Asian Groups Claim Harvard Uses Racial Quotas for Admittance

In a recent Foxnews article, Asian Americans are filing a complaint with the federal government with grievances that Harvard is selecting academic enrollment based upon racial ratios. Although, as the article even points, they've increased their enrollment of this group from 17.6 percent to 21 recently. This group makes up 4.8 percent of the population, yet their enrollment is 20 percent at this school. However, their grievance is the opposite of affirmative-action, it runs counter to this as they feel this law affects how many Asian Americans could potentially be admitted. They are advocating for removal of affirmative-action here as this prevents many of them, whom meet the academic and other rigor, to attend this school among other Ivy League institutions. Counter to a utilitarian approach, I'd have to agree with them. Granted, 50 years ago, affirmative-action was relevant and necessary, and we should all be ashamed of that. But this isn't 50 years ago, and if we continue to set special rights aside for certain minorities, we're only going to hurt them. We're, in essence, saying as a culture that they're not smart enough, or socialized well enough and need special treatment. Is that how you empower people? To me it seems repressive. Again, this group is seeking what all Americans want, a better life. It's being infringed upon by archaic laws created for racial integration and equality. I'd have to side with them here, and furthermore, I'd have to agree that they're being discriminated against as well.

References

Asian groups file federal complaint against Harvard over admission practices. (2015, May 17), from http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/05/17/asian-groups-filed-federal-complaint-against-harvard-over-admission-practices/

(2013, July 2). Retrieved May 17, 2015, from http://www.cdc.gov/minorityhealth/populations/REMP/asian.html

Paraguay Abortion Law

In a recent CNN.com article, a 10 year old girl has been allegedly raped by her stepfather, and in the process, has become pregnant. The obvious issue here is that the 10 year was raped, because I think in most cultures prepubescence is taboo for sexual intercourse. However, what is less obvious is that the pregnancy she was forced into via the rape cannot be terminated. Paraguay has banned all abortions unless it threatens the mother's life. But I'd argue for a special amendment to this law where if both young girls and women alike are raped, there should be provisions for abortion if the rape ends up in the creation of a pregnancy. I strongly feel any woman whom is raped, regardless of age, shall not be burdened with the progeny of the animal who raped her. Furthermore, I would argue that this law is driven by myopic religious beliefs that are driven by the Catholic Church that dominates this country. Less troubling than the physical implications here that could forever affect the girl's health under the government's hardline stance in upholding this law is the psychological impact this girl will have to endure, especially if she's forced to take care of the child. The child can barely understand what has happened to her, let alone the pregnancy that's been forced upon her and made to continue through the third trimester. I think this is a travesty of justice driven by subscribing to medieval rules that built many of the western religions we know today, even in the face of science! This girl should be the exception and the law should be amended to allow for woman whom find themselves in these circumstances to choose to terminate a pregnancy, if it is created out of rape. I won't begin a dialogue on other circumstances outside of health and rape here though to keep the scope within my ethical viewpoint. In conclusion, special exception should be granted to cases like these in regards to rape that leads to pregnancy, even if they are incongruent with the current society's religious and/or sociological expectations.

Reference:
Hanna, J., Romo, R. (2015, May 10). Paraguay man arrested in rape of girl, 10, who became pregnant. Retrieved May 10, 2015 from www.cnn.com/2015/05/10/americas/paraguay-girl-rape-pregnancy/index.html

US Meddling in Syria: The Creation of ISIL

In a recent CNN.com article, "Analysis: Syria's al-Assad regime in trouble" it speaks to recent gains by Islamist fighters against the current regime. Like it or not, dictators do add stability to these regions and installing fanatical theocratic leadership is not the answer, in my opinion. Our government's approach, whether covertly or overtly, is not solving a problem with another greater problem, of course they'd have us all believe that, wouldn't they (Iraq, 2003)? This calculus is wrong and will only add further instability to the region. Granted, men like Saddam and al-Assad are terrible human beings, err more akin to animals, but they did provide for regional stability. Although their means from a deontological point of view are warped to the greatest extent. In other words, they used brutality and totalitarian leadership as a means to keep power, or the end. The utilitarian side of me decries their methods as they violate the "harm principle", but the pragmatic side of that argues that you "have to crack a couple of eggs to make an omelet". I mean, yeah, they're terrible, but would we rather trade them in for the savagery we see in this region (Iraq/Syria) now via ISIL? I would say, without a doubt, no. The media, their pundits, talking heads and politicians would have you believe otherwise; however, they all have their agendas and their views are aligned with those, whatever they might be. There'll always be dissent in any system of governance, especially autocratic ones, but we've unleashed an ideology that will have lasting impacts, and terrible atrocities beyond the former dictators at that. I don't think we should further our agenda in this region any longer from this type of policy, it's abundantly clear that all policies of the last administration and the current have created a monstrosity that'll only continue to get worse and plague the poor peoples of those areas. In summation, we really just traded one Ba'athist for another as ISIL's bureaucratic leadership is made up of former high-ranking military officers of Saddam's previous regime. We then coupled that with extreme islamist militant ideology that's sweeping through the region like wildfire. The point is, we're not really doing anything good, especially for the poor souls whom have to suffer under this terrible acronym we've come to know as ISIL. In summary, our policy of meddling in this region should cease to stop as we're creating a war torn area that will eventