was closest to the hole. 

Other miscellaneous projects we did (which will be 

discussed in more detail in the “Results and Discussion” 

section) were dancing hula weekly (to be performed at the end 

of the summer potluck for our visitors and resident’s in the 

area), planting kalo to create a lo‘i (taro patch), landscaping 

the park and the NOAA HIHWS area twice a month, and 

daily removing of limu from the shoreline. We also assisted 

in building a storage shed for our equipment and weekly 

supervised many summer groups of children in elementary to 

high school. The projects my partner and I worked on alongside 

the staff at the NOAA HIHWS were conducting weekly 

water quality tests to monitor bacteria in the pond, monthly 

examining zooplankton, and monthly conducting a beach 

profile. 

Results and Discussion 

For the main project during this internship, which lasted 

ten weeks, rebuilding the Kō‘ie‘ie Fishpond, about eighty feet 

was added to the wall in that short amount of time. However, 

with the daily tides and waves, the wall would fall apart in 

certain areas, in which we would spend additional time fixing 

those areas before we could move on to continue rebuilding 

other parts of the wall. 

Conducting the telephone survey (refer to Fig. 3) was very 

difficult and required much patience. Of course no one wants 

to participate in a telephone survey, so I got many negative 

comments. However, I did get the information I needed to 

complete the survey. The first telephone survey was conducted 

in the year 2002. In that survey, 350 people participated. In the 

year 2009 telephone survey, 150 people participated. I called 

250 people: 150 people took the survey, and the other one 

hundred people were not interested in taking the survey. There 

were many households that did not accept blocked calls, and a 

lot that did not answer (which could have been because I was 

conducting the survey during working hours). After completing 

the survey, I compared my results with the results of the first 

survey (refer to Fig. 1). 


Figure 1. The graphs respond to the ‘Ao‘ao o Nā Loko I‘a o Maui Telephone Survey. 


In comparing the first survey’s results to my results, more 

people agreed to question 1 and 2: 1) that the Hawaiian 

Culture should be preserved and 2) that Native Hawaiian 

fishponds on Maui should be preserved for Hawaiian culture 

and education purposes. More people said yes for question 3 

and 5: 3) if they were aware of the Kō‘ie‘ie Fishpond restoration 

project and 5) if they had heard of the nonprofit, ‘Ao‘ao o Nā 

Loko I‘a o Maui; yet, the majority said they did not agree in 

both. In question 4, more people had a favorable impression of 

the fishpond restoration project. In question 6, less people said 

yes for more information on the Kō‘ie‘ie Fishpond restoration 

project. Also, more females participated this year. 

As stated earlier, the results of the surveys help to gain 

funding for the restoration project. For example, the results for 

questions 3 and 5 showed that currently, more people are aware, 

however, the majority is not aware. According to these results, 

we need to advertise more to reach those whom are unaware of 

the restoration project. 

The brochure has been completed since my departure from 

the internship in Maui, and is currently in the printing process. 

My partner and I made a substantial amount of money for the 

association during the golf fundraiser because of participation 

in the competition, where participants paid a fee. The hula we 

learned could not be used for the end of the summer potluck 

because of time restraint. The lo‘i we created was watered and 

maintained daily. 

Due to the formation of the current fishpond (the opening 

on the North side of the wall), limu accumulates daily in the 

pond; therefore we gathered the limu and placed it offshore. 

It is important to do this not only because it is an eyesore and 

creates a stench when the tide goes down, but also because 

of its marine importance. Since the fishpond is surrounded 

by residential and commercial areas, many extra nutrients 

(nitrogen, phosphorus, and bacteria) are added into the water, 

this therefore creates more limu; which is not a problem, 

unless there is enough herbivorous fish to eat it. The limu then 

smother coral reefs, which will eventually cause a decline in 

coral abundance of the area. 

For days when the weather was unfavorable for rebuilding 

the wall (high tide, strong wind or rain), we spent the afternoon 

landscaping the park area and the NOAA HIHWS area. At the 

start of the internship, there was no storage room on site for the 

equipment. Later in the internship, the association bought a 

storage shed; which we all assisted in building. 

Throughout the internship there were many summer 

groups of children that assisted in rebuilding the fishpond. On 

days when we supervised those groups, they were split into 

smaller groups in which they could spread out to find rocks, 

then pass and place them into a pile, where the piles could be 

later passed to the rock wall for stacking. Other groups would 

gather ‘ili‘ili into buckets and pass those buckets to the stacking 

area. 

The water quality tests had to be postponed for a while 

because we used Menehune Water Co. water. This water is 

ozonated, meaning that it kills bacteria; therefore, killing the 

bacteria we were testing for. The purpose of conducting the 

water quality tests was to find out if fecal bacteria was present. 

There were a hundred counts of fecal bacteria in the fishpond 

at one time, but not during our study there. This bacteria was 

tested in the lab and presence of the bacteria was identified by a 

fluorescence color. 

My partner and I also assisted the NOAA HIHWS in 

examining zooplankton. The water quality test samples were 

also used in this method, however, here we observed the 

bacteria under a microscope to identify certain the types and 

counted their abundance. The main zooplankton that we were 

looking for was not present in the fishpond, which is very good 

information because it was a harmful bacteria. 

Since the beach profiles were only conducted once 

a month, the only trends we saw were through natural 

observation of the shoreline; in which the wind would 

accumulate the sand into dunes, and the ocean would recede 

to the sand. Generally, all the projects (big and small) were 

successful in that my partner and I learned from the experiences 

and could create conclusions based off of them. For future 

goals, continual maintenance needs to be conducted so the 

purpose of rebuilding the fishpond (cultural and educational 

purposes) can be fulfilled. 


Image 1. (National Register, 1990) Image 2. (National Register, 1990) 

Figure 2. (Luana Kawa‘a, 2005) 

He Mele No Kō‘ie‘ie 

Mālie ‘o Maui i ke aheahe makani ‘o Haleakalā, 

He makani onaona i ke ‘ala līpoa 

‘O Ka‘ono‘ulu la i ka ‘āina ‘o Kula la‘i e, ie, ie 

He kai mālino, kai ‘olu‘olu, kai mā‘oki‘oki lā 

He kai kapu a Kanaloa 

Kū lālani nā ‘ao‘ao o ke kuapā, 

I nā pōhaku hō‘eu‘eu i ka lepo o Kalepolepo lā e 

Wili ‘ia ko ‘ie a pa‘a, ko ‘ie‘ie ‘o ka uka 

Eia ka loko i‘a kapu a nā ali‘i, nā ali‘i kaulana, wiwo‘ole lā 

Nā ali‘i pio‘ole 

Pi‘i a‘e ke kapu, ka welo ali‘i ‘o Maui nui a Kama 

E komo mai e nā hoa, nā kūkulu, nā paepae e 

E komo mai, e hānai ai a hewa ka waha 

Eia no ka uku la, a he leo, he leo wale nō e 


Calm and serene is Maui in the gently wafting breeze 

A wind made fragrant by scent of līpoa 

Ka‘ono‘ulu in the tranquility of Kula 

A calm sea, a refreshing sea, a sea streaked by various colors 

The sea consecrated to the God Kanaloa 

Lined are the sides of the fishpond, 

The sides of the kuapā are aligned 

By the stones passed hand to hand, stirring up the dirt of 

Kalepolepo 

The ‘ie vines are firmly fastened, the ‘ie vines gathered in the 

uplands 

Here is the sacred fishpond of the royals, the famous royal, 

the brave 

The royal ones who live on, inextinguishable 

Their sacred status is elevated, the royal heritage of Maui 

Nui a Kama 

Enter, friends, builders, supporters 

Enter and feed until the mouth can take no more 

Here is the fee, a voice, a simple voice.

Figure 3. ‘Ao‘ao o Nā Loko I‘a o Maui Telephone Survey 

Aloha, my name is_____________, and I’m calling from a 

nonprofit organization on Maui. We are doing a quick survey to 

get a better understanding of our community in relation to our 

project and we would like to ask for two minutes of your time 

to complete this survey. 

1. Do you agree or disagree that the Hawaiian Culture 

should be preserved? 

• Agree 

• Disagree 

• Neutral 

2. Do you agree or disagree that Native Hawaiian fishponds 

on Maui should be preserved for Hawaiian culture and 

education purposes? 

• Agree 

• Disagree 

• Neutral 

3. Are you aware of the Kō‘ie‘ie Fishpond restoration project 

in Kīhei? If yes, ask Q. 4. 

• Yes 

• No 

4. Do you have a favorable or unfavorable impression of the 

fishpond restoration project? 

• Favorable 

• Unfavorable 

• Neutral 

5. Have you heard of the nonprofit, ‘Ao‘ao o Nā Loko I‘a 

o Maui also known as the Association of the Fishponds of 

Maui? 

• Yes 

• No 

6. Would you like more information on the Kō‘ie‘ie 

Fishpond restoration project? If yes, get participants 

information. 

• Yes 

• No 

Acknowledgements 

‘Ao‘ao o Nā Loko I‘a o Maui President Uncle Bully Kimokea 

Kapahalehua and Executive Director Joylynn Paman. 

Kō‘ie‘ie Fishpond restoration crew: Uncle Vene (Wayne), 

Laurian, and Kelson Kihe. 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) 

Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale Sanctuary (HIHWS): 

Jerry, Nicole and Alastair Hebard. 

Pacific Internships Program for Exploring Science staff (Sharon 

Zeigler-Chong, Ulu Ching, & Noelani Puniwai), partner 

(Arik Dadez) & fellow-interns. 

Works Cited 

Kamakau, Samuel M. Ka Po‘e Kahiko: The People of Old. 

Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press, 1964. 

Kawa‘a Luana. He Mele No Kō‘ie‘ie. 2005 

The Maui Fishpond Association. 2004. ‘Ao‘ao o Nā Loko I‘a o 

Maui. June 2009 . 

United States Department of the Interior, National Park 

Service. National Register of Historic Places Registration 

Form. Maui County, Hawai‘i: October, 1990. 




Racial Disparities in the 

San Francisco Juvenile 

Justice System: A 21 st 

Century Injustice 

Tai Tokeshi 

English 202 

One of the seminal events of the 20 th century was the 

American Civil Rights movement. Dr. Martin Luther King’s 

timeless “I Have A Dream” speech, the grace of Rosa Parks, 

and the images of black students integrating schools under the 

watchful protection of armed soldiers are all etched into our 

nation’s collective consciousness, and rightfully so. The overt 

injustices of Jim Crow and the ugly legacy of slavery were 

left behind in ten tumultuous years, a relatively brief period 

of time given the gross inequities of the previous hundred 

fifty. For Americans of the Baby Boomer generation, it was 

easy to envision a steady march towards Dr. King’s dream. 

However, in 2009, the progress of the Civil Rights movement 

is difficult to ascertain. While the election of Barack Obama 

marked a historic first, race relations in America have reached 

an impasse. With the elimination of affirmative action and 

many government welfare programs, it is now less acceptable 

to utilize race as a point of departure in government policy 

making, as well as in the discourse of the mainstream media. 

An examination of current socioeconomic indicators, however, 

suggests that minorities continue to trend firmly behind whites. 

There has been a premature rush to move beyond race as a 

society—in this politically correct haste, the spirit of justice, 

recognition, and equality that the Civil Rights movement 

and other minority power struggles embodied, have been 

abandoned. 

According to a 2008 National Urban League report, the 

poverty rate among Blacks in America was twice that of the 

overall rate, and four times that of whites (National Urban 

League). As of 1997, black students were twice as likely as 

white students to drop out of high school (Mid-Atlantic Equity 

Consortium). Perhaps most disturbingly, blacks were over six 

times more likely to be incarcerated than whites (Prison Policy 

Initiative). The trend among socioeconomic indicators is that 

there clearly continues to be a significant gap in the standard 

of living between white and black America. This paper will 

examine the juvenile justice system in San Francisco, California, 

as a case study for a critique of post-race America. 

Within the juvenile justice system in the city San 

Francisco, there is an alarming disparity between the rates of 

incarceration for black and white youth. The greater population 

of San Francisco is 7.8% black and 49.6% white, according to 

the 2000 United States Census. Meanwhile, according to the 

September, 2009 report of the Juvenile Probation Department, 

the population of incarcerated youth currently in Juvenile 

Hall is 50.9% black, and 6.6% white. This indicates that it is 

roughly 50 times more likely for black youth in San Francisco 

to be incarcerated than white youth. 

The ramifications for such an imbalance in incarceration 

rates are significant. Youth who are involved in the juvenile 

justice system are five times more likely than their peers to be 

arrested again as young adults (ages 17-25), and seven times 

more likely to become dependent on welfare (Youth Transitions 

Funder’s Group). Incarcerated youth are also removed from 

their peers in school and can become institutionalized, or 

adjusted to living in custody. Incarceration is also a primary 

manner in which poverty is passed in cycles from generation to 

generation; the children of incarcerated parents are five times 

more likely than their peers to end up behind bars (Simmons). 

Why then, is it far more likely for black youth in San 

Francisco to find themselves in juvenile hall than white youth? 

The answer is multi-faceted: three crucial contributing factors 

are neighborhood demographics and entrenched conditions 

of poverty, the presence of risk in the lives of youth, and 

institutionalized racism found in the juvenile justice system. 

In tracing the history of African Americans in San 

Francisco, one must go back to World War II, when thousands 

of blacks migrated from the South to find work in the city’s 

Naval Shipyard, located in Hunter’s Point. As the shipyard 

flourished in the 1950s, the area became a vibrant working 

class community flush with black owned small businesses, 

San Francisco was 20% African-American (McCormack). 

Because of increasing property values tied to the dot-com 

boom of the 1990s and into the 21 st century, middle class black 

families were forced out of the city and into less expensive 

suburbs. Those that stayed often did so not out of choice but 

out of dependence on public housing and welfare. While San 

Francisco as a whole became more affluent, the poverty rate for 

blacks in San Francisco increased to three times that of the rest 

of the city. In the 1990s alone, the city lost more than 1 in 7 

black residents—the highest rate of decline of the nation’s 50 

most populous cities (McCormack, “Census”). San Francisco 


is now 7% African American. The only neighborhood in San 

Francisco which is populated primarily by African Americans, 

according to the City of San Francisco demographic profile, is 

Hunter’s Point (Mayor’s Office on Community Development). 

Hunter’s Point represents an anomaly in a city with one 

of the highest costs of living in the country. Located in the 

geographically isolated southeast corner of San Francisco, it 

was cited in a 2004 San Francisco Chronicle article as being 

beset with “violent crime, drugs, slum housing, a dearth 

of grocery stores, a lack of political clout...and industrial 

pollutants” (McCormack). The relative isolation of Hunter’s 

Point contributes to its high unemployment rate, which in turn 

has led to many families becoming completely dependent on 

public assistance (McCormack). These neighborhood attributes 

constitute the conditions which amount to a higher presence of 

risk in the lives of its youth. 

Risk factors such as household welfare states, poverty, 

family disruption, and parent criminality, as stated in result in 

a report prepared for the Oklahoma Office of Juvenile Affairs, 

result in a higher rate of incarceration for youth (Charish, 

Davis, and Damphousse 13). Furthermore, “as the number of 

families evidencing family risk factors increases or decreases 

within a neighborhood, the neighborhood itself can mitigate for 

or against the occurrence of juvenile crime… The strength of 

the relationship between neighborhood residency and crime has 

been shown to be dependent on: (1) the proportion of families 

in a neighborhood having family risk factors; and, (2) the ability 

and empowerment of adults in a neighborhood to influence 

their living conditions, including the behavior of neighborhood 

adolescents” (Charish, Davis, and Damphousse 17). Hunter’s 

Point carries all of the requisite attributes of a neighborhood 

in high risk; therefore, the fact that its youth are arrested and 

incarcerated at a higher rate than the rest of San Francisco can 

be seen as an expected outcome. 

Compounding these factors is the presence of 

institutionalized racism within the juvenile justice system. 

These prejudices occur from the moment a police officer makes 

contact with a juvenile. Charish, Davis, and Damphousse 

found that “white youth were more likely than minority 

youth to be informally dispositioned by immediate release or 

diversion. They found that officers based their decisions on a 

number of legal and extralegal factors, including stereotypical 

beliefs about minority racial groups” (18). Once in the court 

system, there is a vast discrepancy in the quality of legal 

representation given to the youth. Those who come from 

families in poverty, or broken families, receive only the minimal 

level of counsel provided by a public defender. This disparity 

is reflected in sentencing: “for youths charged with violent 

offenses, the national average length of incarceration is 193 days 

for whites, and 254 for African-Americans” (Building Blocks 


for Youth). There are also unequal sentencing structures in 

place in many jurisdictions which disproportionately punish 

youth of color. Two examples of unequal sentencing measures 

are mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses, which are 

more likely to be committed by black than white youth, and 

harsher penalties for gang offenders who are primarily youths of 

color. These instances of systemic inequality found within the 

juvenile justice system led the Annie E. Casey Foundation to 

conclude that “African American and Latino/a youth experience 

stereotyping and consequent discrimination at every step of the 

intake and adjudication process, including disproportionate 

arrest…harmful labeling, and disparate risk determinations” 

(Race Matters). 

The combined forces of living in neighborhoods of high 

crime and risk, dependence on public housing and assistance, 

and institutionalized racism found in policing and sentencing, 

have created the conditions that have resulted in black youth 

being incarcerated at a rate of fifty times their white peers in 

San Francisco. These conditions, left unchecked, amount to a 

systemic oppression of these young people. 

With such a disproportionate amount of African American 

youth incarcerated in San Francisco, one might expect a critical 

mass of outrage coming from one of the most liberal and 

progressive regions of the country: there is currently no such 

call for justice. In fact, the only substantive debate regarding 

juvenile justice being held in the mainstream media or in 

political circles is under which circumstances juveniles should 

be tried as adults. The silence is deafening, particularly when 

one considers that the youth involved in the juvenile justice 

system become far more likely to fall into poverty, or become 

incarcerated as adults. Given the history of racial injustice in 

America, this is an unacceptable trend. 

Why then, is race being largely ignored as an important 

issue within the juvenile justice system, and in a wider context, 

the entire contemporary American sociopolitical discourse? The 

answer may be found in the fact that race, as conceived through 

any critical lens, is a communal issue. American society focuses 

on the individual as the primary entity of importance. Since 

it is no longer written into law that blacks and whites are to 

be segregated or treated differently, many people consider 

any discussion of race to be outside their personal sphere of 

concern. This common attitude is summarized in the Annie E. 

Casey foundation’s publication, ‘Race Matters’: “To the extent 

that racial inequality exists, then, it is a by-product of the 

inability/unwillingness of individuals to properly adhere to basic 

American values like hard-work and personal responsibility” 

(Race Matters). 

This attitude, however, presupposes an equal playing field, 

that everyone born in America, regardless of race and class, 

has an equal chance to accomplish what they may in life. It

ignores centuries of overt racism and oppression that led many 

black Americans from slavery, and dismisses the overwhelming 

statistical evidence that black America continues to live at 

a standard far below their white peers. It also dismisses the 

viewpoint of many African Americans who feel the weight of 

racial disparities on a daily basis, a perspective eloquently stated 

in Maud Sutter’s poem, “As A Black Woman”: “As a black 

woman, every act is a personal act / Every act is a political act” 

(Sutter). 

Therefore, at this point in American history, with historical 

oppression and institutionalized imbalances left unaddressed, 

it is not only disingenuous, but an unconcealed injustice to 

remove race from any sector of society, especially one such as 

the juvenile justice system—a justice system that holds so much 

influence over our future. The current level of discourse which 

advocates a “post-racial” view of America leaves a multitude 

of inequalities left to fester, which will ultimately manifest 

in continued tension along race and class lines. It will also 

manifest in the cycle of incarceration, broken families, and 

poverty being passed along from generation to generation in the 

poorest neighborhoods of America, such as Hunter’s Point. 

A more appropriate form of discourse would take into 

account both historical and contemporary circumstances. It 

must be the voice of individuals who are not clamoring for their 

own self-interests, the voice of a society concerned with how 

best to move forward in a manner befitting the loftiest ideals 

of our nation. Such discourse cannot be afraid to tell the truth 

about where we stand as a nation, and where we may stagnate 

until the following is acknowledged: that race matters, to our 

history, and to our future, not necessarily as a source of conflict, 

shame, or pride, but as a crucial and fundamental characteristic 

of American life. If race is addressed in an honest and rational 

manner, it can be used to cultivate a greater sense of empathy, 

ethics, and community in civic life. It is undoubtedly our 

responsibility as a society, especially given the specific events 

which have led us to this point in history, to create the 

conditions which will allow us to arrive at a place of justice, and 

peace, for all American citizens. 

In the context of the juvenile justice system in San 

Francisco, the following actions should be taken preemptively. 

Police and probation officers should be made aware of the 

continuing disparity in arrest rates amongst juveniles, and 

should take steps to ensure that the conditions of poverty 

and neighborhood risk are not punished blindly. Youth who 

are growing up under higher circumstances of risk must be 

provided with resources and opportunities before they become 

involved with the juvenile justice system. Juveniles who do 

enter the court system should be treated with compassion, 

opportunities for rehabilitation, and full freedom over their lives 

being an ultimate goal. In neighborhoods of high poverty and 

risk, a greater investment in public education and community 

development is crucial. Role models and supportive figures 

in the lives of these youth must recognize the potential 

dangers associated with growing up in conditions of risk, 

and must provide added support and structure in a culturally 

competent manner. People should not avoid poverty stricken 

neighborhoods or merely conceive of them as unsafe areas, but 

should contribute time and energy towards improving them. 

Finally, advocates for social justice must win back the language 

of political discourse, meaning, issues such as race and class 

must be openly discussed and acknowledged. 

Ultimately this requires a more communal mindset 

and a willingness of people to invest in the legacy of the 

Civil Rights era, as well a vision for what the future might 

hold. In particular, the generation of Americans born 

after the Civil Rights era cannot be satisfied to sit idly as 

disengaged individuals. Without bold and decisive action, the 

institutionalized and internalized levers of oppression take 

further hold. Issues of social justice must be owned by the very 

people whose lives they impact, and since every citizen has an 

investment in their country, it is imperative that every American 

continue to push towards a more equitable and just society. To 

quote the former President of the Southern Poverty Law Center, 

Julian Bond: “Civil rights didn’t begin in Montgomery, and it 

didn’t end in the 1960s. It continues on to this very minute.” 

And indeed to actively and compassionately address 

racial inequality as it exists in the 21 st century, in areas such 

as the juvenile justice system in not only San Francisco but 

throughout America, is to properly pay homage to the great 

honor and struggle of the Civil Rights movement. In embracing 

the responsibility of fighting for social justice, we connect the 

difficult, but also heroic and beautiful, history of America, with 

a vision for a more hopeful and equitable future. 

Works Cited 

Building Blocks for Youth. Fact Sheet: Punitive Policies Hit Youth 

of Color the Hardest. http://www.buildingblocksforyouth. 

org/issues/dmc/facts_yoc.html 

City and County of San Francisco Juvenile Probation 

Department. Monthly Report for September 2009. San 

Francisco: Juvenile Probation Department, 2009. 

Charish, Courtney, Davis, Sebastian, Damphousse, Kelly. 

Race/Ethnicity and Gender Effects on Juvenile Justice 

System Processing. Oklahoma Office of Juvenile Affairs, 

2004. Mayor’s Office on Community Development. San 

Francisco Demographic Profile. http://www.sfgov.org/site/ 

uploadedfiles/mocd/demoprofile.pdf 

McCormack, Erin and Holding, Reynolds. “Too Young to Die.” 


San Francisco Chronicle 3 October 2004: A16. 

McCormack, Erin. “Census Shows Black Population 

Plummeting in Last Decade in S.F.” San Francisco Chronicle 

17 June 2001: A1. 

The Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium. National Statistics on 

Education and Equity Issues.http://www.maec.org/natstats. 

html#dropout 

National Organization for Women. The Origins of Affirmative 

Action.http://www.now.org/nnt/08-95/affirmhs.html 

National Urban League. 2007 Census Poverty & Income Data. 

http://www.nul.org/sites/default/files/2007%20Poverty- 

Income%20Statistics.pdf 

Prison Policy Initiative. U.S. Incarceration Rates by Race. http:// 

www.prisonpolicy.org/graphs/raceinc.html 

Race Matters. How to Talk About Race. The Annie E. Casey 

Foundation, 2006. http://www.aecf.org/upload/ 

publicationfiles/howtotalkaboutrace.pdf. 

San Francisco Area Demographics Resources. 2000 U.S. Census 

San Francisco Data. http://sanfrancisco.areaconnect.com/ 

statistics.htm 

Simmons, Dr. Charlene Wear. “Children of Incarcerated 

Parents.” California Research Bureau 7.2 (2000). 

Sutter, Maud. “As A Black Woman.” A Map of Hope Anthology. 

Agosin, Marjorie, ed. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers 

University Press, 1998. 

Youth Transitions Funder’s Group. What Happens to Court 

Involved Youth. http://www.ytfg.org/MediaRoomJournalistIdeas.html 



The Chinese Minority in 

Indonesia 

Felix Da Silva 

ESL 100 

The financial crisis in 1997 devastated the economy of 

Southeast Asian countries, causing a slump in their currencies 

and the devaluation of stock markets. Indonesia was one of 

the several countries in Southeast Asia that was hit hard by the 

crisis. The inflation of the Indonesian rupiah and the sharp 

increase in prices triggered a widespread riot in the capital 

city of Jakarta forcing President Suharto to step down after 

he had been in power for more than 30 years. Though many 

Indonesians suffered from the country’s economic breakdown, 

the Chinese minority group was the most affected group of 

all people in Indonesian urban areas who became the target of 

violence for the sole reason that many of them were controlling 

businesses, both at the local and national economic levels. The 

Chinese minority has actively been involved in the Indonesian 

economy since the early establishment of the Republic, albeit, 

facing various political and racial discriminations from time to 

time. 

The Chinese ethnic minority is one of several minority 

groups in Indonesia that has maintained its presence in the 

archipelago since before the Dutch arrived. According to Wirth 

(1941), the concept “minority” refers to a group of people 

or individuals who regard themselves as not being part of a 

larger group, and because of their physical, social, and cultural 

exclusiveness, they are treated differently from others (p.415). 

The ethnic Chinese in Indonesia can be grouped into this 

category, as their Chinese heritage and traditions differentiate 

them from the majority of Indonesians. However, the different 

treatment that was given to this group of people has been 

varied. From privileges and favorable government policy to 

discrimination and political persecution, the ethnic Chinese 

have been categorized as the one of the controversial minority 

groups in Indonesia due to their economic dominance. 

The evolution of the economic activity in the Chinese 

minority in Indonesia to what it is now has its own history. It 

is related back to the Dutch political and economic interest 

to maintain their control over today’s Indonesian islands. The 

population was categorized into three stratification levels, 

according to race, in which the Europeans were the first, then 

followed by other foreigners from the east, dominated by the 

Chinese, and then the natives as the third class ethnic group 

(Yau, 2007, para.8). The colonial rule then divided the Chinese 

into two groups known as Totok and Peranakan (Suryadinata, 

2001, p.502). According to Suryadinata (2001), the first group 

refers to those who migrated from China to the colony and had 

no marital contact with the locals while the later were those 

who were born in East Indie to a Chinese father or by a Chinese 

mother to her indigenous husband (p.502-503). This essay will 

simply refer to the groups as Chinese, since both Totok and 

Peranakan have interchangeably played important roles in the 

Indonesian economy, ever since the Dutch colonial era. 

For the most part, the Chinese had such a strong 

economic position that they could not be disregarded even 

by Dutch colonial rule. Kahin (1946) stated that in order to 

facilitate the trade with the local indigenous people, the Dutch 

depended largely on the middlemen and retailers, whose 

jobs were occupied by the Chinese (p. 327). Being aware of 

their importance to the trade, the Dutch granted the Chinese 

not only political privileges, but also extensive economic 

rights, which later become a burden on local commerce to an 

irreparable level despite a later gradual adjustment and finally 

abolishment (Kahin, 1946, p.327). One of the economic 

privileges was the monopoly lease system known in Dutch as 

Pachtstelsel, by which the Chinese were granted authority to 

lease large areas of land in Java (Kahin, 1946, p.327). Kahin 

(1946) argues that the system brought suffering to the native 

population, due to the fact that after the payment for the 

lease to the Dutch, the Chinese, aware of the Dutch support, 

exploited profits from the locals as much as they could (p.327). 

The situation at some point forced the peasant natives to 

depend on the Chinese who had control on the local agriculture 

in the so-called “debtor-creditor relationship” (Kahin, 1946, 

p.327). 

The Chinese economic control continued to grow after 

the Independence of Indonesia in 1945. Besides the hard 

effort and political battle to find their identity in Indonesian 

nation-building, the Chinese were involved in a relatively large 

percentage of the country’s business and trade. Siregar (1969) 

noted that in the province of North Sumatra, thirty-four 

point five percent of the industrial operations belonged to the 

Chinese, and thirty-five percent were owned by Indonesians, 

while the rest 0.5 percent belonged to other foreigners (p.344). 

In East Sumatra, seventy-two percent of the businesses were 

owned by Chinese, while in West Java, almost eighty percent of 

the motor transport enterprises were Chinese-owned (Siregar, 

1969, p.345). Chua (2003) illustrated that with only 3 percent 

of the Indonesian population by 1998, the Chinese dominated 


the country’s economy disproportionately (p. 43). In the same 

year, 70% of Indonesian private businesses were controlled by 

the Chinese (Chua, 2003, p. 43) 

The continued growth of economic control did not come 

with the full participation of Chinese in Indonesian social and 

political life. Yau (2008) considered this situation as a paradox, 

where the Chinese were granted privileges to operate their 

business, but were halted in their access to social and political 

participation (para.11). The Chinese economic dominance was 

largely seen as a national problem (Yau, 2008, para. 11). Yau 

(2008) blames the Dutch for generating the seeds of hatred 

and stereotypes among Indonesians based on race (Para.9). The 

Dutch provided certain privileges to the Chinese by granting 

them control over some profitable businesses, but at the 

same time restricted them from interacting with the natives, 

specifically by limiting their movements out of urban ghettos 

(Yau, 2008, para. 9). 

However, there was a time when ethnic Chinese in 

Indonesia did enjoy relatively less discriminative policies. 

This was during the early period of Indonesian independence, 

though they were still considered non-indigenous. Under 

the presidency of Sukarno and the parliamentary democracy 

system (1949-1958), the Chinese were allowed to establish 

organizations that could participate in cultural, social and 

political activities and even schools where instruction were 

given in Chinese (Suryadinata, 2001, p.504). A well known 

ethnic Chinese institution focusing in sociopolitical matter 

was established following the merging of several small 

Chinese organizations. The organization, known as Badan 

Permusyawaratan Kewarganegaraan Indonesia (BAPERKI) or 

Indonesian citizenship consultative body, set its goal based on 

the idea of promoting equality among the citizens, regardless 

of ethnic origin, and they specifically fought for the Chinese 

minority’s cultural rights (Suryadinata, 2001, p.504). 

The relatively free environment for the ethnic Chinese as 

a distinguished minority group ended as new political power 

emerged. Suryadinata (2001) posited that the downfall of 

President Sukarno after a failed alleged coup by Partai Komunis 

Indonesia (PKI), or Indonesian Communist Party, led to the 

closure of BAPERKI, which had been in support of both PKI 

and the President (p.505). Lieutenant-General Suharto, who led 

the army operation to hunt down the members of PKI and its 

affiliates due to their role in the alleged coup, soon became the 

next President with the support from the right wing group in 

the military (Suryadinata, 2001, p.505). Besides the millions 

of alleged communist supporters that died, tens of thousands 

of Chinese were also killed during the hunt-down operation 

(Johnston, 2005, para. 9). 

The allegiance of a well-known Chinese organization to 

the former regime and the Communist Party created a distance 


between the new government and ethnic Chinese. Fuelled by 

the accusation of being supportive to the Communists, the 

Chinese faced harshly discriminative policies during President 

Suharto’s rule. During the period known as New Order 

(1966-1998), the ethnic Chinese were literally categorized as 

non-pribumi, separating them from the native pribumi (Yau, 

2008, para.10). As non-pribumi, the Chinese were subject to 

assimilation measures, which included giving up their ethnic 

identity, enrolling in Indonesian schools, and changing their 

names (Yau, 2008, para.11). Groups and institutions affiliated 

with Chinese were suppressed if not banned, including Chinese 

languages, culture, and religion (Yau, 2008, para.12). Although 

some top Chinese became friends of Suharto and subsequently 

became the richest men in Southeast Asia, the New Order 

regime in fact was a tragedy for the relatively large number of 

ordinary Chinese (Johnston, 2005, para. 13-14). 

In spite of the harsh assimilation efforts, the Chinese 

are still seen as “aliens” to the indigenous Indonesians. The 

failure of the efforts exploded in a large-scale anti-Chinese 

riot in 1998. President Suharto’s resignation in May, 1998, 

was accompanied by anti Chinese violence where for more 

than three days of violence, the rioters looted Chinese shops 

and gang raped more than 150 Chinese women (Chua, 2003, 

p.44-45). Chua (2003) reported that not only were thousands 

of people dead, but the mayhem also resulted in $40 to $60 

billions of capital confiscation, most of which was controlled 

by Chinese, causing a huge economic crisis from which the 

country is still struggling to recover (Chua, p.45). 

Since the Reformation Era, starting with the downfall of 

Suharto in 1998, the Indonesian government has taken several 

significant measures to address the issue of ethnic Chinese. 

Chinese Indonesians can now celebrate the Chinese New Year 

and use their Chinese name and symbols (Johnston, 2005, 

para.26). Since then, they are actively involved in political 

activities (Suryadinata. 2001, p.509-510). In terms of the civil 

society participation, ethnic Chinese communities are able 

to express themselves publically (Suryadinata, 2001, p. 522). 

Moreover, Confucianism was recognized as one of the official 

beliefs in Indonesia along with the other five major religions. 

Meanwhile, some Chinese Totok are able to reestablish their 

clan relationships (Suryadinata, 2001, p. 522). In another 

example, Suryadinata (2001) reported that the former President 

Abdurahman Wahid, a.k.a Gus Dur, was invited to deliver a 

speech during the opening of Indonesian Hakka association in 

Jakarta, in 2000, where the former president praised the ethnic 

Chinese, and pledged their support to continue to invest and 

help in the Indonesian economic recovery effort. It was during 

the presidency of Gus Dur that many of the discriminatory laws 

against the ethnic Chinese were revoked (Suryadinata, 2001, p. 

521). The president also appointed a nationalist ethnic Chinese,

Kwik Kian Gie, to the position of coordinating minister for 

finance and industry, the highest cabinet post ever for an ethnic 

Chinese in the country’s history (Suryadinata, 2001, p. 521). 

However, reforms by the government seem to hardly 

penetrate to the bottom of ordinary ethnic Chinese. Many 

Chinese Indonesians still find it very difficult to enter public 

universities or become members of the military or police forces 

(Johnston, 2005, para. 34). Johnston (2005) also reported 

that it is still relatively very expensive for a Chinese Indonesian 

to go to school, to buy land or to get a passport where the 

required citizenship letter might cost up to 7 million rupiah to 

be processed (para.35). In addition, intermarriage between the 

ethnic Chinese community and local Indonesians rarely occurs, 

due to the fact that neither group is willing to encourage such 

marital relationships (Johnston, 2005, para. 36) 

All the events and cases mentioned above conclude that 

the economic dominance of the Chinese minority in Indonesia 

has hardly been going in line with their social and political 

freedom. Albeit, facing various discriminations, the Chinese 

still maintain their economic dominance. I would say that 

the limited access to the cultural, social and political life of 

the majority have forced the ethnic Chinese to concentrate 

on commerce and trade, and hence, increases their ability in 

terms of entrepreneurship and business networking to a point 

that is relatively higher than that of the majority of people. 

Consequently, the Chinese minority often become the target 

of social jealousy due to their well-established economic lives 

compared to the majority of Indonesians, a situation which can 

easily be manipulated to create chaos in society, despite the fact 

that not all the ethnic Chinese are rich. The barely implemented 

assimilation policy by the New Order regime failed to achieve 

its aim and even created large resentment among the majority 

Indonesians towards the Chinese minority group. Without 

neglecting the complexity of the issue, it is a good idea to 

consider a different approach toward the relations between the 

ethnic Chinese and the Indonesians. Instead of considering 

the ethnic Chinese as foreigners who need to be assimilated to 

the local cultures, Indonesians also need to see the matter from 

the diversity point of view, where the ethnic Chinese must be 

considered equally as the other different ethnic groups that 

are spread throughout the archipelago with the rights to fully 

participate every aspect of the country’s life. Likewise, not only 

do the Indonesians have to change their way of thinking about 

the Chinese, but also the ethnic Chinese themselves have to 

voluntarily give up certain degrees of their exclusiveness in order 

to meet the qualities demanded by the majority group. 

References 

Chua, A. (2003). World on fire: How exporting free market 

democracy breeds ethnic hatred and global instability. New 

York: Random House. 

Johnston, T. (2005, March 3). Chinese diaspora: Indonesia. 

BBC. Retrieved from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/ 

asia-pacific/4312805.stm 

Kahin, G.M. (1946). The Chinese in Indonesia. “http://www. 

jstor.org/action/showPublication?journalCode=fareasternsur 

vey” Far Eastern Survey, 15(21), 326-329. Retrieved from: 

http://www.jstor.org/stable/2642461 

Siregar, A.M. (1969). Indonesian entrepreneurs. HYPERLINK 

“http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublication?journalCode= 

asiansurvey” Asian Survey, 9(5), 343-358. Retrieved from: 


Suryadinata, L. (2001). Chinese politics in post-Suharto’s 

Indonesia: Beyond the ethnic approach. Asian Survey, 

41(3), 502-524. Retrieved from: http://www.jstor.org/ 

stable/2691646 

Wirth, L.(1941). Morale and minority groups. The American 

Journal of Sociology, 47(3), 415-433. Retrieved from: 


Yau, H.C.(2008, September 15). In between identities. The 

Straight Times. 




Max Beckmann: 

Deposition 

Tabitha Gomes 

Art 375 

The Descent from the Cross was painted by the German 

artist Max Beckmann in 1917; today, its oil on a 59.5 by 50.75 

inch canvas is held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York 

City. This image of Christ is not an ideal one, and strays from 

long-established Christian art that most people know of. The 

deposition has never been shown in such an appalling way as 

this, creating uneasy feelings for the viewer. The image of Christ 

is almost unrecognizable, with thin skin upon his bones, pale 

and yellow. The other figures in the piece are also distorted to 

an extent of morbidity, with no sign of hope. The painting has 

death flowing in, out, and through it, radiating the feeling of 

suffering. All paintings of the descent from the cross deal with 

a dead Christ during a painful time, but no artist has been as 

vulgar as Beckmann. 

Max Beckmann was never the average artist, and because 

of his life choices, he changed as a person, thus contributing to 

his style of art. How could one man use art to portray death so 

realistically, and why? How does this disturbing piece compare 

to other depositions throughout the history of art? Although his 

style had drastic differences that separated him from the other 

artists of his time, his symbolism and subject matter did not 

stray from the established history. 

Max Beckmann was born in Germany in 1884, in the 

era of Impressionist painters: a time where artists began to 

experiment with colors, techniques, and subject matter. 

Although the generation around him began to search for 

a renewal of form, Beckman was more interested in the 

continuation of the tradition that he had grown up with. 1 And 

as many artists began experimenting and forming groups like 

the Blaue Reiter and Brücke painters, Beckmann stood alone 

in isolation. 2 Instead of following the trend in art, he decided 

to follow his own desires. What separated Beckmann’s artistic 

expression from those groups was his “extensive but subtle use 

of the color black.” 3 While others picked “festive colors as a 

metaphor for joy and vitality,” Beckmann strayed from the 

1 Dube, Wolf Dieter. The Expressionists. (London: Thames and Hudson, 

1972), p. 162 

2 Roh, Franx. German Painting in the 20 th Century. (Greenwich: New York 

Graphic Society, 1968), p.97 

3 Heckmanns, Friedrich; Loffler, Fritz; Roters, Eberhard; Wiese, Stephan 

von. German Expressionism 1915-1925, The Second Generation. (Munic: 

Prestel-Verlag, 1988), p. 39 

trend by using dark colors, sharp black lines, and grim subject 

matter to create political statements and express a variety of 

emotions 4 . He used black to force objects together to create 

proximity, and often outlined, or “imprisoned,” his graven 

images in black, creating compositions that looked as if they 

would burst from the picture plane. 5 

Beckmann hated sentimentality; thus, his desire was to 

record the inexpressible things in life. The stronger that desire 

became, the more he wanted “to seize this frightful twitching 

monster of vitality and to cage it in glass-clear sharp lines and 

surfaces, to suppress it, to throttle it.” 6 

Beckmann met the greatest influence of all after the 

outbreak of World War I and his voluntary involvement in 

1914. Beckmann was assigned to East Prussian and Belgian 

fronts as a medical orderly for the German Army until the 

spring of 1915. 7 Initially, Beckmann thought the war would 

be a great opportunity for pictorial reportage on a catastrophic 

event. 8 He suffered through his short tour in World War I 

with many losses and the death of his broken-spirited friend 

through suicide. 9 Upon leaving field conditions, Beckmann 

was transferred to a base hospital, where he sketched his 

observations and the pain on each patient’s face. 10 

After being exposed to harsh conditions, death, and the 

pure truth of what was involved in the war, changed Beckmann 

and his early style of art. 11 The major difference in his artwork 

before 1914 was that it failed to penetrate into “the souls of 

things.” 12 He became more interested in abstracted human form 

and shapes that pressed against each other rather than creating a 

space between them. The depth in his artwork began to shrink 

and the figures became crowded with no room to move freely 

in space. In 1914, at the age of thirty, Beckmann stated in the 

Kunst und Künstler journal: “For myself, I pursue the art of 

space and depth with all my soul and try to achieve my own 

4 Heckmanns, Friedrich; Loffler, Fritz; Roters, Eberhard; Wiese, Stephan 

von. German Expressionism 1915-1925, The Second Generation. (Munic: 

Prestel-Verlag, 1988), p. 39 

5 Roh, Franx. German Painting in the 20 th Century. (Greenwich: New York 

Graphic Society, 1968), p.98 

6 Excerpt from Max Beckmann’s journal. Dube, Wolf Dieter. The 

Expressionists. (London: Thames and Hudson, 1972), p. 167 

7 Buenger, Barbera C. “Max Beckmann’s Ideologues: Some forgotton 

Faces.” The Art Bulletin, Vol. 71, no. 3, (1989), p. 453-479. 

8 Selz, Peter Howard. Max Beckmann, Museum of Modern Art. (New York: 

Ayer Publishing, 1980), p. 21 

9 Buenger, Barbera C. “Max Beckmann’s Ideologues: Some forgotton 

Faces.” The Art Bulletin, Vol. 71, no. 3, (1989), p. 453-479. 



11 Haftmann, Werner. German Art of the Twentieth Century. (New York: The 

Museum of Modern Art, 1957), p.96 


1972), p. 163 


style in it.” 13 

Between 1917 and 1918, Beckmann had a sudden urge to 

paint a series of distorted images of religious themes. He had 

illustrated many religiously themed pieces before but never 

this sinister, or to this extent. One reason he may have turned 

to religious work was because, after being dismissed from the 

Army, having a nervous breakdown, and leaving his wife and 

son, he was left feeling alone, traumatized, and distressed. 

Creating religious work may have been comforting during his 

time of agony as flashbacks of war overwhelmed him. Some 

Christian work he composed was entitled: Adam and Eve in 

1917, Resurrection in 1918, and Crucifixion. Each image holds 

the same qualities that he emphatically discovered during war: 

sharp black lines, solemn figures projecting intense emotion, 

and a cold color pallet. 

Beckmann was not only interested in painting, but also 

in dry point, a common technique that he used for his work. 

Dry point is an “engraving method in which the design to be 

printed is scratched directly into a copperplate with a sharply 

pointed instrument.” 14 This method of art allows Beckmann 

to use black outlines as the basis for his work, which may 

have had an impact on his painting. Using this technique, 

Beckmann created a Descent from the Cross as a mirror image 

to the painting. 15 Although the print is said to be created in 

1918, a year after the painting was created, it is also located in 

a series called Faces. The print may have easily been created far 

before the painting and dated for the series completion, not 

the individual piece. The print allows for a different view of 

the Descent from the Cross, allowing the viewer to focus on the 

subject matter and lines without the color and highlights. 

At first glance, Max Beckmann’s piece Descent from the 

Cross is hard at look at because of its raw, non-ideal proportions 

and abstract explanation of the figure of Christ. The 

expressionist style used creates a cold, and somewhat disturbing, 

atmosphere for what is usually thought to be sacred, passionate 

subject matter. The elongated, distorted figure of Christ fills 

the space using sharp diagonals while the rest of the image 

pushes together, inward and up, creating no visual depth. Max 

Beckmann seemed to want to capture the blunt imperfection of 

reality without creating any false imagery. His brushwork is very 

loose and painterly, with a thin coat of cold colors, but it’s still 

neatly composed within his common use of dark, black lines. 

Max Beckmann’s Descent from the Cross does not have as 

much detail and is not as intricate as some of the early pieces, 

however, in keeping with tradition, Beckmann does include 


1972), p. 161 

14 Encyclopedia Britannica Online, Dry point, (accessed on April 3, 2009) 

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/172437/drypoint 

15 The Descent from the Cross is located in a series called Faces, dated 1918. 

Museum of Modern Art., The Collection: Max Beckmann, (accessed 

January 14, 2009), http://www.moma.org/collection/browse 


a few very vital components to the representation. One very 

important man to Christ’s descent was Joseph of Arimathea, 

a Jewish judge and a secret follower of Christ. 16 “Joseph of 

Arimathea, a prominent member of the council, who was 

himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate 

and asked for Jesus’ body[:]” in Jewish tradition, a body must 

be taken down before sunset and buried in order to preserve 

the soul. 17 Pontius Pilate allowed the Roman guards to release 

Christ’s body to Joseph for burial. In the painting, Joseph can 

be recognized as the older man with a beard, shown holding 

Christ’s upper body and lowering it from the cross. The 

second man commonly shown assisting with Christ’s body has 

been identified in the Gospel of John as Nicodemus, also an 

undercover disciple. 18 Nicodemus is usually shown as a younger 

man assisting Joseph, but always carrying a lower portion of 

Christ’s body. In keeping with this tradition, Beckmann shows 

Joseph with a small white mustache and white hair carrying the 

Christ figure’s chest, and to the right of Joseph is the younger 

Nicodemus holding up Christ by his hips. The men look as if 

they are struggling to hold up Christ’s skinny, lifeless body. 

In addition to this, there are always at least two women 

shown weeping near the foot of the cross. These women are 

identified as Christ’s mother Mary, who is sometimes faint, 

and Mary Magdalene, usually shown caressing Christ’s feet or 

hand. 19 If the artist chooses to fill the space with other people, 

the roles of the two women are exaggerated. However if there 

aren’t many figures in a piece it is sometimes difficult to tell 

the two women apart, just as in Beckmann’s Descent from the 

Cross. The painting shows two women kneeling below the 

cross, crying and holding hands. The woman on the left looks 

much older and more distressed than the other: she has one 

hand raised near her face with her head turned as if in agony. 

The woman on the right has a smaller nose and no joules or 

bags under her eyes, indicating that she is younger and easily 

identifying her as Mary Magdalene. Instead of being shown 

caressing Christ, here Magdalene is comforting and caressing 

the hand of Christ’s mother, the Virgin Mary. 

Commonly included in images of the descent from the 

cross are ladders, which were primarily used in the crucifixion. 

The ladder was used to put Christ up on the cross and then 

to take him down. Joseph and Nicodemus may have also used 

16 Rynck, Patrick De, How to Read a Painting: Lessons from the Old Master ( 

New York: Harry N Abrams, 2004) p. 

17 Mark 15:43. The Holy Bible, New International Version, (Grand rapids: 

Zondervan Publishing House, 1984), p. 583. 

18 John 19:39“He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier 

had visited jesus in the night.” The Holy Bible, New International Version, 

(Grand rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984), p.619 

19 In the Gospels Mary Magdalene is always identified but the Virgin 

Mary is not identified at all. In Matthew 27:56 and Mark 15:40 Mary 

Magdalene and Mary the mother of James are identified, while Luke and 

John name no women. The Holy Bible, New International Version, (Grand 

rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984), p. 570, 583

it as a stretcher to carry the body of Christ to his tomb. 20 

Through art, the role of the ladder has changed to symbolize 

Christ’s ascent to heaven. This idea derived from the Biblical 

story of Jacob: “He had a dream in which he saw a stairway (or 

a ladder) resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, 

and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.” 21 

Beckmann uses the ladder to his extent by creating the deepest 

portion of the painting. The ladder is shown leaning against the 

cross, and foreshortened by the angle. This causes it to protrude 

beyond the picture plane and into the heavens as if it’s awaiting 

Christ’s ascent. 

The most important element to a deposition is the cross. 

Although the cross is important because of its major role in 

the crucifixion, the cross has also become a major symbol for 

the Christian religion. The cross has become a reminder of 

Christ’s love and sacrifice for all humanity. 22 The cross also 

provides the center of Christian belief that Jesus Christ died 

for the sin of man and all those who believe in him shall be 

given salvation. Along with the major role of the cross, every 

type of cross holds another meaning. In Beckmann’s Descent 

from the Cross, although the cross is hidden behind the ladder, 

Joseph, Nicodemus, and Christ, it is still identifiable as a “tau 

cross.” The “tau cross” has nothing extending above its arms 

and resembles the Greek letter “T.” The “tau cross” is known as 

a symbol of a prophecy because “it is the traditional sign that 

Israelites made with lamb’s blood on their doorposts in Egypt 

on the night of Passover.” 23 

Two other elements that are not commonly used in descent 

pieces are signs of the stigmata and the sun. However, there is 

a large red sun in the background of Beckmann’s piece, used as 

a prophetic symbol for Christ. 24 The sun as a symbol for Christ 

comes from the Bible, where, in Malachi 4:2 it is written: “But 

for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will 

rise with healing in its wings.” 25 The stigmata symbolizes the 

torture that Christ endured; the markings usually include holes 

in his hands and feet, a crown of thorns, and a stab wound on 

his side. In Beckmann’s piece, his Christ looks emaciated with 

yellowing and bruising on his skin, holes in his feet and hands, 

and, again, the crown of thorns upon his head. 

In comparison, Rosso Fiorentino’s Descent from the Cross 26 

20 Science of the Bible, dir. Micheal S.Ojeda, perf. Hayati Akabas, DVD, 

2005. 

21 Gen 28:12. The Holy Bible, New International Version. (Grand rapids: 

Zondervan Publishing House, 1984), p. 17. 

22 Gast, Walter E. Symbols in Christian Art and Arcitecture.(accessed March 

05, 2008), http://wegast.home.att.net/symbols/ 





25 The Holy Bible, New International Version, (Grand rapids: Zondervan 

Publishing House, 1984), p.548 

26 333 x 196cm panel, painted in 1495-1540. Rynck, Patrick De, How 

to Read a Painting: Lessons from the Old Master ( New York: Harry N 

Abrams, 2004) 

captures the same iconography and simplicity as Beckmann’s 

piece. Both pieces have fewer figures than most and the shallow 

background is accentuated with the use of a ladder. Despite 

this, there still are very distinct differences in style between 

that of the Fiorentino and Beckmann works. All the figures 

in Fiorentiono’s composition have space to move around, are 

ideally proportioned, have clean features, and none seem to be 

in distress. The handling of the paint and subject matter is also 

quite different, as Fiorentino uses bright colors with a clean 

application, while Beckmann’s style is, again, very loose and 

painterly. 

Although Max Beckmann’s Descent from the Cross holds all 

the same iconography as most other Christian art, it still cannot 

be compared equally due to its dramatic style and techniques. 

Most descent pieces are harmonious, showing Christ’s dead 

body as peaceful and healthy, as if he died due to a natural 

cause. There are only a few compositions that translate emotion, 

terror and pain in a similar way to Beckmann’s style; many of 

which come from the Gothic period. 

In this regard, there is a descent from the cross piece within 

the composition of the Crucifix with the Stories of the Passion, 

created around the year 1200. 27 This piece uses much brighter 

colors than Beckmann, but the sorrow is clear by the style of the 

figures. There are seven figures in this piece: Christ is centered 

with Joseph and Nicodemus removing his limp body from the 

cross, and there are two women that flank each side of the cross. 

The images are distorted, adding to the grief. However, this 

piece is not as intensely twisted as Beckmann’s. The women on 

both sides watch in sorrow, with their heads down and furrowed 

brows. The artist did a quality job, using distortion to display a 

heavy feeling of sadness and pain, but, at the same time, using 

bright colors to bring the piece back to life. 

The Deposition by Lucchese in 1240, located at the Uffizi 

in Florence, has more similarities to Beckmann’s painting 

style than many other pieces. 28 Lucchese’s painting has only 

five figures, like Beckmann, and uses dark lines to outline the 

images. The painting is very shallow, and the tau style cross 

and one ladder create the background. The shallow space is 

also crowded with the few figures and they have no space to 

move around. Lucchese does not idealize his images and is 

not focused on the perfect human form: instead, emotions of 

sorrow and grief come through clearly. The body of Christ 

looks dead and heavy, as Joseph struggles to hold it up, twisting 

as Nicodemus cuts the nails from his feet. The figures around 

Christ are elongated and distorted, showing their sadness, 

while both Mary Magdalene and the Virgin Mary are stretched 

enough to reach and touch Christ before his body is taken 

27 The painting has an unknown artist. Emil Kern, Daniel Marx, Web 

Gallery of Art. (accessed March 30, 2009) http://www.wga.hu/. 

28 Meiss, Millard, Painting in Florence and Sienna after the Black Death. 

(New York: Harper Torch Books, 1951) p. 49 


down. This painting shows that distortion was around before 

Beckmann’s time, and even utilized similar techniques of 

crowding space and heavy black lines. 

Two other pieces that resemble Beckmann’s work are of 

crucifixions, not depositions, but still hold similar qualities in 

the style of art. First, is a mosaic called Crucifixion, from 1200- 

1220, this piece has heavy black lines and much sorrow caused 

by the distorted figures. 29 Secondly, is the Isenheim Alterpiece by 

Matthias Grünewald in 1512. 30 This piece is not distorted and 

the figures are painted naturalistically; however, the artist creates 

a disturbing dead Christ. His skin is yellow and looks beaten; 

he is very skinny and his arms are stretched and twisted to reach 

the cross. The feeling of looking at this image of Christ is very 

similar to the feeling received from Beckmann’s Descent from the 

Cross. 

Beckmann’s work fits nicely into the Gothic era of art 

because, during this time, their work was all distorted in an 

attempt to search for the correct emotional equation. The 

Christian art of this time had a lot of “hard-to-look-at” pieces 

that brought out heavy emotions, like fear or sorrow. 

Beckmann was different for his time because of his 

experiences in war and witnessing traumatic deaths as a medical 

orderly. He set himself up for creating pain in his art by using 

the morgue and the horrified patients as models for his work. 

Nothing other than in a cold composition could be expected of 

him. Beckmann’s Descent from the Cross easily portrays his life 

experiences in a time of distress, when all he had left to turn to 

was his religion. In fact, Beckmann stated during the war: 

“My will to live is at present stronger than ever, although I 

have experienced great horror and have seemed to die with 

the others several times. But the more often one dies, the 

more intensely one lives. I have drawn - this is what keeps 

me from death and danger.” 31 

All “descent from the cross” pieces deal with a dead Christ 

during a painful time, but no artist has ever been as vulgar as 

Max Beckmann. It can only be concluded that there is no way 

to express death and pain so accurately in art unless you have 

experienced it yourself. 

Bibliography 

Science of the Bible. Performed by Hayati Akabas. 2005. 

Buenger, Barbera C. “Max Beckmann’s Ideologues: Some 

forgotton Faces.” The Art Bulletin 21, no. 3 (1989): 453- 

479. 

29 This piece is created by an unknown artist, located in the Basilica di San 

Marco, Venice. Emil Kern, Daniel Marx, Web Gallery of Art. (accessed 

March 30, 2009) http://www.wga.hu/. 

30 Emil Kern, Daniel Marx, Web Gallery of Art. (accessed March 30, 2009) 

http://www.wga.hu/. 




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Hudson, 1972. 

Emil Kern, Daniel Marx. Web Gallery of Art. http://www.wga. 

hu/ (accessed March 30, 2009). 

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www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/172437/drypoint 


Ferguson, George. Signs and Symbols in Christian Art. New 

York: Oxford University Press, 1954. 

Friedrich Heckmanns, Fritz Loffler, Eberhard Roters, Stephan 

von Wiese. German Expressionism 1915-1925, The Second 

Generation. Munic: Prestel-Verlag, 1988. 

Gast, Walter E. Symbols in Christian Art and Arcitecture. June 

09, 2000. http://wegast.home.att.net/symbols/ (accessed 

March 05, 2008). 

Hall, James. Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art, Second 

Edition. 

Hodin, J. P. “German Books on Modern Art.” The Burlington 

Magizine, 1960: 212-214. 

Martin, John Rupert. Rubens: The Antwerp Alterpieces. New 

York: Norton and Company. 

Meiss, Millard. Painting in Florence and Sienna after the Black 

Death. New York: Harper Torch Books, 1951. 

Museum of Modern Art. 2007. http://www.moma.org/ 

collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE% 

3A429&page_number=1&template_id=6&sort_order=1 

(accessed January 14, 2009). 

Roh, Franx. German painting in the 20th Century. Greenwich: 

New York Graphic Society, 1968. 

Rynck, Patrick De. How to Read a Painting: Lessons from the Old 

Masters. New York: Harry N Abrams, 2004. 

Selz, Peter Howard. “Max Beckmann.” By Museum of Modern 

Art. New York: Ayer Publishing, 1980. 

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1984.


Laws, War, and the 

People Caught in 

Between: 

The Legal Status of Guantánamo 

Bay Detainees during the Bush 

Administration and the Chance 

for Progressive Change Under the 

Obama Administration 


English 215 

Following the devastating terror attacks on September 11, 

2001, the Bush Administration embarked on its so-called “War 

on Terror” in order to seek and destroy terrorist safe-havens 

in the Middle East and elsewhere. This bizarre war, on an 

abstract concept, produced an equally unusual problem: what 

to do with terrorist suspects – primarily al-Qaeda and Taliban 

insurgents – captured on the broad-ranging war front. 

The Bush Administration crafted a controversial solution 

by detaining suspects at Guantánamo Bay, a US Naval 

Facility on a slip of land leased under duress from the Cuban 

government and supposedly beyond the reach of United 

States and international law. Since the first detainees arrived 

at Guantánamo Bay in January 2002 their legal status and 

humanitarian rights have stimulated a great deal of legal and 

scholarly debate. In the ensuing controversy, two important 

points surfaced and were thoroughly debated during the Bush 

Administration: firstly, whether or not the detainees warrant 

Prisoner of War (POW) status under the Geneva Conventions, 

and secondly, whether or not detainees held outside of sovereign 

US territory maintain the right to challenge their detention in a 

US federal court, i.e., the right to habeas corpus. 

On January 22, 2009, newly elected President Barak 

Obama signed an executive order signaling that Guantánamo 

Bay will be closed within a year (Wittes 2009). The difficult 

work of untangling the legal chaos evident at Guantánamo 

Bay now begins, especially when deciding which detainees 

are safe to release, where to release them, and how to credibly 

prosecute those that remain (Goldhaber 2009). This last point 

remains the most contentious, and in fact, warrants a fresh 

look at whether or not terrorist suspects are prisoners of war or 

criminals that should be tried in civilian federal courts. 

This paper examines both sides of the POW debate that 

raged throughout the earliest stages of the War on Terror 

between many of President Bush’s closest advisors and military 

justice experts who advocated for denial of POW status and 

those that encouraged the provision of POW status and strict 

adherence to the Geneva Conventions. In addition, the 

evolving legal status of Guantánamo Bay detainees will be 

reviewed as manifested by the legal “back and forth” between 

the US Supreme Court and the Republican-led Congress 

over habeas corpus rights. The “rights-enforcing” approach 

favored by the US Supreme Court and the inability of military 

commissions to successfully prosecute detainees suggests that 

President Obama needs to make a clean break from policies 

associated with President Bush and promote a greater balance 

between national security concerns and the humanitarian rights 

of detainees (de Londras 2008:36; Goldhaber 2009). In many 

respects the debate then returns to its point of origin: is it 

wise to accord terrorist insurgents POW status and rely upon 

the framework set by the Geneva Conventions—given their 

allegiance is to an ideology and not a nation-state, and given 

that ideologies are more rigid than wars between states? The 

answer to this question will inform President Obama’s approach 

in whether or not to continue to a policy of “preventive 

detention,” as some suggest, or to depend upon criminal 

trials (Goldhaber 2009; Roth 2008; Wittes 2009; Wittes et 

al. 2009). The criminal model has successfully prosecuted 

suspected terrorists captured on US soil and branding terrorists 

as criminals rather than “religious warriors” tarnishes the allure 

of engaging in violent activities (Roth 2008). 

Shortly after the US military incursion into Afghanistan 

began, President Bush issued an Executive Order that outlined 

his position on handling individuals captured during the course 

of the conflict (Dahlstrom 2003; Fogarty 2005). Issued on 

November 13, 2001, the Order paved the way for the creation 

of military commissions to prosecute suspected terrorists and 

introduced the phrase “unlawful enemy combatant” into 

modern discourse. Borrowing from a 1942 US Supreme Court 

decision, Ex Parte Quirin, which recognized a class of “lawful 

combatants,” the Bush Administration inferred that it was 

legally possible to recognize a class of “unlawful combatants” 

(Dahlstrom 2003:272; Rivkin Jr. and Casey [date not cited]). 

The Executive Order came under immediate criticism. 

Legal expert Lawrence Tribe claimed that Quirin provided no 

basis for the military commissions established by the 2001 


Executive Order and that any convictions would be discredited 

without legislative authorization (Dahlstrom 2003). Critics also 

pointed to the fact that the Order denied detainees the right 

to appeal the commissions’ decisions in a civilian court, thus 

denying habeas corpus. The order also failed to address due 

process concerns such as the right to counsel and the standards 

for admissible evidence (Cutler 2008; Dahlstrom 2003; Fogarty 

2005; Schneider 2004). Gerard P. Fogarty (2005) reports that 

top military justice experts at the Pentagon and senior staff 

at both the National Security Council and State Department 

learned the details of the Order only after it was issued, 

signaling that a small group of White House insiders provided 

most of the input. 

The use of the term “unlawful enemy combatant” provided 

the basis for the Bush Administration’s denial of POW status. 

They reasoned that the Geneva Conventions were originally 

conceived in the context of war between two states. In 2002, 

White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales wrote a memo 

to President Bush detailing changes in armed conflict that 

“rendered part of the Conventions obsolete” (Ratner 2008:26). 

Then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld argued that neither 

al-Qaeda nor the Taliban engaged in warfare according to the 

description of armed conflict contained within the Geneva 

Conventions: they lacked uniforms, hid their weapons, and 

tried to blend in with the civilian population (Fogarty 2005; 

Rivkin Jr. and Casey). The Taliban were not recognized as the 

legitimate government in Afghanistan and al-Qaeda was not 

fighting on behalf of any nation-state (Dahlstrom 2003). Ergo, 

they are unlawful enemy combatants and not POWs (Fogarty 

2005; Rivkin Jr. and Casey). 

The laws of war codified in the Geneva Conventions are 

not clear-cut when the conflict involves non-state actors (DoJ 

2009c). Numerous scholars provide arguments that support 

the treatment of members of the Taliban and al-Qaeda as 

POWs. Relying upon definitions outlined in the Geneva 

Conventions, Daniella Schneider (2004) argues that captured 

Taliban members qualify as POWs since they were the “de 

facto” government of Afghanistan (p424). Fogarty (2005) 

concurs and cites the efforts made by former Secretary of 

State Colin Powell who was successful in convincing the Bush 

Administration to change course and accord Taliban members 

POW status. United Nations POW experts advocated that al- 

Qaeda members who fought on behalf of the Taliban should 

receive POW status, and posited that they might qualify as a 

militia in their own right (Fogarty 2005). Schneider (2004) 

supports this recognition of al-Qaeda as a “legitimate fighting 

force” given their structural organization and their visibility in 

distinction from other civilians (p426). Ratner (2008) likens 

al-Qaeda to the Vietcong guerilla forces that struggled for 

South Vietnam during the Vietnam War; they were not part 


of any formal army but were nonetheless afforded POW status 

by the US. Dahlstrom (2003) acknowledges that Article 4 of 

the Geneva Conventions’ inclusion of groups aligned with a 

non-recognized authority provides grounds for recognizing al- 

Qaeda members as POWs, although their lack of adherence to 

the traditional laws of war may also preclude that recognition. 

Either way, where doubt exists captured combatants are 

presumed POWs until a “competent tribunal” decides otherwise 

(Schneider 2004:426). Granting POW status threatened to 

render President Bush’s Executive Order in violation of the 

Geneva Conventions and against US domestic law. 

By early 2002, more than 600 detainees resided at 

Guantánamo Bay and the legal challenges to their continued 

detention went before the courts (Dahlstrom 2003; Schneider 

2004). In February 2002, the District Court for D.C. quickly 

dismissed the case of Rasul et al. v Bush (Rasul) since the 

detainees were in custody beyond the jurisdiction of the D.C. 

Court. The Court refused the plaintiff’s argument that the 

US held “de facto” control and jurisdiction over Guantánamo 

Bay (Dahlstrom 2003:680). In 2004, the US Supreme Court 

overruled the District Court’s decision on the basis that it was 

sufficient for the detaining authority (the US government) 

to exist within the Court’s territorial jurisdiction (de Londras 

2008). Therefore, the Guantánamo Bay detainees warranted a 

limited right to the writ of habeas corpus (Cutler 2008). 

In response to the US Supreme Court’s decision in Rasul, 

the Bush Administration established Combatant Status Review 

Tribunals (CSRTs) as a substitute for judicial proceedings 

to determine the validity of their claim that the detainees 

were enemy combatants (Cutler 2008; Rivkin Jr. and Casey). 

Rivkin Jr. and Casey contend that the CSRTs provide ample 

due process provisions for detainees suspected of terrorist acts 

against the US. de Londras (2008) asserts that the CSRTs are 

not adequate to address habeas corpus, in part because detainees 

accorded non-combatant status were not always released. She 

argues that the US Supreme Court fell short by not recognizing 

the “high degree of operational sovereignty” the US commands 

at Guantánamo Bay, which would have automatically conferred 

constitutional habeas rights to the detainees (constitutional 

rights cannot be circumvented via legislative action). 

To codify the CSRTs, Congress enacted the Detainee 

Treatment Act (DTA) of 2005 (de Londras 2008; Rivkin Jr. 

and Casey). The DTA effectively denied any federal court from 

exercising jurisdiction to hear pending and future habeas cases 

(Cutler 2008; de Londras 2008). Congress intended for this 

law to apply to the influential Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (Hamdan) 

case before the US Supreme Court. 

In its last ruling of the 2006 term, the US Supreme 

Court decided that the DTA was not explicitly retroactive 

and so delivered their decision on the Hamdan case (Cutler

2008). Their decision contained a number of points: 1) The 

2001 Executive Order was not authorized by Congress, 2) 

the military commissions as proposed by President Bush were 

“structurally and procedurally deficient” and, 3) all detainees 

held at Guantánamo Bay (including al-Qaeda) are protected 

by the Geneva Conventions (Cutler 2008:36). The Supreme 

Court Justices agreed that Hamdan should be tried by a 

“regularly constituted court” that affords “judicial guarantees 

[…] recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples” (Cutler 

2008:38). They did not address the individual habeas claim but 

rather regulated the ability of the Executive branch to develop 

military commissions without Legislative action (de Londras 

2008). 

As a reaction to the Hamdan decision, Congress enacted 

the Military Commissions Act (MCA) of 2006 to codify how 

the Geneva Conventions are applicable to suspected terrorists 

and to establish new rules for military commissions for the 

prosecution of detainees (Cutler 2008). The MCA revoked 

the right of the US Supreme Court to enforce the Geneva 

Conventions and instead offered examples of what constituted 

a “grave [breach]” of the Conventions (Cutler 2008:43). The 

guidelines for military commissions used relaxed due process 

considerations concerning the admissibility of evidence. 

Hearsay and evidence obtained through coercion is admissible if 

the presiding judge affords it “probative value,” and defendants 

are not allowed to hear classified evidence against them; rather, 

they are provided with a “declassified summary of information” 

(Cutler 2008:40). The MCA also includes an explicit provision 

stripping federal courts of the jurisdiction to hear pending 

habeas cases (de Londras 2008). 

Colonel Morris D. Davis (2007) defends the MCA and 

argues that the trials conducted exceed the standards set forth 

by other formal UN tribunals. Furthermore, the procedures 

utilized in military commissions meet the requirements outlined 

in the Hamdan decision. Davis (2007) concedes that some due 

process standards in the MCA are broader than those used in 

civilian courts, but the same rights afforded US citizens are not 

automatically warranted in the case of “alien unlawful enemy 

combatants” (p33). 

In 2007, the US Court of Appeals for the D.C Circuit 

refused to grant a writ of habeas corpus in the case of 

Boumediene v. Bush (Boumediene) citing lack of jurisdiction 

under the MCA (Cutler 2008). Moreover, since the detainees 

were foreign nationals held outside the US they lacked a 

constitutional right to habeas corpus. After initially refusing 

to consider Boumediene, the US Supreme Court unexpectedly 

altered their decision and granted a review (Cutler 2008). De 

Londras (2008) believes this occurred out of a new willingness 

to finally settle the issue of constitutionality concerning habeas 

rights. Indeed, in June 2008 the US Supreme Court granted 

Guantánamo Bay detainees the constitutional right to the writ 

of habeas corpus (DoJ 2008). In their decision, the Supreme 

Court rejected the Bush Administration’s claim that the absence 

of US sovereignty negated the applicability of the Constitution 

(Boumediene v. Bush, 553 US 2008). 

The US Supreme Court’s decision necessitates close 

examination by the review panel President Obama has set up to 

determine the best course of action for closing the Guantánamo 

Bay facility within one year from the date he issued his 

Executive Order (January 22, 2009). As it stands, the Order 

leaves open the option of military commissions or some other 

trial mechanism, as well as the continued detention of some of 

the detainees (Wittes 2009). 

Ongoing debate reveals an interesting twist: during the 

Bush Administration liberal scholars advocated for POW status 

and conservative “hawks” argued against it; now, conservatives 

tend to favor a continuation of the provision of POW status 

and an improved mechanism for onshore preventive detention 

and liberals are clamoring for the transfer of the remaining 

detainees into the civilian criminal justice system. Nonetheless, 

liberals and conservatives alike are inclined to agree that 

President Obama needs to make a clean break from policies 

associated with President Bush and promote a greater balance 

between national security concerns and the humanitarian rights 

of detainees (Goldhaber 2009). 

President Obama appears to have taken steps to define 

a “new standard” for the detention of terrorist suspects and 

has revoked the phrase “enemy combatant” (DoJ 2009b). 

Individuals who “planned, authorized, committed, or aided” 

the attacks of September 11, 2001 will remain in detention, 

in addition to those who “harbored those responsible” (DoJ 

2009c:1). Members of al-Qaeda and the Taliban who engage 

in attacks against coalition forces in Afghanistan or provide 

“substantial support” from elsewhere will also be detained (DoJ 

2009c:7). The Department of Justice (2009c) has yet to define 

exactly what constitutes “substantial support,” but for now it 

will be determined on an individual basis depending on the 

facts of each case. 

The Obama Administration exhibits a greater willingness 

than the previous Bush Administration to ensure that the 

treatment of detainees is progressive with the nation’s values. 

The long-term, indefinite nature of the “War on Terror” invites 

the question of whether a war-like or military approach is best 

suited for the task of managing terrorist suspects. It is on this 

point that the Geneva Conventions, once seized upon by liberal 

scholars in defense of Guantánamo Bay detainees, begins to 

fade in significance. 

As previously noted, the Geneva Conventions were 

conceived in the context of two state actors in conflict. Al- 

Qaeda and deposed Taliban forces are non-state actors, meaning 


that their primary allegiance is to an ideology rather than 

a nation. Policy makers should recognize that the combat 

situation in Afghanistan is not a war; it is an occupation 

designed to root out ideological insurgents in order to 

prevent them from launching attacks on the US and further 

destabilizing the region. The occupation combines ‘nationbuilding’ 

development projects and a type of terrorist ‘policing,’ 

Scholars that argue for an improved system of preventive 

detention claim that the criminal justice system is not flexible 

enough to detain individuals on the basis of their perceived 

threat to the US. They assert that it requires a standard of 

admissible evidence higher than the present situation allows (i.e. 

evidence collected using questionable interrogation techniques) 

(Goldhaber 2009; Wittes et al. 2009). Law Professor David 

Cole (in Wittes et al. 2009) counters that preventive detention 

is too great a burden on fundamental human rights. He 

concedes, however, that detainees deemed too dangerous to 

release should be held as POWs but only as long as the war 

against the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan endures. In 

the past, POWs were detained until the two states were no 

longer at war, the rationale being that at that point the POWs 

would have no reason to fight against the detaining power. 

There is little indication that this pattern will hold for those 

who fight on behalf of an ideology, and there is some evidence 

to suggest that former detainees will resume terrorist activities 

(Goldhaber 2009). This suggests that terrorist suspects captured 

during an indefinite, ideologically-based conflict should be 

detained for criminal trial rather than simply being held until 

combat activities cease. 

Kenneth Roth (2008), the Executive Director of Human 

Rights Watch, is a strong advocate for using the criminal justice 

system, which has successfully prosecuted suspected terrorists in 

the past. In contrast to President Bush’s military commissions 

which convicted two people, 91% of the 160 terrorists tried in 

US criminal courts between September 2001 and November 

2007 were convicted (Bario 2008; Goldhaber 2009). Moreover, 

laws pertaining to conspiracies and the provision of material 

support to terrorist organizations are suited to the task of 

prosecuting individuals that have planned but not yet carried 

out their threat (Roth 2008). David Bario (2008) cites four 

cases presented to the courts between 2003 and 2005 where 

each of the suspects received sentences equal to or greater 

than 20 years despite the fact that they never carried out their 

plans. These facts refute two of the major arguments put forth 

by opponents that the criminal justice system is structurally 

incapable of successfully prosecuting high-level terrorists or 

defending the nation from future threats. While the rights of 

Guantánamo Bay detainees captured the nation’s attention, the 

government amassed a credible record of convicting US citizens 

and immigrants charged with terrorism-related crimes abiding 


by all due process concerns incumbent upon US courts (Bario 

2008). It is reasonable to believe that the same record will hold 

in the prosecution of suspected terrorists captured on non-US 

soil. 

Lastly, Roth (2008) points out that criminalizing terrorist 

activities eliminates suspects’ ability to portray themselves 

as soldiers engaged in a holy war. Publicizing the wanton 

murderousness of terrorism not only increases the stigma 

associated with their actions, but might also reduce the level 

of support their actions receive (Roth 2008) and reduces the 

likelihood that others will follow in their criminal footsteps. 

For eight years the US government has detained enemy 

combatants at Guantánamo Bay in a state of legal limbo. It is 

now clear that no US President can attempt to circumvent due 

process by detaining terrorist suspects in a location removed 

from US territory; Courts have shown their readiness to grant 

both statutory and constitutional rights to habeas corpus. A 

recurring theme in the literature involves the concern that 

the US, in its detention and treatment of Guantánamo Bay 

detainees, has compromised its own ideals and made the world 

a less safe place; in particular for US soldiers captured abroad 

(Fogarty 2005; Ratner 2008; Schneider 2004). Michael D. 

Goldhaber (2009) stresses that the Obama Administration 

must curtail the perception of detainee mistreatment that 

acts as a motivating force in the terrorist ranks. Conducting 

open adversarial trials with a full complement of due process 

provisions would go a long way towards achieving this. 

Evidence suggests that such trials are feasible. 

In the first moments of his presidency, “President Obama 

rejected as false ‘the choice between our safety and our 

ideals’” (Goldhaber 2009). To honor this principle President 

Obama must show that he is willing to reconsider some of the 

underlying beliefs about what the War on Terror actually are 

and adjust policies in detainee treatment. Deconstructing the 

popular perception of the war in Afghanistan and exposing it 

as an ongoing occupation to combat terrorism and locate those 

responsible for insurgent attacks may at first sit uncomfortably 

in the American publics’ collective mind. Public support for 

the Afghan endeavor is already dropping; removing the label 

“war” may facilitate this drop even further. Nonetheless, 

President Obama and his detainee review panel must display 

honesty and integrity in their assessment of the combat 

situation. Terrorist action against the US will likely continue 

after the Afghan occupation ends—as will the policing of global 

terrorists. It is imperative that the criminal justice system is 

prepared to prosecute the cases of suspected terrorists captured 

on non-US soil.

References 

Bario, David. 2008. “By Any Means Necessary.” The American 

Lawyer. Retrieved May 9, 2009 (http://www.law.com/jsp/ 

tal/PubArticleTAL.jsp?id=1196279828736). 

Boumediene et al. v Bush, President of the United States et al. 

2008. 553 US 2008. Retrieved February 15, 2009. 

(http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/07pdf/06-1195. 

pdf). 

Cutler, Leonard. 2008. “Human Rights Guarantees, 

Constitutional Law, and The Military Commissions Act 

of 2006.” Peace & Change 33:31-59. Retrieved February 3, 

2009 Available: Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost. 

Dahlstrom, K. Elizabeth. 2003. “The Executive Policy Towards 

Detention and Trial of Foreign Citizens at Guantanamo 

Bay.” Berkeley Journal of International Law 21:662-682. 

Retrieved February 3, 2009 Available: Academic Search 

Premier, EBSCOhost. 

Davis, Morris D. 2007. “In Defense of Guantánamo Bay.” Yale 

Law Journal Pocket Part 117:21-35. Retrieved January 31, 

2009 

(http://the pocketpart.org/2007/8/13/davis.html). 

de Londras, Fiona. 2008. “Guantánamo Bay: Towards 

Legality?.” Modern Law Review 71: 36-58. Retrieved 

February 3, 2009 Available: Academic Search Premier, 

EBSCOhost. 

Department of Justice, Office of Intergovernmental and Public 

Liaison. 2008. “Attorney General Urges Congress to Act on 

National Security.” Department of Justice Newsletter 2(7):3. 

Department of Justice. Office of Legal Counsel. 2009a. 

“Memorandum for the Files: Re: Status of Certain OLC 

Opinions Issued in the Aftermath of the Terrorist Attacks 

of September 11, 2001.” Washington, DC: GPO. 

Department of Justice. 2009b. “Department of Justice 

Withdraws ‘Enemy Combatant’ Definition for 

Guantanamo Detainees.” Press Release dated March 13, 

2009. Retrieved April 8, 2009 

(http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2009/March/09-ag-232. 

html). 

Department of Justice. 2009c. “In Re: Guantanamo Bay 

Detainee Litigation – Respondent’s Memorandum 

Regarding the Government’s Detention Authority Relative 

to Detainees Held at Guantanamo Bay.” Filed March 13, 

2009 in the United States District Court for the District of 

Columbia. Washington DC: GPO. 

Fogarty, Gerard P. 2005. “Is Guantanamo Bay Undermining the 

Global War on Terror?” Parameters: US Army War College 

35: 54-71. Retrieved February 3, 2009 Available: Academic 

Search Premier, EBSCOhost. 

Goldhaber, Michael D. 2009. “Escape from Gitmo.” The 

American Lawyer. Retrieved April 16, 2009 

(http://www.law.com/jsp/tal/PubArticleTAL. 

jsp?id=1202427748540). 

Ratner, Steven R. 2008. “Geneva Conventions.” Foreign 

Policy 165: 26-32. Retrieved February 4, 2009 Available: 

Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost. 

Rivkin Jr., Jr., David B. and Lee A. Casey. Date not cited. 

“Within His Rights.” The American Lawyer. Retrieved April 

16, 2009 (http://www.law.com/jsp/tal/PubArticleTAL. 

jsp?id=1196279825437). 

Roth, Kenneth. 2008. “After Guantánamo.” Foreign Affairs 87: 

9-16. Retrieved February 3, 2009 Available: Academic 

Search Premier, EBSCOhost. 

Schneider, Daniella. 2004. “Human Rights Issues in 

Guantanamo Bay.” Journal of Criminal Law 68: 423-439. 

Retrieved February 3, 2009 Available: Academic Search 

Premier, EBSCOhost. 

Wittes, Benjamin. 2009. “The Obama Orders: A Quick 

and Dirty Analysis.” Washington, DC: The Brookings 

Institution, Retrieved February 1, 2009 

(http://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2009/0122 

guantanamo_wittes.aspx). 

Wittes, Benjamin, David Cole, Andrew McCarthy, Diane 

Marie Amann, and Matthew Waxman. 2009. “The 

Challenges of Closing Guantánamo.”The New York Times, 

January 13. Retrieved February 1, 2009 

(http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/13/ 

the-challenges-of-closingguantanamo/?partner=rss&emc=rss 




Pharmaceutical 

Pollution in Water 

Geena Chau 

English/Environmental Sciences Project 

In an average American household, a sick child might take 

a dose of cough medication, the mother might take a pill to 

cure her migraine, and the father might take a pain reliever to 

ease a toothache. If this is typical, then millions of Americans 

are taking drugs. The major issue then becomes: where do all 

the drugs eventually end up? 

The answer is most likely the water supply. In order 

to maintain the quality of water that is safe for drinking, 

proper disposal of trash and pharmaceuticals in particular, must 

not be compromised. It is of vital interest to deal with these 

polluted waters because everyone’s life is at risk of potential 

contamination. Public awareness and proper education on 

the issue of safe drinking water is essential to mitigating the 

pharmaceutical pollution problem. Pharmaceutical pollution 

in water will continue to pose harm to our health and 

environmental sustainability unless actions are taken now to 

minimize the environmental impacts. 

Foremost, pharmaceutical pollution is the contamination 

caused by drug disposal into the environment. Sources of 

the pollution include the drug makers (pharmaceutical 

manufacturers), their distributors, and the consumers. 

Pharmaceutical pollution is a relatively new field of study 

because “chemicals have not been regulated nationally and have 

not traditionally been recognized as water pollutants” (Guidotti, 

par. 14). There has to be stricter regulations concerning the 

pollution of drugs in water because the current situation has 

gone beyond the scope of the legal system. 

When pharmaceuticals are released into the water systems, 

it is done legally, and so far in the United States, there has 

been “at least 271 million pounds of pharmaceuticals into 

the waterways that often provide drinking water” (Donn, par. 

1). Since waterways are vast, this enormous amount of legal 

pharmaceutical pollution has yet to captivate the widespread 

attention it deserves. Major drug makers are not required to 

conduct studies of the impacts of the trace concentrations of 

pharmaceuticals that leave their facilities (Don, par. 7). 

According to the National Center for Health Statistics 

(NCHS), the National Health and Nutrition Examination 

Survey “found a 13 percent increase between 1988-1994 and 

1999-2000 in the proportion of Americans taking at least one 

drug and a 40 percent jump in the proportion taking three or 

more medicines.” If so many Americans are taking medication, 

when these medications are disposed of, what happens to 

the environment? While water pollution from excretion of 

medication may be deemed unavoidable, the dumping of 

expired or unused medication in the toilet is truly inexcusable. 

When it comes to responsibility, companies and individuals 

are accountable for the pharmaceutical pollution that ends up 

in the drinking water. The millions of pharmaceuticals that 

pollute the water are staggering, but are only the beginning of a 

needed long-term study over its effects. Even though “there are 

no confirmed human risks associated with consuming minute 

concentrations of drugs,” there is no reason to doubt the 

severity of the health complications that may result from highly 

contaminated water (Donn, par. 14). 

The trace levels of drugs in the water have shown to 

have great impact on wildlife, and humans are threatened as 

well. Consumption of tainted water or of food that has been 

contaminated with the water has its dangers. Contamination 

has been found to harm aquatic species, and over many more 

years, an increase in the levels of contamination may pose 

greater harm to humans (Donn, par. 13). Indirectly through 

biological magnification, humans whose diet consists of the 

drugged animals will face the toxic consequences at a higher 

level. The problems surrounding drug-contaminated waters 

are deep; it will require a nationwide effort to be committed to 

water treatment in order to avoid such perils. 

Meghan McGee, from Minnesota University, conducted 

a study on how fish would be affected by antidepressants 

and found that the exposure resulted in fish with impaired 

responses (Raloff 15). Fish treated with antidepressants had a 

slower reaction time when a predator was simulated (Raloff 

15). Other research has shown factors like “skewed gender ratio 

and abnormal female fish, downstream of treatment plants and 

pollution-control equipment” evidently as a result of nearby 

source contaminants (Eisenstadt, par. 9). These scientific studies 

provide ample reasoning to conclude that pharmaceutical 

pollution can affect the performance of those affected by the 

contaminated water. For the benefit of every individual and 

wildlife, more research needs to be compiled before any possible 

health factors can be established from drug-tainted water. 

Since pharmaceutical companies are the main source 

responsible for the massive pharmaceutical pollution, the cost 

of the water treatment should be funded from their revenues. 

If they choose to pollute, they must take action to offset the 


environmental impacts. For treatment plants considering 

pharmaceutical pollution control, reverse osmosis, which “stops 

non-water molecules—including viruses and pharmaceuticals,” 

is a hopeful method of water treatment (Walsh, par. 5). 

Through the advanced chemical process, the filtered water 

is sterilized with hydrogen peroxide, and undergoes the 

penetration of ultraviolet light (Walsh, par. 5). While reverse 

osmosis is an effective method of waste-water treatment, it is 

very costly (Eisenstadt, par. 14). Chemical treatment is another 

method of removing contaminants that have dissolved (Elder, 

Miller, Powers 5). Protected drinking watersheds are vital for 

the reduction of contamination in water (Elder, Miller, Powers 

3). Water can always be treated, but decreasing the amount 

of pollution that goes into it is equally important. Though it 

will take time, more research and development needs to be 

completed before a more cost-effective method of treatment can 

be designed. 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has 

been taking action to combat pharmaceuticals disposal issues 

through commissioned studies and advice. “The EPA is seeking 

more information on the practices of the health care industry 

to inform future potential regulatory actions, and identify 

best management and proper disposal practices” (Jones, par. 

1). The EPA’s assistant administrator for water has noted that 

EPA is working to improve the understanding of drugs in the 

water by initiating information collection. They are working 

towards a clearer knowledge of the environmental impacts of 

pharmaceutical pollution, and from the scientific evidence 

that is being gathered, the EPA will be as informative about its 

efforts as possible. 

Similarly, the Office of National Drug Control Policy has 

recommended the following: “do not flush prescriptions down 

the toilet or drain unless the label or accompanying patient 

information specifically instructs you to do so. Take advantage 

of community take-back programs…that collect drugs at a 

central location for proper disposal” (“Proper Disposal of 

Prescription Drugs”). Take-back programs are helpful in 

reducing the pollution because they allow drugs to be disposed 

of in an accessible and protected way in order to stop improper 

disposal (Guidotti, par. 9). In the case of an unavailable 

collection program, taking steps to ensure that the drugs are 

properly disposed of in a sealed container before ending up 

in the trash can be done (“Proper Disposal of Prescription 

Drugs”). For consumers, community programs that offer 

waste recycling and such disposal are useful when dealing with 

pharmaceuticals. 

Guidelines behind water safety are also the basis for 

safe water consumption. According to the World Health 

Organization, there cannot be a universal approach to 

having quality drinking water standards because of different 


legislations, forms of governments, and health policies (WHO 

3). In the United States, the EPA is a key proponent in water 

safety standards and regulations. Health problems can be 

attributed to contamination from its water sources. The quality 

of drinking water is important to all people who consume it, 

and it is necessary to take measures that ensure everyone’s safety. 

Remarkably, pharmaceutical pollution in water is a 

growing problem yet it is only in its early stages of community 

concern. Before the drug contamination in water starts to 

become more blatant in public health, action must be taken to 

guarantee that our waterways are cleaner and safer. Education is 

step one. When the public is educated about the matter, there 

is a less likely chance of larger biological and environmental 

ramifications from pharmaceutical pollution. Public awareness 

on the situation will also lead to government involvement 

which is crucial to enact laws that will improve water 

safety regulations and policies thereby initiating long-term 

sustainability for the delicate ecosystem. It is important to know 

that the land is not a dumpsite for drugs to spill over, but for its 

inhabitants to coexist with nature and nurture it. 

When contaminants enter our water systems, harm 

is not only posed to humans, but also to the surrounding 

environment. Pharmaceutical companies and individuals 

who oppose efforts and understate the increasing concern 

surrounding pharmaceutical pollution by inaction or 

apathy are not cognizant of the global good. Taking the 

initiative to propose clearer guidelines for proper disposal 

of pharmaceuticals, establishing proper disposal sites, and 

conducting responsible research and development on the issue 

encourages greater support for water safety. Creating the change 

for improved regulations in safer drinking water is needed for 

the lives that depend on it for survival; this includes all of us. 

After all, isn’t it better that we take care of our waters today than 

to face potentially irreparable conditions tomorrow?

Works Cited 

“Almost Half of Americans Use at Least One Prescription 

Drug Annual Report on Nation’s Health Shows.” 2 Dec. 

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Geneva: World Health Organization, 2004. 

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What to Do?.” Archives of Environmental & Occupational 

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Impacts of Pharmaceuticals in Water.” 6 Aug. 2009. EPA. 

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Environmental Law: Cases & Materials on Water Pollution 

Control. Washington: Environmental Law Institute, 2008. 

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Effects of Advertising on 

Society: A Literary Review 

Goldie Hayko 

English 215 

The first evidence of advertising was found among the 

ancient Babylonian Empire and dates back to the 3000s BC. 

The first advertisement in English went into print in 1472, in 

order to sell a prayer book. The profession of advertising began 

in the United States in 1841, and although it has been modified 

a great deal, is still around today (Robbs 12). There is no 

argument that the media has become a very present force in the 

American lifestyle, and with any form of “free” media will come 

an abundance of advertisements. 

Since the late 1800’s, psychologists and scholars alike have 

been studying the ways in which advertisements can affect a 

person mentally and emotionally. The effects that advertising 

has on society have been a long and heated debate, with a 

wide array of opinions on the issue. Opinions range from 

the advertising executive, who believes that their company 

is doing society a favor by providing them with valuable 

information, to the market researcher, who admits to their 

sneaky practices. Members of society, ranging from the parent 

to the psychologist, all have their reasons to back up why they 

believe that the prominence of advertising affects some sector of 

society (be it children, a woman’s image, or a consumer society) 

in some way, negatively or positively. Whether advertising is 

good or bad for society, unless someone is a hermit and does 

not watch TV, movies, read newspapers, magazines, or journals, 

listen to the radio, or surf the web, they will be affected 

by advertisements. Some psychologists believe that we are 

“subliminally stimulated” which causes us to think in a way that 

is almost controlled by the media. Regulatory agencies such 

as the Federal Trade Commission have said that advertising 

companies prey on childrens’ vulnerability in order to make an 

easy buck. However, some experts who analyze the marketing 

business oppose this view. They believe that market researchers 

are merely taking a stab in the dark at trying to figure out how 

to best sell their products. There are two major polarities on this 

issue; one side believes that advertising is harmful to society, the 

other side believes that advertising does not affect society in a 

negative way. 

Whether we are experts on the matter or have no 

knowledge of it what-so-ever, it is important to really think 

about the role that advertising plays in our own lives, no matter 

whether it is negative or positive. Does advertising really affect 

us on some level, a level that influences our thinking patterns 

and even our actions? Or is it merely a communication channel 

between seller and consumer? 

Despite the fact that advertising has operated successfully 

for many years, the prevailing stance within academic circles is 

that advertising is harmful to society. Insiders in the ad business 

even admit to the evils that come with advertising. Jay Chait, 

an advertising guru who revolutionized the industry in the 

sixties, gives his insider’s point of view in his article Illusions Are 

Forever. Since the advertising industry is now heavily regulated 

by the FTC and other agencies, they can not lie in their ads. 

However, there is a lie in the “art of advertising” (Chait 1). The 

methods in which situations are presented to the public through 

advertisements are not realistic. Companies want us to believe 

that we should live the life that they present to us on screen, 

with their products. Because we deal with advertisements on a 

daily basis and have become so accustomed to their messages, 

we often “have trouble seeing things in our own natural way” 

(1). Advertising substitutes our most intimate thoughts with 

their own ideas of what should be (Chait 1). Although the 

media can expose us to information that we might otherwise 

not receive, we pay a price for that information. In any 

industrialized society “there is little personal knowledge of 

anything in the world that is not filtered by media” (1). 

Richard Pollay, author of The Distorted Mirror: Reflection on 

the Unintended Consequences of Advertising, uses the metaphor of 

“brain surgery” when he speaks of the influence that advertising 

has on society. Advertising pops up everywhere, on the street, in 

our communication, and even in the most intimate of spaces, 

our home. There is no doubt that advertising influences our 

culture, which in turn influences us (Pollay 18). Avertisements 

are designed to “attract attention, change attitudes, and to 

command our behavior” (Pollay 18). Advertisements present 

us with a set of images that idealize certain life circumstances. 

They present this information in a way that is easily absorbed 

so that we do not have to do a lot of thinking in order to take 

in the concept and apply it at a later time subconsciously. Of 

course, not all advertisements will be able to pull this off, but 

the majority of them “must-otherwise, advertisers are financially 

extravagant fools” (Pollay 18). Modern big time advertisers have 

at their fingertips an information pool of “applied behavioral 

technologies for consumer behavior and advertising research” 

(Pollay 18). This allows the company to perfectly tailor the ad 


in a way that will get the desired response from the consumer. 

The advertising business is one where many great minds from 

fields like psychology, anthropology, sociology, etc, have made it 

a “full-time business to get inside the collective public mind… 

to manipulate, exploit, and control” (18). 

The advertising industry has been criticized by social 

critics for bringing materialism to its height; for replacing 

inner happiness and intrinsic motivation with the drive to 

be productive in society only in order to consume and buy 

happiness. By playing with emotions, stereotyping and 

manipulating ideas of real life situations, advertising has 

reduced us to the role of the “irrational consumer” (Pollay 21). 

In a chapter from a text book, Psychology and Consumer 

Culture: the Struggle for a good life in a Materialistic World; 

by Allen Kanner and Renee Soule, it is blatantly stated 

that “commercials manipulate people’s strongest desires 

and greatest fears to convince them to buy the preferred 

products” (56). Aside from the fact that we are manipulated 

into being consumers, there are additional side effects to this 

manipulation. Advertising promotes harmful products such 

as fast food, alcohol, etc. which can lead to obesity and other 

health problems. Advertising also upholds stereotypes regarding 

class, gender and race (Kanner and Soule 57). These stereotypes 

can affect a healthy self-image and often lead to feelings of 

inadequacy, especially in teen girls. People are “objectified” 

by the advertising industry, they are wanted for one thing: to 

buy the product or service. Everything that makes us human is 

“reduced to that of a consumer” (57). 

Regulatory agencies that keep the amount of fraudulent 

claims to a minimum and help out a lot, but the “soul fraud” 

as Dinyar Godrej puts it in his article How the Ad Industry Pins 

us Down, is much worst because it is not as easy to detect. The 

“images, dreams, and emotions… that we are evolutionary 

programmed to engage with” are pasted together in a fashion 

that toys with our minds (125). This means that we are often 

times affected in ways that we do not even realize or even 

understand. When an audience views an advertisements they 

are not actively trying to get anything out of it, so it is not very 

influential at that moment. However, long after the viewing 

experience has been forgotten “the effects will show up” (126). 

Many advertisement critics believe that society can be sent 

messages that we do not even know that we are receiving. 

In fact, it was in 1913 that the possibilities of “subliminal 

stimulation was recognized” in advertising (Cutler; McConnell; 

McNeil). Despite this knowledge of almost a century, there is 

a “lack of research based data” on the exact outcomes that can 

occur (Pollay 31.) 

The area in which there is a more visible negative affects 

of advertisements on humans is the way in which advertising 

can affect children and teen girls. In “Kid Kustomers,” Eric 


Schlosser addresses the sector of advertisements that targets 

children. In the 1980’s, when parents started spending more 

time away from their children, they began spending more 

money on them. Experts have called the 1980’s “the decade 

of the child consumer” (46). Since this time, children have 

begun to be targeted by “phone companies, oil companies, auto 

companies, as well as clothing stores and restaurant chains” 

(46). When children are bombarded with all of this stimulation, 

it blurs their perception of reality because they often cannot 

tell the difference between TV programming and advertising. 

Schlosser conveys the notion that companies are driven to 

engrain children with their products while they are young, in 

order to keep the products in their lives forever. The companies 

hope that “nostalgic childhood memories of a brand” will 

provide for this, and so companies are planning their “cradle- 

to grave advertising strategies” (46). When producing an ad 

directed at children, an advertiser’s main objective is to give 

the child a good reason to nag the parent for the product (47). 

This undermines parents by filling a child’s head with ideas 

that they need these products, some of which may be harmful 

to children, such as video games. This process of directing 

advertisements at children socializes children at an early age 

to become consumers and can create schisms in parent-child 

relationships (Polloy 23). 

Another prevailing criticism of advertising is that it 

distorts perceptions of healthy body image. In the majority of 

mainstream advertisements, whether in magazines or television, 

there is an “unrealistic standard of female beauty and thinness” 

that is projected as the norm. When a young woman sees these 

advertisements and realizes that her outward image does not 

quite match up, she will often believe that the best way to 

match up to the projected image is to buy that product. This 

is exactly what the company wants. The ability of the media 

to shape self-image can be a damaging one that can lead to 

eating disorders, depression, or dissatisfaction with one’s self 

(Lavine; Sweeny; Wagner, 1). Studies are now showing an 

effect in young men as well, with an increase in “awareness of 

and concerns about their…bodies and thus increase in body 

dissatisfaction” (Lavine; Sweeny; Wagner, 3). 

The opposition to all of this falls under the belief that 

advertising does not effect society negatively and in fact can 

be beneficial. John E. Calfee, a former Trade Commission 

Economist, argues the point that advertising is beneficial to 

society. He admits that the main objective of advertising 

is to persuade the consumer to buy a particular product, 

but Calfee believes that the communication lines between 

sellers and buyers are useful to the consumer. He uses some 

specific ad campaigns as examples to demonstrate the ways in 

which advertisements deliver what he believes to be “useful” 

information for the public.

Calfee describes the ways in which companies bring certain 

issues to the public’s attention in order to get the public to 

realize the benefits that a certain product possesses. An example 

he uses is the Kellogg All-Bran Campaign. Calfee takes us 

back to the 1970’s when the public health experts realized 

that a diet consisting of more fiber could help prevent cancer. 

The National Cancer Institute wanted to get the word out 

to the public, but did not have the resources to do so. The 

Kellogg All-Bran Campaign quickly saw the opportunity in the 

situation because their cereal contained “nine grams of fiber” 

(117). With the information from the NCI, Kellogg began 

running “fiber-cancer ads” (116). 

Calfee uses this particular case to demonstrate that 

good information can be passed to the public through 

advertisements. This was because the awareness of the need to 

add fiber to the diet went up 31% for women “who do most of 

the grocery shopping” (118). Calfee showcased this particular 

campaign because the information that consumers obtained did 

not necessarily cause them to go buy Kellogg All-Bran cereal, 

but there was “increased market shares for high-fiber nonadvertised 

product” (118). 

According to Calfee, this is evidence that advertisements 

do educate and bring awareness to the public on certain issues. 

The Kellogg Campaign was followed by many more food 

products, adding healthy ingredients (such as vitamins, calcium, 

etc) and advertising the benefits. 

Calfee reiterates his opinion that advertisements help 

both the seller and the buyer. He also believes that there are 

many cases in which advertisements serve the buyers more 

than the sellers. Companies want to portray the good side 

of their products to the customers but they never advertise 

the bad side. However, Calfee believes that the competitive 

nature of comparative advertisement takes care of that for 

the buyers. Calfee says that “sellers are less likely to stretch 

the truth, whether it involves prices or subtleties about safety 

and performance, when they know it may arouse a merciless 

response from injured competitors” (121). This means that 

if one company advertises their product in a misleading way, 

another company with a similar product can be relentless with 

comparative advertising. 

According to Calfee, all products have their problems, but 

there is always a similar product that is “less bad” (121). So a 

brand will advertise a certain advantage that they have over the 

similar product, such as “less fat,” “less cholesterol,” etc, The 

like-product will then strike-back, ensuing an all out ad war. 

According to Calfee, this is beneficial to the buyer because the 

“struggle brings better information, more informed choices, and 

improved products” for the customer (121). 

Competitors will use “less-bad claims” and will spread bad 

information on a product because even though their product 

may have some undesirable features, they are not as bad as 

features of a similar product. Calfee describes this procedure as 

giving the consumer a complete advantage in the “give and take 

of the marketplace” (124). There are many others who believe 

that advertising is more helpful to society than it is harmful. 

According to Michael Schudson, a professor of sociology 

and communications, advertising has little power over the 

consumer, if any at all. In fact, companies may support our 

entertainment with their ads, while receiving little benefit at 

all. This is evident in the cases of sponsorship, in events like 

the Super-bowl or the Olympics. A market research firm 

did studies on sponsorship of these events and found that 

companies were paying much more and their ads were viewed 

much less than their ads on television (Schudson 1). Why 

would a company foot the bill to bring us free entertainment? 

Critics may say that this process benefits the company anyway 

because it builds their credibility. But is that really a bad thing? 

It seems that consumers would benefit from buying products 

from a credible source. Schudson believes the statement that 

advertising causes the consumer to think a certain way is 

questionable. 

In fact, some in the field of marketing have stated that 

they do not believe that the money they spend on advertising 

convinces the consumer of anything. A particular market 

executive said that the benefit of advertising to the company 

comes into play when the company is giving a presentation to 

investors. The company needs to have a good ad campaign in 

order for the stockholders and investors to maintain faith in 

the company and keep the capital rolling in, to produce the 

products. Some marketers believe that their ads do not affect 

the consumer, but does affect the ways in which they are viewed 

by distributors and retailers (Schudson 2). Sales people do 

not want to sell products that they have not heard of before, 

and whether the advertisements influence consumers or not, 

the sales people believe that they do, which causes retailers 

to have that product in stock to sell. So even if the ad does 

not influence the consumer, as long as the ad can influence 

the investors, salespeople and retailers, the company will be 

prosperous. This produces product availability and that will 

shape the consumer choice. 

From an economic or business standpoint, advertising 

has a very positive effect on society because it stimulates the 

economy by producing demand for products and services, 

which strengthens the economy (Robbs 7). Advertising can also 

be seen as positive in the ways it impacts society because it helps 

maintain mass communications media, making them much 

less expensive for the public. Without advertisement, many 

forms of mass media such as newspapers, radio, magazines, 

and television, might not exist as they do today (Robbs 8). 

Although he is a critic of advertising, Richard Pollay admits 


that advertising can be beneficial in the way that it can help 

development of consumer skills (21). 

Critics have been known to blame advertisements and 

other media forms for insensitivity to culture differences. 

However, journalism and communication specialist Brett Robbs 

has stated that ad campaigns have “universal appeal” (9). The 

overriding of cultural differences can contribute to culture in 

a positive way by putting us all on the same level (Robbs 9). 

Advertising regulations in other countries are put in position in 

order to protect culture and values. For instance, in Malaysia, 

there are restrictions on all advertisements that include nudity, 

disco dancing, or seductive clothing, etc; all ads must depict 

Malaysian culture. 

The review of the literature sums up the variety of 

issues that constitute this subject and shows that there are many 

directions from which to view the matter at hand. Because 

many of the accusations directed at the ad industry are dealing 

with psychological and emotional matters, it is difficult to test 

or prove these accusations. And, because the majority of society 

is encompassed by a comprehensive and ever increasing amount 

of advertisements, it is important to take into consideration the 

ways that may affect us. Most literature found on the topic of 

advertising is concentrated in opposition to the abundance of 

advertising. Despite that, advertising remains a very prominent 

occurrence in our lives. 


Works Cited 

Calfee, John. “How Advertising Informs to Our Benefit.” 

Consumer Research (1998): 115-129 

Chait, Jay. “Illusions Are Forever.” Best of The Web 10/02/2000 

1-2. 5 Feb 2009 . 

Dinyar, Godrej. “How the Ad Industry Pins Us Down.” New 

Internationalist (2006): 125-129 

Kanner, Allen, and Renee. “Globalization, Corporate Culture, 

And Freedom.” Psychology and Consumer Culture xi(2004): 

49-63. 

Lavine, Howard, Sweeny, Donna, and Wagner, Stephen. 

“Depicting Women as Sex Objects in Television 

Advertising: Effects on Body Dissatisfaction.” TV 

Advertising And Sexism 02/14/2009 . 

McConnell, James, Cutler, Richard, and McNeil, Elton. 

“Subliminal Stimulation: An Overview.” American 

Psychologist (1955): 229-242. 

Pollay, Richard. “The Distorted Mirror: Reflections on the 

Unintended Consequences of Advertising.” 

Journal of Marketing 50(1986): 18-36. 

Robbs, Brett. “Advertising.” Encarta. 1997-2008. Microsoft 

Encarta Online Encyclopedia. 12 Feb 2009 

. 

Schlosser, Eric. “Kid Kustomers.” 46-50. 05Feb 2009 

. 

Schudson, Michael. “Advertising: Hit or Myth.” 1-3. 

12Feb2009.


The Fruit of Good and 

Evil 

Richard Wei 

English 100T 

Twenty five hundred miles southwest of the Hawaiian 

Islands lay the islands of Samoa. Once under the rule of 

monarchy, the islands are now two dissimilar political entities. 

To the east is the United States territory of American Samoa, 

initially Eastern Samoa. West of American Samoa is the 

Independent State of Samoa, often referred to as Western 

Samoa. Although politically divided, the two nations are 

homogeneous. Both speak the same language and share the 

principles of the fa’a Samoa (Samoan way): the traditions and 

customs that govern the Samoan people. The fa’a Samoa creates 

a hierarchy that has placed the Samoan culture in a position 

impossible to either overcome or destroy, or at least from 

outside influence. While the fa’a Samoa completely shields off 

foreign influences that threaten to change the Samoan culture, 

its oppressive means of governance has spurred discontent from 

Samoans. Should change come upon the Samoan culture, it will 

likely begin from its own people. 

The acceptance of Christianity by King Malietoa of Samoa 

apparently left quite the impact on the Samoan culture. After 

being presented with a copy of the Holy Bible, King Malietoa 

conferred the salutation aofa’alupega (head of all titles, even 

to the title Malietoa) to the first missionaries. From then on 

church ministers have always inherited the prestige of the 

nation. They possess dominant power. Their intelligence is 

acquiescence. 

Samoans believe, through church ministers, families are 

blessed and at times, families are cursed. Yearning for blessings, 

Samoans serve by giving food and monetary donations to 

the church minister and family: “[s]ome villagers may even 

be pressured to contribute more than thirty percent of their 

income to support local pastors and church projects – a burden 

increasingly resented by many” (Governing Body of Jehovah 

Witness 69). 

Resentful people, however, are told that they have failed to 

serve God when they forget to give, or just couldn’t afford to. 

Some face public humiliation. Monetary donations collected for 

church ministers and for church improvements are recited so 

the congregation is informed of who donated and who did not. 

To avoid shame, families must give. Though the wealthy in this 

case are rarely affected, the poor are greatly distressed. Raised 

in a religious family, I have experienced firsthand the burdens 

of religious institutions. As an illustration of my family, both 

parents worked minimum wage jobs in American Samoa, raised 

six children, and served the church, in this case, a Methodist 

one. 

Like most of the older generation, my parents have vowed 

their commitment to the church though I am uncertain when 

our service began. I must believe, however, that our service 

began years before I was born, and lasted long enough that 

before anyone is to eat, the best portion of the meal must be 

put aside and taken immediately to the church minister and his 

family. On Sundays, half of our family income is handed over 

and is recorded by the church secretary; the amount is then 

tallied together with other donations and announced before 

the congregation; individual families are called out and all 

donations are disclosed. 

We were considered part of the low-givers at church, 

however. Our donations did not even compare to the wealthy 

as “there are even competitions to see who can give the most. 

Some churches announce the names of winners who can give 

the most money” (Governing Body 69). 

On average, a church minister makes about three thousand 

dollars a month in cash, all of which are tax free. Aside from 

the income, “the pastor’s house is the largest in the village, 

provided for him…by the villagers themselves” (Swaney 

27). Also provided are food and many other services, all to 

accommodate who the Samoans claim as the suli vaai’a a le 

Atua, roughly translated as “the Seen One of God.” My family, 

amongst others, feels the existence of oppression in any religious 

institution is unacceptable and should be changed (Swaney 27). 

Many have questioned the influence and the credibility 

of certain denominations of Christianity that are found in 

the Samoan culture. The latter generations have called the 

denominations in question “a business.” Some say it is the 

ideal job. Parents still demand that their children become 

church ministers. The truth is that many “ordinary citizens 

are controlled by…religious institutions,” and because of 

this, according to Andre Vltchek, a journalist on Asian and 

South Pacific foreign policy, “out-migration has increased and 

Samoans leave for more than just economic reasons” (6-7). 

Advocates of the various churches in Samoa, conversely, 

argue that people suffer because of their little faith, and hence 

they could not withstand the faith. While this may seem 

reasonable because barely anyone understood Christianity as it 

first established on the islands, anthropologist Lowell Holmes 


of the Wichita State University quoted in his book The Samoan 

Village, a statement of a missionary by the name of Felix 

Keesing: 

I am afraid that from the Christian viewpoint the 

missions have been rather a failure in Samoa. Instead of 

accepting Christianity and allowing it to remold their lives 

to its form, the Samoans have fitted them inside Samoan 

custom, making them a part of the native culture (68). 

Needless to say, families have suffered as a result of the 

presence of certain Christian groups in Samoa. With this claim, 

many have sought other denominations that, rather than exploit 

its members, preach the truth of eternal salvation. A number 

have emigrated outside the jurisdiction of the domineering 

churches. In the meantime, critics assert that church ministers 

have been assigned too much power and therefore have shaped 

Christianity in order to satisfy their personal greed. Like 

religious institutions, the matai system has also added to the 

oppression of the Samoan people. 

In this dominion sequence is the matai or chief system. 

The word matai means “holder of a title,” and it is an honor 

that is bestowed on someone. The role of the matai is very 

complex and interwoven deep into the fabric of Samoan culture 

and history. 

Once elected to lead the family, the matai’s responsibilities 

are manifold. He serves as a kind of family patriarch who 

must promote family unity and prestige, administer all 

family lands, settle disputes among kinsmen, promote 

religious participation, and represent the family as its 

political spokesman in the village (Tuiteleleapaga 22). 

Given the broad description of the task of a matai and 

his powers guaranteed by the culture, the system, like that of 

Christianity, continues to victimize Samoans, sending a chorus 

of disapproval from the very people that ought to be cared for. 

Though said to promote family unity, matais simply do 

the opposite. The younger generation, for example, strongly 

disapproves of the notion of inequality in the Samoan culture. 

Mainly in cultural ceremonies, the young ones are expected 

to serve while the elders eat. If food is left, the youth may eat; 

if there is nothing, the children are told to find something 

else to eat, or just wait for the next meal. At family meetings, 

children are expected to attend, not to participate, but to 

serve refreshments and so forth; besides, their presence is 

fitting should something be needed. Cognizant of alienation, 

the children have one thing to blame: the fa’a Samoa. This, 

unfortunately, has produced an incredible “rate of combined 

teenage suicide between the two Samoas known as one of the 

highest in the world together with sexual abuse, domestic 

violence, and violent crime in general” (Vltchek 7). 

Not only are the young ones oppressed from the matai 

system, adults have also been victims of the “feudal and 


extremely oppressive Samoan society” (Vltchek 7). “…At the 

village level…local chiefs often decide the religious affiliation 

of village residents,” leaving some people so neglected that 

they may have to find some other village where their religious 

denomination is welcomed (Governing Body 69). Such was the 

case of my late grandmother. 

A couple with three kids searched for a place near the town 

of Apia to suit the husband’s new job when they were offered 

one by my uncle. The couple accepted and moved to stay 

with us. We were in separate homes but living on communal 

land. On our first Sunday together with the family, everybody 

had left for church that morning except for the family. To 

my grandmother’s surprise, the family was Mormon and we 

were Catholic. My grandmother approached them nicely and 

explained: “if you are not Catholic and wish not to be, you may 

leave.” That very moment, the family packed and left. Though 

my grandmother was not a matai, she was the eldest sibling 

of our village’s high chief in Western Samoa. Although harsh, 

situations like this reflect the truth and the reality of the fa’a 

Samoa. 

The fa’a Samoa has also played to the political benefit of 

matais. As Elise Huffer and Asofou So’o emphasize in their 

article in The Contemporary Pacific: A Journal of Island Affairs: 

“an emphasis on cultural values will provide public officials with 

refuge from accountability in public life” (326). Rightfully said, 

politicians in the two countries will either make use of politics 

or the fa’a Samoa to avoid criticism. 

As with the ongoing federal cases of several government 

officials from American Samoa who were accused of fraud 

and bribery, all have pled not-guilty and have declared the fa’a 

Samoa in their defense. A rationale to this approach is that a 

matai is expected to cater to the need of his communal family, 

and the gift-giving manner of Samoans is what makes up the 

fa’a Samoa. Even if this argument has merit, the gift-giving 

manner of Samoans takes place in ceremonial events, not 

between two or a few people. Oddly enough, the lawyers of the 

accused have asked a palagi or white man, an anthropologist, to 

be the expert witness in a case where the main issue is the fa’a 

Samoa. 

To understand the composition of family, and to identify 

how problems in the fa’a Samoa surface from within, it is 

important to consider the following illustration: 

If a Samoan asked an American, ‘How is your family?’ 

the answer would probably be: ‘Mary’ (wife) is at home; 

John (son) is in school, Ann (baby daughter) is asleep.’ 

The same American would then ask the Samoan inquirer, 

‘How is yours?’ ‘My parents are in church; Sina and 

Mele (sisters), in school; Pai and Lafai (brothers), playing 

cricket; Tui (aunt), Tia (uncle), Tasi (cousin) Lua (sisterin-law), 

taking a bath; Tolu and Fa (relatives from another

village), sleeping,’…Surprised and confounded, the 

American would laugh and ask his Samoan friend what he 

meant and what kind of a family was that, thinking that 

he might be joking (Tuiteleleapaga 51). 

The dominant rulers in any Samoan household are the 

parents; therefore, whatever parents say, children do. The 

reality for young Samoans is burdensome because of family’s 

domination. For instance, in American Samoa, teenagers are 

denied their constitutional right to freedom of religion. If the 

parents are Catholic, all children must be Catholic. 

Opposition is restrained with corporal punishment and 

with religion so influential at all levels of Samoan society, 

parents believe “spare the rod, spoil the child” (Holy Bible 637). 

According to Samoan parents, to “spare the rod” is the most 

unethical and unloving thing a parent can do to a child. 

In relation to this, again, every citizen’s right to vote is 

never a right for young Samoans. Parents and the extended 

family dominate every vote. For instance, in the 2008 election 

in American Samoa, there were rumors of both incumbents and 

candidates bribing matais in order to acquire all votes from the 

extended family. Humor told, to win an election in American 

Samoa: one must appeal to the matais. Family-ties have no 

boundaries. A married son or daughter, for example, in spite 

of marriage, is still under the parent’s control. Likewise, in the 

extended family, a person will always have a place until death do 

them part. Family involvement, therefore, in the everyday lives 

of Samoans can be seen as being very inconsiderate – according 

to outsiders – as one is under scrutiny everyday. Longing for 

an escape, many have sought way outside of the culture and far 

away from the fa’a Samoa. 

Despite the fact that the fa’a Samoa has sturdily stabilized 

the Samoan culture from foreign changes, it fails to fulfill its 

purpose domestically. The continuous exploitation of people 

young and old by religious institutions, the matai system, 

and the family structure has sent across a public outcry. 

Seeking refuge, many have molded the culture to exclude the 

sovereignty of the fa’a Samoa. Though culture is a person’s 

identity, which should we defend: the God-given gift of life or 

the man-made culture we hold dear? 

Works Cited 

“Book of Proverbs.” The Holy Bible. International Bible Society, 

1984. 

“Foreign Policy In Focus: A Tale of Two Samoas.” Foreign 

Policy in Focus: A Think Tank Without Walls. 24 Nov. 2009. 

. 

Holmes, Lowell Don. The Samoan Village. New York: Holt, 

Rinehart and Winston, 1974. Print. 

Huffer, Elise, and Asofou So’o. “Beyond Governance in 

Samoa: Understanding Samoan Political Thought.” The 

Contemporary Pacific: A Journal of Island Affairs. 17.2 

(2005): 311-33. 

Jehovah’s Witnesses Governing Body. 2009 Yearbook of Jehovah’s 

Witnesses. Brooklyn: Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of 

New York, Inc., 2009. 

Swaney, Deanna. Samoa (Lonely Planet Travel Survival Kit). 

Minneapolis: Lonely Planet Publications, 1990. 

Tuiteleleapaga, Napoleone A. Samoa: Yesterday, Today, and 

Tomorrow. Great Neck, N.Y: Todd & Honeywell, 1980. 




For the Time-Being: 

Buddhism, Dōgen, and 

Temporality 

Anthony Ridenour 

Philosophy 302 

Few philosophical and religious traditions around the 

world can claim such a long history and malleable tradition as 

Buddhism. It has come to mean many things for many people 

and has spread to nearly every corner of the earth. As Buddhism 

was transplanted here and there, it appropriated itself to the 

surrounding social environment. As such, Buddhist tradition 

takes many forms, almost paradoxically at times. Through the 

many configurations, however, there are general themes and 

concepts that keep Buddhist traditions “Buddhist.” 

From the beginning, from Shakyamuni Buddha’s 

enlightenment, the Buddha Way was a practical, viable means 

for human beings to attain supreme liberation from the fetters 

of life. By the time Buddhism reached the shores of medieval 

Japan, the many Dharmas had been written and commented 

on, schools of thought had arisen and fallen, and the real work 

of Buddhist thinkers lied in the details. One such detail was 

that of time. The problem of time in the history of Buddhist 

thought has often been regarded as a peripheral result of larger 

issues, such as emptiness and causality, Buddha-Nature, and so 

forth (Kim, 142). 

One such Buddhist thinker of medieval Japan, Zen Master 

Dōgen, wrestled with the problem of time systematically, in 

true Zen fashion, and came to view the understanding of time 

as central to understanding key concepts such as enlightenment, 

practice, duality and non-duality, impermanence, activity, and 

existence. Attempted here is a probing into Dōgen’s conception 

of time as a means to better and more completely understand 

these other key concepts of Buddhism. 

Probing the nature of time is certainly not only found in 

Buddhism. The earliest philosophers of the world struggled 

with a definition of time. However, it doesn’t take a philosopher 

to experience time; everyone has a common-sense notion of 

time. Most commonly (in Western thought), time is seen as a 

container, the stage in which all actions and events transpire 

through some duration. 

To people such as Isaac Newton, and most scientists, time 

is fundamental to the nature and structure of the universe; it is a 

linear dimension, a measurable quantity with a certain direction 

moving from past to future. Another commonly held view of 

time is that time is a mental construct used as a measurement 

system to quantify the motion of objects and the intervals 

between sequential events. Thus, time is seen not as a substance 

of the universe, but as a “substance” of the human intellect. 

Ancient Indian philosophy saw time as cyclic in nature. 

While the teachings of the Buddha deviated from the Vedantic 

philosophies prevalent in India at the time, the concept of time 

as cyclic remained. Indeed, the whole of Indian philosophy 

(culminating in enlightenment) sought release from the cyclic 

nature of the Samsaric world, or the wheel of becoming. As 

stated by Stambaugh, 

“Dōgen follows Nāgārjuna in his rejection of nirvana 

or liberation as something beyond the cycles of birth 

and death. But, instead of primarily conceiving of 

an “identity” of the cycles of birth and death with 

liberation from them, which was Nāgārjuna’s innovative 

insight, Dōgen’s focus appears to be primarily on the 

nature of “being-time” (the Japanese word is uji) and 

the possible experience of liberation inherent in it. 

Thus, ... that [orientation] of Dōgen is experiential and 

phenomenological.” 

Here we see a concise description of Dōgen’s philosophic 

interest: that time is to be understood and experienced as 

being, as existence itself. Time is nothing other than being 

itself. To quote Dōgen’s own writings in his seminal work the 

Shōbōgenzō (specifically the fascicle Uji), “The central meaning 

of being-time is: every being in the entire world is related to 

each other and can never be separated from time,” (Nishiyama, 

Stevens 69). For Dōgen, this is the correct way to view time and 

existence. He expresses his disdain for the common view of time 

in the following way: “Do not think of time as merely flying by; 

do not only study the fleeting aspect of time. If time is really 

flying away, there would be a separation between time and 

ourselves. If you think that time is just a passing phenomenon, 

you will never understand being-time”(Kim). 

Furthermore, he says: “Indeed, being-time covers 

everything. It is pure Being; in it resolve, practice, 

enlightenment and detachment are acting, i.e., not different 

from being-time. The eternal present includes limitless space; 

there is nothing beside this” (Kim). With these two quotes, one 

can grasp that without the understanding of being-time one 

is lost in the fleeting fatalism of durational temporality (time 

flying by) where we cling to particulars and imagine time as 

ever flowing past the present moment. With an understanding 


of being-time, however, the clinging subsides when one sees the 

particulars as time and the flowing from this to that is illusory. 

Dōgen founded the Sōtō school of Zen Buddhism, a 

school he brought to Japan from his travels to China in the 

13th century. Zen (or Ch’an Buddhism in China) arose in 

popularity among other schools such as Hua-Yen and T’ien t’ai. 

Concerning the Hua-Yen school, Ch’an borrowed and expanded 

on certain aspects. While the Flower Garland Sutra played 

the prominent role in Hua-Yen, it played a minor yet still 

important role in Ch’an Buddhism. Two principles of Hua-Yen 

permeate Dōgen’s ideas, those of mutual identity and mutual 

interpenetration. A fine description of these is given by Kim, 

“Mutual identity refers to the nondifferentiated state in which 

antitheses such as one and many, absolute and relative, being 

and nonbeing, and so forth, co-exist in oneness and interfusion. 

Mutual penetration refers to the simultaneous origination of all 

things and events interpenetrating one another in their myriad 

realms and dimensions” (140). 

The “simultaneous origination of all things” occurs 

nowhere but the present moment. Seeking this in the past 

or future one will not find it. Thus, “various formations of 

discrete events take place in the matrix of the present moment.” 

Past, present, and future are seen as being, “realized in each 

moment -- one-in-many or many-in-one in the present,” (141). 

Dōgen uses these principles as ground for leaping into his own 

activity of expounding the nature of time. He writes succinctly, 

“Everything exists in the present within yourself,” (Uji, 70). 

The present moment is the playing field in which all 

of Dōgen’s expositions are executed. The present moment 

we discuss varies drastically from the typical notion of an 

infinitesimal quanta of durational temporality, found in a 

sequence of quanta set against the backdrop of an arrow of time 

moving from past to future. Dōgen finds all things dwelling in 

a “Dharma-position” best described as being, “comprised of a 

particular here and a particular now (a spatio-temporal existence 

in the world), hence, it is inevitably comprised of the existential 

particularities ... which are observed, compared, judged, and 

chosen in the dualistic scheme of things,” (Kim 149). So a given 

Dharma-position is the composition of existential particularities 

in a certain arrangement, which is equivalent to a particular 

here and now. 

These ideas have profound implications. Each present 

moment is the total compilation of all composite things and 

arrangements, and each arrangement of composite things is 

the total compilation of all present moments. Therefore, each 

present moment is total and complete in itself. This is the 

solution to the problem of the flow of time. Time neither flows 

nor remains static; it is activity, it is being. No doubt logical 

paradoxes arise out of such statements and concepts. Each 

moment is discontinuous from all previous and all following 


moments, and yet contains all things and all events making it 

totally and absolutely free. 

In classic Zen paradox, Dōgen expresses this absolute 

freedom as obstruction or self-impedance. In the context of 

birth and death, Stambaugh summarizes Dōgen’s view of 

obstruction eloquently (75): 

That life and death are without before and after, are 

cut off from them, means that before and after do not 

constitute a transition out of the present dwelling in a 

dharma-situation. The present moment does not become 

(the) past; it does not become it nor does it impede it. 

For Dōgen, nothing impedes anything else, only itself. 

This self-impeding, then, is not any kind of hindrance, 

but rather penetration, realization. The present does not 

become the past, or impede it, or “touch” it. 

This understanding of the dwelling of a Dharma-position 

allows us to come back to a previous observation. Earlier we 

quoted Dōgen as saying, “resolve, practice, enlightenment 

and detachment [are] not different from being-time” (Kim). 

It was always Dōgen’s conviction that enlightenment is no 

different from the resolve and practice of the Buddha Way. 

That is the Zen Way as a whole; enlightenment is not some 

end result of the path of right practice, the practice is itself the 

enlightenment. For Dōgen, both practice and enlightenment 

are time. Only when the practice is fully exerted, when one’s 

practice (meditation for instance) is one’s total activity, the 

small self, the ego-self, is forgotten and enlightenment is 

realized as nothing but being-time. When this path is taken 

and understood, all of the sudden the grand body of Buddhist 

thought falls out from it. For instance, the concept of Tathatā 

(the nature of things as they are, “suchness”) is just this 

idea of full exertion, things acting as they are naturally and 

spontaneously. This is also no different than self-impedance and 

we can begin to understand Dōgen’s statement, “a mountain 

mountain-s a mountain, thereby a mountain realizes itself,” 

(Kim 151). Here, a mountain expresses itself as nothing but 

the full activity of being a mountain, thereby realizing itself as a 

mountain. 

Until now we have left two large developments of Buddhist 

thought and expression out of the discussion. We will discuss 

in turn the nature of impermanence and Buddha-Nature 

with respect to being-time. If there is anything that pervades 

nearly every aspect of Buddhist development it is that of 

impermanence. It is so central as to be directly proportional 

to the Buddha’s first and second of the Four Noble Truths 

(that is, all things are Dukkha (“suffering,”“upsetting”) because 

clinging to that which is impermanent is the root cause of 

dukkha). Impermanence is even so important as to be labeled 

one of the three marks or facts of existence, the other two being 

nonsubstantiality (śūnyatā or emptiness) and dukkha. The

middle path of Zen avoids the extremes of permanence and 

impermanence. Thus, it is easy to be confused when reading 

Zen teachings on the importance of both permanence and 

impermanence. The extreme of permanence can be likened to a 

view of eternalism while the extreme of impermanence can be 

likened to a view of nihilism. For Dōgen though, permanence 

is understood as, “nonturning or nondualism,” (Kim 135). 

Kim goes on to quote Dōgen, saying, “Nonturning means that 

whether we overcome delusions or are conditioned by them, 

we are never attached to the traces of their coming and going. 

Hence, this is called permanence.” Much of Buddhist practice 

boils down to thoroughly investigating the impermanence 

that is the Buddha’s Four Noble Truths with a grounded bodymind 

of the permanent and non-attached nature described 

by Dōgen. This practice, when done whole-heartedly, is 

the enlightenment that is sought, and is thus being-time. 

Permanence (nondualism) and impermanence (dynamism) are 

then both contained in the ever-present moment, being-time, 

which is altogether momentary. 

Finally, we come to the magnum opus of Mahayana 

Buddhism, Buddha-Nature, in the context of being-time. 

Indeed, the question of Buddha-Nature was the driving 

force of young Dōgen’s spiritual adventure. “If we already 

possess the Buddha-Nature, what need is there to practice?” 

(Strambaugh 21). To answer the question, the question must 

first be analyzed. As stated, it is implied the Buddha-Nature 

is something to be possessed, something with substance and 

therefore temporal duration. However, all things lack an abiding 

substance, and no thing exists in the sense of a continuation 

from one moment to the next. Some schools interpret the 

Buddha-Nature as a potentiality, a seed of sorts, which will bear 

fruit at some time when the right conditions are met. However, 

this lends itself to the conceptualization of the Buddha-Nature 

actualizing itself at some time in the future. How can this be 

if all things are expressed as they are only in the present? Yet, 

Dōgen presses that Buddha-Nature does not, “appear for the 

first time upon enlightenment,” (21). How can Buddha-Nature 

spontaneously arise in the present moment without previously 

existing in some sense beforehand? Perhaps Dōgen himself can 

shed some light (22), 

By way of illustration, if you wish to know the Buddhanature’s 

meaning might be read, you are directly knowing 

the Buddha-nature’s meaning. You should watch for temporal 

conditions means you are directly knowing temporal conditions. 

If you wish to know the Buddha-nature, you should know that 

it is precisely temporal conditions themselves. 

Here Dōgen asserts Buddha-Nature is not separate from 

temporal conditions, and this assertion falls in line with so 

many other of Dōgen’s claims. Buddha-Nature does not abide 

in previous conditions, waiting to be realized spontaneously 

in some future condition. It is not some substance that 

transmigrates moments as a potential seed of awakening. 

Buddha-Nature is not separate from the temporal conditions 

of the present moment. It does not come to fruition after right 

practice, does not actualize at the moment of enlightenment. 

The Buddha-Nature is tathatā; it is self-impeding and 

impermanent. The Buddha-Nature is the resolve, practice, 

enlightenment and detachment of the Buddha Way. Buddha- 

Nature is being-time. As Dōgen might say, one does not see 

one’s original-face without practice, one does not recognize 

himself as time without “forgetting oneself” and “casting off the 

body-mind” (Nishiyama trans., Genjōkōan, 1). 

Dōgen is a unique character in the development of the 

Buddha Dharma, unique even with respect to the progression 

of human intellect. His religion and philosophy are quite linear 

in the scheme of eastern traditions, though he advanced them 

both by leaps and bounds in his home country of Japan. It 

wasn’t for hundreds of years until Western thinkers, particularly 

Spinoza and Heidegger, among others (Strambaugh, 23), began 

to come to terms with many aspects of metaphysics that Dōgen 

had already encountered and seemingly come to terms with. 

Therefore, Dōgen Zenji’s Shōbōgenzō (The Eye and Treasury 

of the True Law) is an acme piece of human wisdom, only a 

fraction of which is expressed here in regards being-time. 

Bibliography 

Kim, Hee-Jim. Dōgen Kigen: Mystical Realist. Tuscon 1987. 

Nishiyama, Kōsen, and John Stevens, trans. Shōbōgenzō. Vol. 1. 

Tokyo, 1975. 

Stambaugh, Joan. Impermanence is Buddha-nature: Dōgen’s 

Understanding of Temporality. Honolulu, 1990. 




Is Television Harmful to 

Children? 

Tabetha Block 

English 215 

Televisions can be found in almost every home in America 

and because many children are always in front of them a great 

debate has arose. Concerned parents have long felt that children 

are exposed to excessively graphic, violent, sexually explicit 

and misleading images on television. This kind of exposure is 

negatively effecting our children’s young and impressionable 

minds. The entertainment industry disagrees with this claim 

and states there is not enough evidence to prove otherwise. In 

this paper, I will argue that the effects of television viewing on 

children are harmful. 

One reason this is true is recent studies show that children 

age two through eighteen spend more time watching TV than 

any other activity, with the exception of sleeping. 1 What our 

children see on television today is very different from that of 

several decades ago. Back then, one would never imagine seeing 

kissing or promiscuous behavior, let alone graphic, bloody 

images rising from the dead. Nowadays, seeing half naked 

women in beer commercials and terrifying images of movies 

flashed across the screen are everyday occurrences. Not only are 

televisions physically bigger, they are more brash and on all the 

time. 2 

From a young age we teach our children not to talk to 

strangers, yet we are allowing strangers into our home through 

television viewing. 3 Children are easily influenced and will 

often model what they see; this is why age is an important 

factor to consider when children are watching television. Young 

children cannot differentiate between what is real and what is 

not. Because of this they become vulnerable to what is shown 

to them on TV, frequently adopting the attitudes and behaviors 

portrayed. 4 Some researchers have found that exposure to 

television violence can desensitize children and make them 

more aggressive. 

In many homes, television viewing is unsupervised. The 

1 Susan R Johnson, Strangers in our Homes: TV and our Children’s Minds 

(1999), 2, http://www.waldorflibrary.org/Journal_Articles/Strangers in 

our Homes.pdf, and Committee on Public Education, “Media Violence” 

Pediatrics 108, no. 5 (2001): 1222. 

2 Stuart Jefferies, “Is television destroying our children’s minds?” Guardian, 

July 21, 2004, 1. 

3 Johnson, 2. 

4 Committee on Public Education, “Media Violence” Pediatrics 108, no. 5 

(2001): 1223. 

amount of violence shown in television programs has increased 

tremendously just within the past few years. According to the 

National Television Violence Study (Year 3: 1996-97) “[…] 

the way TV violence is portrayed encourages children to learn 

aggressive behavior […].” The modeling effect occurs when 

children reenact what they see on TV. In addition to the 

modeling effect, the way violence is portrayed on television 

raises concerns that watching too much TV can lead to 

desensitizing and an altered concept of violence and its place in 

the world. 5 It has been found that the more a viewer, especially 

a young one, can personally identify with a character, hero 

or villain, he or she is more likely to be influenced by their 

behavior. The more physically attractive a character is, the more 

likely a child is to model its actions, whether good or bad. 6 

Other negative effects are disinhibition, the bystander 

effect and fear. Disinhibition is when a person has a reduced 

ability to restrain themselves in an impulsive situation. For 

example, “[…] viewers who watch a model rewarded for 

performing violently in the media are more likely to experience 

a disinhibition effect and behave in a similar manner. But when 

violence is punished in the media portrayal, the aggressiveness 

of viewers is likely to be inhibited.” 7 When watching repeated 

violence, children can become desensitized to the pain and 

suffering of others. This, in turn, leads to the bystander 

effect, when a person witnessing a crime is less likely to help 

another person in need of assistance if there are other witnesses 

present. Fear has caused many young people to become more 

aggressive and carry weapons for protection. The media has 

created the “mean world” syndrome, causing youths to alter 

their daily routines and avoid certain areas and people out of 

fear of being a victim of violence. This fear has not only caused 

people to become more physically aggressive, but, emotionally, 

it can cause stress disorders, anxiety and depression. Fear also 

influences our dreams, causing nightmares. 8 Most often, 

violent crimes shown on television are unjustified and often go 

unpunished, leaving the viewer fearful. The National Television 

Study reports that over half of the violent scenes shown on 

television lack remorse, critique, or penalty for the action. 

Also, television’s representation of sex has greatly influenced 

the attitudes of children, mainly adolescents. Sexual activity has 

been portrayed as more of a recreational activity leading many 

youths to behave more promiscuously and engage in sex at an 

earlier age. 9 Within the past few years the amount of sexual 

5 Ronald S Drabman, et al, Will Our Children Care? (1977), 44. 

6 Potter, 33. 

7 Potter, 33. 

8 Committee on Public Education, 1223. 

9 Bowie Kotrla, “Is Exposure to Media Content Harmful to Children?” 


content shown on television has doubled and in those portrayals 

little is said about the consequences of unprotected sex. 

Although there are other factors that influence teen pregnancy, 

the Journal of Pediatrics recently established a link between 

television viewing and teen pregnancy: “Adolescents who have 

high levels of exposure to television programs that contain 

sexual content are twice as likely to be involved in a pregnancy 

over the following three years as their peers who watch few such 

shows, according to a RAND Corporation study.” 10 

Watching television can lead to other problems as well. As 

Ron Kaufman says in his article, “How Television Images Affect 

Children,” “Watching television is a passive event. Children 

[…] remain completely immobile while viewing […]” This 

is also known as the Alpha State. The Alpha State has also 

been linked to children’s obesity. The so called “couch potato” 

evolves when the viewer consumes more calories than he or she 

burns. Since watching television is a passive event not many 

calories are used. 11 There are an enormous amount of junk food 

commercials on TV, many geared towards children. Parents buy 

these products at the request of their children and the children 

consume them in front of the television, again taking in far too 

many calories than they are using. The more time spent in front 

of a television means less time engaging in physical activities. 

Another reason to consider the negative effects of television 

watching is that children learn through sensory experiences. 

Stimulating those five senses can be critical to the learning 

process. Watching TV stimulates only two senses, seeing and 

hearing. Dr. Susan Johnson has studied the effects of television 

on these senses and has concluded that the reproduced sound 

we hear and the bright, flashing and overstimulating images 

we see can cause developmental problems to these two sense 

organs. Also, “children watching TV do not dilate their pupils 

[…] the lack of eye movement when watching television is a 

problem because reading requires the eyes to continually move 

from left to right across the page. The weakening of the eye 

muscles from lack of use can’t help but negatively impact the 

ability and effort required to read.” 12 

There has been an effort to improve the standards of 

television viewing; the entertainment industry developed a 

system of parental guidelines. This system was similar to the 

Motion Picture Association of America’s movie rating system 

(See Table 1). Though the intentions of these guidelines were 

good, the system had three serious flaws. First, the parents 

were surveyed and “an overwhelming support for a contentbased 

rating system as opposed to an age-based system […] 

Children and Libraries (2007): 50-51. 

10 RAND Corporation, Teen Pregnancy Linked to Viewing Of Sexual 

Content On TV. ScienceDaily (2008). http://www.sciencedaily.com/ 

releases/2008/11/081103084042.htm 

11 Miller, Television’s effects on kids: It can be harmful. 

12 Johnson, 5. 


was found.” 13 Second, the ratings did not warn parents about 

the content each rating would contain. Lastly, there was a 

concern that the ratings would actually attract children to 

programs parents wanted to protect them from. Since then, 

the guidelines have been revised; although improved, they still 

suffer from problems. 14 

Opponents of this viewpoint argue that watching television 

creates family togetherness. It is a chance for everyone in the 

family to gather, watch a program and spend quality time 

together. This can be true provided the program you are viewing 

is appropriate to all ages. Television can also be educational and 

can help develop critical thinking by exposing the viewer to 

different cultures and current events. It can also teach important 

values and help develop learning skills. However, too much 

viewing can become harmful, not only emotionally through 

desensitization but physically through lack of movement and 

obesity. 

Educational programs such as Barney and Sesame Street 

have long been recognized for being intellectually engaging. 

However, studies show that watching TV leads to an increase 

in slow alpha waves within the brains left hemisphere thus 

putting the child into an alpha state. These shows in particular 

use distraction techniques such as constantly changing pictures, 

loud startling sounds, flashing colors and close-ups to get 

a child’s attention; although this may work momentarily it 

still leaves their brain operating in an alpha state. 15 Watching 

television deadens a child’s ability for creative thinking; of being 

able to create an internal picture within themselves rather than 

visualize external pictures (from TV) which are imprinted in 

their minds. 

Opponents also maintain television is not harmful to 

children; that it can be nourishing. In his article, “Watching 

TV Makes You Smarter,” Steven Johnson discusses the “Sleeper 

Curve.” The sleeper curve is believed to enhance the cognitive 

faculties of today’s youth by challenging the mind through 

puzzle solving, pattern detection and deciphering complexities. 

Aside from its lack of physical impetus, viewing television can 

be intellectually stimulating, giving the viewer a good cognitive 

workout. This may be true for older viewers and adults 

but that is not the case for young children, because if their 

underdeveloped cognitive ability. 

Jib Fowles claims television is not harmful to children 

and in his paper, “Violence Viewing and Science,” argues that 

the research that has been done on the effects of television 

on children is inconclusive. There is no comparison between 

clinical testing and home viewing of television programming. In 

laboratory settings the children involved often don’t know the 

13 Amy I. Nathanson et al, “Protecting Children from Harmful Television: 

TV Ratings and the V-Chip”, Parenthood in America, (1998): 2-4. 

14 Nathanson, 6. 

15 Johnson, 6.

other children in the room with them, are shown things they 

cannot touch and are usually commanded to watch a program 

perhaps not to his or her liking, leaving the child feeling 

frustrated, angry and not in control. When children elect to 

watch television in their home, it is because they want to. They 

are usually in control of the programming being viewed and 

can enjoy it in a relaxed and safe environment. Whereas in the 

laboratory setting, the programming is chosen by someone 

else, the viewer is not in control, and the experience can be 

uncomfortable and unsatisfying. 16 Is it the television program 

being viewed that makes a child aggressive or is it the situation 

of being in the laboratory with feelings of frustration and anger, 

that lead to aggressive behavior? Evidence shows that exposure 

to television whether it is short or for prolonged periods has 

immediate and long term effects on children regardless of the 

setting or surroundings when watching. It is the act of viewing 

and what is being viewed that has been known to cause these 

negative effects and not so much the place of viewing. 

The effects of television on children is not only a concern 

in America, this has long been a topic of concern in the United 

Kingdom as well. The International Television Commission 

(ITC) agrees that, “children can learn harmful behaviour from 

the television.” 17 

In conclusion, evidence supports that the effects of 

television viewing on children are harmful, through both 

immediate and long-term negative effects. Children should 

be encouraged to play outside, take up a sport, read a book, 

and engage in creative thinking. Families can spend more time 

together, playing games, cooking or doing a building project. 18 

Parents need to take it upon themselves to limit television 

exposure and seek out quality programming for their children 

and view it with them whenever possible. 19 

16 Jib Fowles, “From Violence Viewing and Science.” in Taking Sides: 

Clashing Views in Mass Media and Society, ed. Alison Alexander and 

Jarice Hanson (2008), 41. 

17 Deans, Jason. “ITC admits kids can learn harmful behaviour from TV.” 

Guardian, November 6, 2000, http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2000/ 

nov/06/broadcasting1. 

18 ohnson 7, 8. 

19 Media Awareness Network. The Good Things About Television, http:// 

www.media- awareness.ca/english/parents/television/good_things_ 

tv.cfm?RenderForPrint=1. 

Table 1 

(Source: http://www.fcc.gov/parents/parent_guide.html) 

TV-Y (All Children -- This program is designed to be 

appropriate for all children.) Whether animated or liveaction, 

the themes and elements in this program are 

specifically designed for a very young audience, including 

children from ages 2-6. This program is not expected to 

frighten younger children. 

TV-Y7 (Directed to Older Children -- This program 

is designed for children age 7 and above.) It may be 

more appropriate for children who have acquired the 

developmental skills needed to distinguish between makebelieve 

and reality. Themes and elements in this program 

may include mild fantasy or comedic violence, or may 

frighten children under the age of 7. Therefore, parents may 

wish to consider the suitability of this program for their very 

young children. Note: For those programs where fantasy 

violence may be more intense or more combative than other 

programs in this category, such programs will be designated 

TV-Y7-FV. For programs designed for the entire audience, 

the general categories are: 

TV-G (General Audience -- Most parents would find this 

program suitable for all ages.) Although this rating does 

not signify a program designed specifically for children, 

most parents may let younger children watch this program 

unattended. It contains little or no violence, no strong 

language and little or no sexual dialogue or situations. 

TV-PG (Parental Guidance Suggested -- This program 

contains material that parents may find unsuitable for 

younger children.) Many parents may want to watch it with 

their younger children. The theme itself may call for parental 

guidance and/or the program contains one or more of the 

following: moderate violence (V), some sexual situations (S), 

infrequent coarse language (L), or some suggestive dialogue 

(D). 

TV-14 (Parents Strongly Cautioned -- This program 

contains some material that many parents would find 

unsuitable for children under 14 years of age.) Parents are 

strongly urged to exercise greater care in monitoring this 

program and are cautioned against letting children under 

the age of 14 watch unattended. This program contains 

one or more of the following: intense violence (V), intense 

sexual situations (S), strong coarse language (L), or intensely 

suggestive dialogue (D). 

TV-MA (Mature Audience Only -- This program is 

specifically designed to be viewed by adults and therefore 

may be unsuitable for children under 17.) This program 

contains one or more of the following: graphic violence (V), 

explicit sexual activity (S), or crude indecent language (L). 


Bibliography 

American Academy of Pediatrics, Committee on Public 

Education. “Media Violence.” Pediatrics 108, no. 5 (2001): 

1222-1226. http://www.pediatrics.org. 

American Academy of Pediatrics, Committee on Public 

Education. “Children, Adolescents, and Television.” 

Pediatrics 107, no. 2 (2001): 423-425. http://www. 

pediatrics.org. 

Christakis, Dimitri A, Zimmerman, Frederick J, DiGiuseppe, 

David L, and McCarty, Carolyn A., “Early Television 

Exposure and Subsequent Attentional Problems in 

Children.” Pediatrics 113, no. 4 (2004): 708-713. http:// 

www.pediatrics.org. 

Deans, Jason. “ITC admits kids can learn harmful behaviour 

from TV.” Guardian, November 6, 2000, http://www. 

guardian.co.uk/media/2000/nov/06/broadcasting1. 

Drabman, Ronald S, Thomas, Margaret H, and Gregory 

J. Jarvie. “Will our Children Care? New Evidence 

Concerning the Effects of Televised Violence on our 

Children.” Journal of Clinical Child Psychology 6, no. 1 

(1977): 44. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost . 

Federal Communications Commission, http://www.fcc.gov/ 

parents/parent_guide.html. 

Fowles, Jib. “From Violence Viewing and Science.” In Taking 

Sides: Clashing Views in Mass Media and Society, edited by 

Alison Alexander and Jarice Hanson. 2008. 

Jefferies, Stuart. “Is television destroying our children’s minds?” 

Guardian, July 21, 2004. http://www.guardian.co.uk/ 

society/2004/jul/21/childrensservices.socialcare 

Johnson, Steven. “Watching TV Makes You Smarter.” New 

York Times, April 24, 2005, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/ 

fullpage.html?res=9904EEDF1F3EF937A15757C0A96 

39C8B63&scp=2&sq=watching%20tv%20makes%20 

you%20smarter&st=cse. 

Johnson, Susan R. “Strangers in our Homes: TV and our 

Children’s Minds.” (1999) http://www.waldorflibrary.org/ 

Journal_Articles/Strangers in our Homes.pdf . 

Kaufman, Ron. How Television Images Affect Children. Kill Your 

Television-Children And TV. http//www.turnoffyourtv. 

comhealtheducationchildren.html. 

Kotrla, Bowie. “Sex and Violence: Is Exposure to Media 

Content Harmful to Children?” Children & Libraries: The 

Journal of the Association for Library Service to Children 5, 

no. 2 (2007): 50-52. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost. 

Media Awareness Network. “National Television Violence Study 

Year Three: 1996-97.” http//www.media-awareness.ca. 

Media Awareness Network. “The Good Things About 

Television.” http//www.media-awareness.ca. 

Nathanson, Amy I, Cantor, Joanne. Protecting Children from 


Harmful Television: TV Ratings and the V-Chip. http:// 

parenthood.library.wisc.edu/Nathanson/Nathanson.html. 

Potter, W James. “From On Media Violence.” In Taking Sides: 

Clashing Views in Mass Media and Society, edited by Alison 

Alexander and Jarice Hanson. 2008. 

RAND Corporation, Teen Pregnancy Linked to Viewing Of 

Sexual Content On TV. ScienceDaily (2008). http://www. 

sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081103084042.htm


Out of Their Fields, 

Out of Their Diets 

The 2002 Food Crisis Reveals 

Why GMOs Do Not Belong in 

Africa 

Holly Miller 

English 215 

In 2002, several African countries experiencing acute food 

shortages took issue with genetically modified (GMO) corn 

that the United States offered as food relief. Some countries 

eventually took the aid, while others accepted it only once 

milled, and Zambia never accepted it at all. The U.S. refused 

to provide monetary aid to the countries, and only provided 

non-GMO aid to Zambia after intense pressure from the 

international community. The U.S. claimed the European 

Union had manipulated and scared the countries into refusing 

the aid, therefore exacerbating the hunger problem. The E.U. 

accused the U.S. of using GMO relief to hasten its inclusion 

on the world market, particularly because the E.U. refuses to 

import many GMOs. The African nations explained their 

concern was over their future agricultural trade relationships 

with the E.U. and with the health of their people who would 

be eating the GMO food. This turbulent situation brought 

the debate over GMOs to the forefront of world issues. While 

some parties argued that GMOs are perfectly safe for human 

consumption and will provide the high yields necessary to 

feed the hungry in Africa, others argued that GMOs have no 

place in Africa where farmers can not afford to jeopardize their 

trade relationships or become tethered to licensing agreements. 

While health concerns are valid and must be taken seriously, 

the economic reasons to refuse GMOs provide an irrefutable 

argument against them. Until the African nations are in a 

position to accept GMOs without perceived risk, both in regard 

to their health and their economies, all genetically modified 

crops should be kept out of their fields and their diets. 

Part of the issue that arises in regard to GMO food aid 

in Africa are the very different ways in which the U.S. and the 

E.U. interpret GMO safety. The U.S.’s position on GMOs is 

that “there is minimal risk attached to them, and that because 

of this a precautionary approach in their adoption is not 

warranted.”1 The U.S. typically sees the benefits of GMOs 

1 Jennifer Clapp, “The Political Economy of Food Aid in an Era of Agricultural 

(high yields, particular disease resistance) as outweighing their 

risks. The E.U. adheres to a precautionary principle, probably 

because of recent food scares such as Mad Cow disease. 

They believe in devoting more time and study to the risks of 

GMOs, and the general European consensus is that GMO 

risks (inadvertent cross-pollination, unknown health effects) 

outweigh the benefits.2 U.S. grain sales to Europe severely 

declined after the U.S. began growing mostly GMO crops in 

the mid-1990s. It is likely that the decline in sales to Europe, 

and Africa’s tight trade relationships with the E.U. caused the 

U.S. to use the African food aid as a sort of “Trojan horse” to 

split open the African market (and eventually the European 

market by way of African exports) for GMOs.3 Zambia was 

particularly concerned by the possible contamination of baby 

corn and honey exports to Europe, and more generally for all 

organic exports.4 In the article ‘The Political Economy of Food 

Aid in an Era of Agricultural Biotechnology,’ Jennifer Clapp 

argues that from its beginning, U.S. food aid was “a mechanism 

for surplus disposal and export promotion in the United 

States.”5 Although she acknowledges that the politicization of 

food aid diminished in the 1990s due to a shrinking surplus, 

she asserts that the new debate over GMOs with the E.U. and 

the growing surplus of GMO corn in the U.S. have reignited 

America’s tendency to use food aid as a political tool.6 In the 

article ‘Feeding the famine? American food aid and the GMO 

debate in Southern Africa,’ Noah Zerbe argues that 

the [ U.S.] provision of assistance to Southern Africa was 

primarily intended to secure particular foreign policy 

objectives of the US government—in this case, promoting 

the cultivation of biotech crops, expanding market access 

and control of transnational agricultural corporations, and 

isolating Europe in the GMO debate. 7 

The U.S. denies this accusation and accuses the E.U. of 

allowing Africans to starve because of their fear of GMOs. 

Regardless of whether Clapp’s or Zerbe’s interpretations are false 

or not, the debate is being played out in Africa where starving 

people do not have the luxury to entertain such a forum. It 

Biotechnology,” Global Governance 11, (2005): 477. 

2 Clapp, “The Political Economy of Food Aid in an Era of Agricultural 

Biotechnology,” 478. 

3 Sarah Lieberman and Tim Gray, “GMOs and the Developing World: A 

Precautionary Interpretation of Biotechnology.” British Journal of Politics 

& International Relations 10, (2008): 401. 

4 Noah Zerbe, “Feeding the Famine? American Food Aid and the GMO 

Debate in Southern Africa,” Food Policy 29, (2004): 600. 





7 Zerbe, “Feeding the Famine? American Food Aid and the GMO Debate 

in Southern Africa,” 594. 


is unfair to ask them to either accept GMO food or starve. 

Accepting GMOs as food aid is a threat to African peoples’ 

beliefs about food safety, even if those beliefs are a result of 

European influence. Donating cash aid instead of in-kind aid 

may not chip away at the mountains of surplus corn in the U.S. 

or open up a new market for GMOs, but it is arguably more 

manageable for the United States to accept this concession than 

it is for Africa to wait for food while they starve. 

Some experts argue that Africa was ultimately at fault for 

their own hunger because they folded to the E.U.’s wishes. 

Gerald D. Coleman, a Catholic clergyman and advocate 

of GMOs, argues in his article “Is Genetic Engineering the 

Answer to World Hunger?” that: “It was a moral disgrace that 

in 2002 African governments gave in to [GMO] opponents 

and returned to the World Food Program tons of [GMO] 

corn simply because it was produced by U.S. biotechnology.” 8 

Coleman’s assertion is misguided. 

The Zambian president Levy Mwanawasa explained, “the 

rejection is not intended to demean those who had donated 

it, rather it was done to protect the long-term interest of the 

Zambian people and the environment.” 9 Regardless of whether 

the U.S. or the E.U. is right about GMO food safety, it is a 

secondary issue to the more important economic relationships 

between Europe and Africa. After the 2002 crisis had subsided, 

Zambia started exporting non-GMO food, allowing its 

economy to begin the recovery process. 10 If GMO seeds had 

entered the Zambian agricultural sector through food aid, 

they would not have been able to export GMO-free food. 

Obviously, it was the right decision for Zambia to reject GMO 

aid. The U.S. must begin providing cash donations for food aid 

instead of in-kind aid while the debate over GMOs plays out in 

the developed world; or the U.S. must cultivate and separately 

store non-GMO food for emergencies. 

The United States eventually offered to mill the GMO 

corn for the African countries, yet Zambia still refused to accept 

it. Zambia claimed that “any health problems that might arise 

from eating GMOs would be too costly to address.” 11 The 

reasoning was that Zambian people consume much more 

corn than Americans do, suggesting that there is no scientific 

evidence to prove that a diet consisting of such an amount 

of GMO corn is safe. 12 In fact, many experts do claim that 

GMOs are unsafe to eat. One oft-cited study was conducted by 

Arpad Pusztai for the Rowett Research Institute. Pusztai found 

that GMO potatoes sometimes caused internal organ mis- 

8 Gerald D. Coleman, “Is Genetic Engineering the Answer to World 

Hunger?,” America, February 2005, 17. 

9 Lieberman and Gray, “GMOs and the Developing World: A 

Precautionary Interpretation of Biotechnology,” 404. 

10 Ibid, 404. 






development and weakened the immune systems of laboratory 

rats. 13 Proponents of biotechnology argue that Americans have 

been eating GMOs without incident, and that there is no nonrefutable 

proof that GMOs are unsafe. 14 Norman Borlaug, the 

1970 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and biotechnology advocate, 

argues that “To date, there is no reliable scientific information 

to substantiate claims that transgenic crops are inherently 

hazardous.” 15 However, there is no conclusive evidence that 

transgenic crops are inherently safe, according to a large section 

of the scientific community. Notably, most studies conducted 

on GMOs are funded by private institutions in developed 

nations. Asking Africa to accept GMOs into their diets and 

their economies is asking them to accept a product that their 

scientists have not been able to test with the same vigor as the 

developed nations. This problem did not escape Zambia. In 

response to the GMO aid that the U.S. offered, Zambia sent a 

small group of their scientists to study the issue. They traveled 

to the U.S., South Africa, and Europe, and concluded that 

GMOs should not be accepted. 16 The scientists determined 

that accepting the aid could endanger biodiversity in local 

corn varieties; that introduction of GMOs into Zambia could 

threaten the European export market; and that the U.S.’s 

claims of GMO safety were inconclusive, particularly regarding 

“toxicity, allergenicity and antibiotic resistance.” 17 Even if 

GMOs would be perfectly safe to consume, Zambia did not 

cave to the E.U.’s precautionary stance. They did their own 

research and decided the risk was too high. The U.S. must 

respect the fact that African countries have the right to adopt 

the precautionary principle. 

Beyond the issues of trade relations and human safety lies 

the threat of purposeful cultivation of GMOs in Africa. The 

typical small farmer in Africa cannot afford the licensing fees 

and expensive GMO seeds on a regular basis. This is proved 

time and time again by the fact that they so often need food aid 

because of crop failure. They certainly do not have the money 

to consistently renew licensing agreements or purchase GMO 

seeds. For example, several African farmers who purchased 

expensive GMO cotton seeds with the intention of increasing 

their production went into debt because the GMO yields 

13 Mae-Wan Ho et al., GMO Free: Exposing the Hazards of Biotechnology 

to Ensure the Integrity of Our Food Supply, (Ridgefield, Connecticut: 

Vital Health Publications, 2004), 22 and Roberto Verzola, “Genetically 

Engineered Foods Have Health Risks”, in Genetically Engineered Foods, 

ed. Nancy Harris (San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 2004), 38. 

14 Florence Wambugu, “Why Africa Needs Agricultural Biotech,” Nature 

400. (1999): 15 and Norman Borlaug, “The Second Green Revolution,” 

in Agriculture, Human Security, and Peace: A Crossroad in African 

Development, ed. M.Taeb and A.H. Zakri (West Lafayette, Indiana: 

Purdue University Press, 2008), 150. 

15 Borlaug, “The Second Green Revolution,” 150. 


Biotechnology,” 479 and Zerbe, “Feeding the Famine? American Food 

Aid and the GMO Debate in Southern Africa,” 599. 


in Southern Africa,” 599-600.

were not significantly higher than conventional seed yields.18 

Norman Borlaug wrote, 

I am particularly alarmed by those who seek to deny smallscale 

farmers of the Third World—and especially those in sub- 

Saharan Africa—access to the improved seeds, fertilizers, and 

crop protection chemicals that have allowed the affluent nations 

the luxury of plentiful and inexpensive foodstuffs which, in 

turn, has accelerated their economic development. 19 

While Borlaug is right that fertilizers and improved seeds 

have increased crop yields in the developed world, the missing 

piece is the cash required to purchase these inputs and build 

the extensive irrigation and pesticide systems necessary to make 

high-tech agriculture work. Borlaug does not grasp that the 

“luxury of plentiful and inexpensive foodstuffs” was achieved 

only by heavy investment—that is, investment that Africans 

cannot afford. 20 Those seeking to deny Africans of GMOs are 

attempting to save those farmers from a fate of licensing fees 

and seed-buying cycles. Africa, with the help of the developed 

world, may eventually be in a position to use high-tech methods 

and GMO crops, but now is not the time. The infrastructure 

and a low-risk economic environment must arrive before 

GMOs do. 

Africa’s current risk in adopting GMOs is extraordinary. In 

the briefing “Genetically Modified Crops in Africa: Implications 

for Small Farmers,” Devlin Kuyek wrote: 

Once a farmer chooses to plant GM crops, it becomes 

very difficult to rethink that choice, particularly in the 

face of aggressive marketing and sales campaigns by the 

manufacturers and the widespread endorsement of such 

crops by government agencies. 21 

Any seeds saved from the GMO crops would be an 

infringement on patents if the proper licensing is not purchased 

the next year. If a neighbor grows a non-GMO version of the 

same crop and experiences inadvertent cross-pollination, they 

would be in violation of copyright laws as well. Essentially, 

several non-GMO farmers could suffer from just one farmer 

planting GMOs. This means that the risk of planting GMOs 

is spread across a community of farmers, whereas any benefits 

could only be realized by a single farmer. 

The same problem is experienced right here in the U.S., 

and farmers are losing their livelihoods over it. The large 

biotechnology company, Monsanto, argues that the benefits 

of GMOs, which they cite as reduced pesticide reliance and 

reduced water needs, outweigh any drawbacks that may be 

18 Lieberman and Gray, “GMOs and the Developing World: A 

Precautionary Interpretation of Biotechnology,” 406. 

19 Norman Borlaug, “Feeding a World of 10 Billion People: The Miracle 

Ahead,” In Vitro Cellular and Developmental Biology, Plant 38, no. 2 

(2002): 227. 

20 Ibid, 227. 

21 Devlin Kuyek, “Genetically Modified Crops in Africa: Implications for 

Small Farmers.” Genetic Resources Action International, August 2002, 

13. 

realized from patent infringement. 22 In the Monsanto 

Web site article “Why Does Monsanto Sue Farmers Who 

Save Seeds,” the company wrote that not suing “would be 

unfair to the farmers that honor their agreements to let others 

get away with getting it for free.” 23 In regard to monetary 

settlements, Monsanto representative Chris Reat said that 

“Our goal has never been to put anybody out of business. The 

terms of the settlement have been extended through years . . . 

to let the grower . . . try to fit that settlement into his farming 

operation.” 24 But paying off settlements to Monsanto doesn’t 

fit anywhere in the farming operations of poor African farmers. 

While this may fly in the U.S. where national food security is 

negligibly affected by picking off patent infringers, Africa needs 

to maintain a nurturing environment for all farmers in order 

to ensure its food supply. If some African farmers fall victim 

to marketing campaigns for GMOs and decide to give them a 

try, there will be negative consequences for those farmers, their 

farming communities, and their local food security. First, if 

the GMO farmer wants to switch back to non-GMO crops 

in the future, they must either have a non-GMO seed source 

saved or would have to purchase non-GMO seeds. Second, any 

GMO seeds that survive and grow into plants would threaten 

the integrity of their non-GMO crops by cross-pollination. 

Third, any neighboring farmers whose crops were compromised 

by GMO pollen could become targeted by biotechnology 

corporations for inadvertent patent infringements. Lastly, it 

is unethical for the developed world to allow Africa to become 

entangled in the kind of situation in which their ability to 

produce their own food is on the line. The risks are too great. 

The world cannot allow GMOs where acute hunger problems 

and poverty thrive, at least until patenting laws are redesigned 

to benefit small African farmers. 

There is another glaring economic reason why African 

countries cannot cultivate GMOs without serious risk. Almost 

no GMOs have been developed for use in Africa. Most GMOs 

were developed by private corporations for wealthy nations 

such as the United States and Canada. They were specifically 

designed to thrive in middle latitudes in high-input monocrops. 

Africa has extremely varied climates and little advanced 

agricultural infrastructure. Maarten Chrispeels, in his article 

“Biotechnology and the Poor” wrote about GMO development: 

True enough, the big corporations are not working on 

the crops of the poor, such as cassava, millets, sorghum, 

sweet potatoes, yams, and legumes (other than soybeans). 

Furthermore, they are not giving away their technology to 

22 E. Freeman, “Why Does Monsanto Patent Seeds?,” http://www.monsanto. 

com/monsanto_today/2008/monsanto_patent_seeds.asp. 

23 Monsanto Company Online, “Why Does Monsanto Sue Farmers Who 

Save Seeds?,” http://www.monsanto.com/monsanto_today/for_the_ 

record/monsanto_saved_seed_lawsuits.asp. 

24 E. Freeman, “Settling the Matter,” http://www.monsanto.com/monsanto_ 

today/2008/saved_seed_settlements.asp. 


poor countries because they want to recover the costs of 

their investments in biotechnology. 25 

This speaks directly to one of the biggest flaws in the 

argument for GMOs as cures for hunger. Florence Wambugu, 

the director of the International Service for the Acquisition of 

Agri-Biotech Applications, argues that “The African continent, 

more than any other, urgently needs agricultural biotechnology, 

including transgenic crops, to improve food production.” 26 

But GMOs will not “improve food production” if they 

can’t thrive there. 27 For GMOs to truly do good, there would 

have to be significant investment by the African public sector to 

develop technology specifically for free use by African farmers. 

If those impoverished countries did start GMO development, 

their trade relationships with Europe that rely on producing 

GMO-free products would have to either dissolve, or Europe’s 

stance on GMOs would have to change. 

Food production problems are not the only reasons why 

people go hungry. In the article “Genetic Engineering is Not 

the Answer,” Sean McDonagh argues that “Hunger and famine 

around the world have more to do with the absence of land 

reform, social inequality, bias against women farmers and the 

scarcity of cheap credit and basic agricultural tools than with 

the lack of agribusiness super-seeds.” 28 He cites the example of 

Brazil: they are world’s third largest food exporter, yet one fifth 

of Brazilians suffer from hunger. The 2002 African crisis is yet 

another example of hunger caused by myriad reasons. 29 Noah 

Zerbe argues that “. . . [Africa] faced critical food shortages 

caused by a complex combination of factors, including climatic 

shocks, HIV/AIDS, structural adjustment, debt, collapsing 

public services, and poor governance.” 30 It is obvious that 

GMOs do not offer a solution to all of these problems. Even 

GMO advocates admit that they are not a cure-all. Although 

Maarten Chrispeels believes GMOs are an important part of 

the solution to hunger, he readily admits that they are “only one 

tool.” 31 Gregory E. Pence, a bioethics professor and proponent 

of GMOs, artfully explains, “How a tool is used depends on the 

person using it: a hammer can build a house or kill someone. 

So with GM plants.” 32 It only makes logical sense that GMOs 

should be kept out of Africa now while they pose a threat to 

the very food security they are supposed to address. With 

25 Maarten Chrispeels, “Biotechnology and the Poor,” Plant Physiology 124, 

(2000): 2. 

26 Wambugu, “Why Africa Needs Agricultural Biotech,” 15. 

27 Ibid, 15. 

28 Sean McDonagh, “Genetic Engineering Is Not the Answer,” America, 

May 2005, 10. 


in Southern Africa,” 594 and Clapp, “The Political Economy of Food Aid 

in an Era of Agricultural Biotechnology,” 472. 


in Southern Africa,” 594. 

31 Chrispeels, “Biotechnology and the Poor,” 5. 

32 Gregory E. Pence, “Genetically Engineered Foods Will Help Stop World 

Hunger,” in Genetically Engineered Foods, ed. Nancy Harris (San Diego, 

CA: Greenhaven Press, 2004), 59. 


their patenting and cost issues, GMOs can only exacerbate the 

economic and social causes of hunger in Africa. 

If not GMOs, what? As McDonagh explained, there are 

many contributors to hunger that have nothing to do with 

actual crop yields. While food aid will probably continue to 

be needed by Africans, the world can begin to address in more 

earnest the underlying causes of hunger in Africa, particularly 

HIV/AIDS, residual debt, and failing public services. Instead of 

giving as much in-kind aid or cash, the U.S. could donate and 

build more efficient agricultural infrastructure like irrigation 

and water retention systems. Instead of subsidizing as much 

GMO corn, special subsidies could be made for non-GMOs, 

once again opening up the European market and ensuring 

non-GMO availability for emergency aid. In this way, the U.S. 

would still be getting a return on their investment. Many 

experts also argue that there are alternative ways to address the 

low yield of typical African farms. For example, in the article 

“Linking Agricultural Biodiversity and Food Security: The 

Valuable Role of Agrobiodiversity for Sustainable Agriculture,” 

Lori Ann Thrupp argues that sustainable practices such as 

crop rotation, integrated pest management, green manures, 

and cover cropping would boost yields while preserving the 

local ecology. 33 There are other studies that have found that 

intensified organic agriculture has the ability to increase crop 

yields without requiring the investment risk that high-input 

crops and GMOs need. 34 Essentially, alternatives to GMO 

cultivation abound. While the debate over biotechnology plays 

out in the developed world, Africa can turn to these alternatives 

to improve their food security. 

The 2002 food crisis forced underdeveloped Africa to 

become embroiled in the world debate over GMOs. Armed 

only with data offered to them by the West, Africa had to 

make quick and difficult decisions about the future of food and 

agriculture there. When several African countries took issue 

with the GMO aid, the U.S. accused the E.U. of manipulating 

Africa with their fear of biotechnology. The E.U. accused the 

U.S. of using food aid as a political tool instead of humanitarian 

relief. The African countries claimed that the critical reasoning 

for rejecting the aid was to protect their fragile internal and 

export economies. Today, almost eight years later, the world 

has been able to carefully review this situation. Hindsight and 

evidence prove that the African countries were right to refuse 

the aid. Patenting laws have not been redesigned to benefit 

small African farmers, and few publicly-funded GMOs have 

been developed for cultivation in Africa. Europe’s position 

33 Lori Ann Thrupp, “Linking Agricultural Biodiversity and Food Security: 

The Valuable Role of Sustainable Agriculture,” International Affairs 76, 

no. 2 (2000). 

34 Catherine Badgley et al., “Organic Agriculture and the Global Food 

Supply,” Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems 22, no. 2 (2006): 94 

and Brian Halweil, “Can Organic Farming Feed Us All?,” World Watch 

19, no. 3 (2006).

on GMOs has changed little, and Africa’s trade relationships 

with the European Union remain crucial. Yet, the dispute over 

GMOs continues to rage between the U.S. and the E.U. The 

world cannot allow this debate to be taken to Africa again. For 

now, the U.S. and the E.U. should provide non-GMO food 

aid when needed while Africa uses the variety of alternatives to 

GMO agriculture available. Until all facets of biotechnology, 

including health concerns, patents, and trade relationships are 

resolved in favor of African people, GMOs must be kept out of 

their agricultural sector and food relief. 

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593-608. 




Consumerism Revealed 

Katherine Jane Pope 

English 315 

“Consumption becomes problematic, from a social and 

environmental standpoint, when it becomes conspicuous, 

motivated more by a need for belonging, social acceptance 

and status then survival.” 

Nelson Harvey, What’s So Bad About Consumerism? 

In highly developed countries, people long to fulfill every 

passing need and desire. Many go to school seeking the high 

paying job that will provide the big house, fancy car, electronic 

toys, and anything else in between. However, people tend 

to blur the lines between necessity and luxury. They become 

engrossed in acquiring more and more. This habit eventually 

turns into an addiction, one that fuels the consumerist economy 

in the United States. 

Many of the products we consume are produced at 

the expense of less affluent countries. As we walk through 

shopping malls, consume fast food, and continuously fill 

our gas tanks, people from around the world slave to fulfill a 

quota employed by large corporations. This quota serves the 

consumerist nations like the U.S., but are priced by the low 

pay and unhealthy work conditions of employees working in 

those international third-party contracts. Yet this is only a small 

reflection of the numerous problems that continue to plague 

the world. 

The fast pace of our modernized society, obsession with 

acquiring more, and the complexities of our personal lives 

seem to blind most from the global issues that wreak havoc on 

lesser nations. Mainstream media fuels this behavior; constant 

advertisements keep our eyes dilated and pocketbooks open. 

By analyzing the components of visual rhetoric expressed 

in modern media, we can understand why and how our 

core human emotions can be evoked. Furthermore, our 

understanding of it can expand our awareness to the point 

where we might reevaluate how we think about consumerism 

and its effects. 

“There at Every Turn” focuses on families creating happy 

memories. This creates an assumption that you not only need 

a car, but also Citgo’s fuel to get you there. Figure 1 depicts a 

smiling father and son in the foreground, fishing gear in tow. 

The RV in the background is out of focus; evidently Citgo has 

taken care of the necessities so your focus can shift to more 

important aspects of life. Additionally, the RV is made a part 

of the background of the natural environment. Indeed, the 

Fig. 1. Gasol 

fuel needed from this vehicle comes from nature. A unity is 

thus created between the manmade machine and the natural 

environment. However, informed readers know that because 

of the way fuel is processed for vehicles and in turn how the 

vehicle burns the fuel it uses, ill-effects are imposed upon the 

planet. There is no harmony at all. 

The tiny triangles trickling down at the top of the picture 

to fill it in may symbolize the steps to getting to this moment in 

time, or “every turn” as stated in the campaign slogan. Beneath 

the picture there is a small paragraph that promotes Citgo as a 

reliable source of fuel; the company continues to strengthen the 

ad’s theme of dependability. 

Two modes of persuasion are at work here. Citgo’s ethos 

appeal resides in their mentioning that each station is locally 

owned and independently operated; the consumer does not 

need to deal with the complicated structure of a big business 

hierarchy. Citgo claims to be a “dependable source of energy,” 

in the paragraph ensuring the company’s validity. The pathos 

appeal works off familial connection through an American 

pastime. Both the father and son are grinning in delight, and 

the young boy is captured mid-air; he soars with delight in 

anticipation of the day ahead. 

The primary audience for such an ad can be anyone with 

a family. The secondary audience may include anyone who 

owns a vehicle. In either case, observers will respond to the 

ad differently. Some might react in the way the ad intended: 

they feel comfort in knowing the product can meet their 


family’s needs. Others may find the ad appalling and interpret 

it as another maneuver of a capitalistic society obsessed with 

consumption. People with a more economic approach might 

ridicule the ad for its promotion as a reliable source of fuel 

given there is no guarantee how much of the resource is left. 

They will regard the notion that gas companies can help one 

“pursue their dreams” as far-fetched considering the price of a 

gallon. Readers with a more ecocentric outlook may criticize 

Citgo and fuel companies alike since burning fossil fuels has 

been proven detrimental to the environment. Others still will 

feel apathetic toward the ad. Those people are perhaps numb to 

the continuous advertisements imposed upon them. Although 

the Citgo ad is simply selling gas, there is a complex mechanism 

reflecting the larger consumerist market at work. Breaking 

down the ad into its parts, helps one to look past the surface 

reality the promotion tries to create and into the deeper issues 

that affect the economy. 

While advertisers for the Citgo ad sell the ideal of a secure 

future, the visual rhetoric of the Haitian photo attempts to 

expose how consumerism can debase human lives in less 

powerful, more vulnerable countries. In the photo, a young, 

skinny girl stands at the foreground of a trash covered land. The 

building seems to be decomposing and there is a thick smoke 

in the background. There is a corresponding article discussing 

soil degradation in Haiti. It explains how Haiti’s soil lacks 

fertility because other countries have exploited Haitian forests 

and goods for years. Deforestation has caused a significant loss 

in trees and soil, and the process continues as the fuel-woodcharcoal 

industry dominates Haitian lands still today. Thus, 

Haitians go hungry because they lack healthy soil for their own 

agriculture. Furthermore, any income the Haitians receive does 

not afford them the high prices of imported goods. 

The elements of this photograph coalesce to create a tone 

Fig. 2. Tyler Hicks, Haitian Soil 


of disorder and desolation in the scene. Trash is scattered on the 

ground from left to right of the entire frame. Poverty, hunger, 

and pollution abound. This sends the message that humancreated 

debris is an endless part of the tiny country’s landscape. 

Empty, used, destructive, fleeting, lacerated, dirty, and entropic 

forces weigh heavily upon the land from one end to the next. It 

is a place devoid of human life- except for a young girl in a pink 

dress. 

The little girl appears to parallel the deprived soil; she is 

small, and her expression conveys a sense of profound anguish 

and despair. This is intensified by the chaotic heap she stands 

upon. In the background, wind and overcast skies indicate an 

approaching storm. The air behind is a smoky haze. She stands 

alone. She is abandoned, as is the land. 

There is some optimism amid all this doom and gloom 

however. The pink colors in the girl’s sandals and dress are 

cheery and bright. Additionally, there is lace on her sleeve and 

floral print on her skirt. While certainly sad in expression, her 

health seems to be intact. She does not appear to be sick. Her 

dress flows in the wind, further contributing to the passing 

quality of the scene. All of these may serve as threads of hope to 

contrast the mess around her. 

If so, the message becomes, “Please don’t give up on me. 

Despite all of this I am still here.” It encourages the reader that 

it is not too late to make right something even though it has 

gone so incredibly wrong. Perhaps like the youth that is sure to 

fade from her, eventually the state of this little girl’s land will 

too. This would mean that the most fertile days are yet to come. 

The primary audience for the article could be anyone 

interested in educational literature. The picture offers a powerful 

message; it shows the reality of many places in the world 

and garners sympathy from the reader while simultaneously 

suggesting that there is still hope for tomorrow. Indeed, the 

visual rhetoric will at least force the reader to ask, “What kind 

of future we are leaving for our children?” 

Consumerism not only affects people in poverty-ridden 

countries such as Haiti, it also impacts people who live in 

the heart of a consumerist economy. From transportation, 

waste management, and home construction, to industrial 

businesses of mass production, each of the sectors of urban 

life contribute to the overall degradation of the quality in the 

abiotic environment. That is to say, the processes of economic 

development and sustainability use toxic chemicals that emit 

poisonous gases, carcinogens, and other dangerous substances 

into the air and water. Los Angeles, Mexico City and Hong 

Kong are just a few of the many cities that contribute copious 

amounts of pollutants into the environment everyday. 

As the photo from greenpeace.org of the masked Chinese 

suggests, some places have such high levels of pollutants in the 

air that people must take extra measures in order to simply

Fig. 3. Leo Chan, Smog in Hong Kong 

breathe. This photo warns against the air toxicity in Hong 

Kong. The prominent haze engulfs the city and its inhabitants, 

indicating that the city is the main producer of the smog. 

Additionally, the natural landscape of the mountains and bay 

water surrounding the city suggests that humans are not the 

only species affected by such harsh conditions. The young 

people depicted in the photo reflect the notion that this is the 

reality the future will have to bear, and that the larger part of 

their lives will be spent combating the effects of “progress” 

achieved by older generations. The unnatural looking masks 

on their faces leaves the eyes of the three young adults exposed. 

They use them to collectively confront the camera’s lens, thus 

conveying the severity of the matter. 

This photo aims for individuals looking to become aware 

of the environmental problems today. Fear, guilt, shame, and 

possibly a sense of responsibility can overcome the reader. This 

may inspire people to seek ways to fix these ecological problems. 

Consumerism and its effects 

demonstrated in the Citgo ad and the 

Haitian and Chinese photos are only a 

short mention of the changes happening 

on earth due to our ever-increasing 

consumption rate. “The 11th Hour” 

advertisement suggests consumerism is 

affecting the planet on a larger scale. This 

poster promotes its documentary, The 

11th Hour, a movie cautioning against the 

overall effects of consumerism and the 

direction overexploitation of resources is 

leading us. 

The visual rhetoric of the movie poster has a dramatic 

tone to it. It shows earth, the home of all life as we know it, 

beginning to crack. The poster reads “CONSUME LESS, 

LIVE MORE.” The capital letters emphasize the power and 

significance of this message. The words “consume less” indicate 

Fig. 4. Borja Fernandez, The 11 th Hour 

that consumerism is responsible for the destruction of our 

planet. The black background suggests the earth is fading into 

darkness; a dark age is imminent. Black also symbolizes the 

grim permanence of death, or worse- extinction. 

Who or what is responsible for the deconstruction of 

the planet? The answer is people, as the big human footprint 

in the poster suggests. The footprint is not the imprint of 

an actual bare skin foot, however. It is one dressed in a shoe, 

which indicates a separation from nature and the mark of 

consumerism. The shoe is also the unmistakable bottom of a 

military style boot. This suggests the assertion of power. This 

symbol of power represents human inclination to overrun the 

planet. Interestingly, the poster centers the footprint over the 

United States. Not only is the U.S. responsible for the ecocrisis, 

but because of its powerful position in the world, it can 

vanguard the movement for other nations to make a change. 

This primary intended audience for this ad is everyone. 

The movie targets all people because as humans, we are the ones 

responsible to clean up our mess. For those who know anything 

about the ecological crises, they may feel angry we have allowed 

the earth to get to this point. This might overwhelm some. 

“I am just one person out of billions; what difference could I 

make?” one might ask. The ad also could evoke a sense of duty 

or empowerment to defend life. The ad is provocative; it entices 

one to want to see the movie and learn what it is all about. 

The pieces of visual rhetoric used in this analysis have a 

significant amount of parallelism. They powerfully relate to 

one another because they revolve around the environmental 

issues that humans face today. These pieces are effective because 

they convince people to act (or at least react). Either they 

consume more as the Citgo Company wants them to, or they 

rethink the concept of consumerism and its effects like the 

others convey. The product of this analysis 

ultimately makes way for awareness of 

the environmental problems of the world 

today. It elevates our personal relationship 

with the planet to elicit consciousness of 

our own ecological footprint. 

Environmental issues such as global 

warming, hunger, and sustainability are 

prominent concerns of mine. I chose to 

center my analysis around this theme 

because these are grave issues that need to 

be dealt with more responsibly, especially 

by powerful nations such as the United States. As we continue 

to demand more resources, use up the planet’s supplies, and 

consume extravagantly, creating awareness and motivation for 

radical change is evermore important. Every week I encounter 

some information concerning these issues and my cognizance 

of the earth’s environment and economical conditions grow. 


I think of the future and what I can do to ensure a safe and 

healthy environment for all life on this planet. I start with 

taking responsibility for my own impact. I can further educate 

myself and hopefully others. 

Works Cited: 

Harvey, Nelson. “What’s So Bad About Consumerism?” 15. 

Oct. 2007. The Wild Green Yonder. Ed. Brock, Adam. 

26. Sept 2008. . 

Gasoline, Citgo Oil Company. Advertisement. National 

Geographic September 2003: Back Cover. 

Hicks, Tyler. Haiti Soil. National Geographic, By Ed. Chris 

Johns. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic School 

Publishing Group, 2008. 111. 

Chan, Leo. “Smog in Hong Kong”. 20. Oct. 2004. GreenPeace. 

26. Sept. 2008.< http://www.greenpeace.org/china/en/ 

campaigns/air-pollution/what-we-can-do-to-have-better>. 

Fernandez, Borja. The 11 th Hour. The 11 th hour—Join 

the Action. 26. Sept. 2008 < http://inel.wordpress. 

com/2007/08/27/the-11th-hour-join-the-action/>. 


This publication is available in alternate format upon request. 

TheUniversity of Hawai‘i is an Equal Opportunity Affirmative Action Institution.

A JOURNAL OF ACADEMIC WRITING VOLUME 8

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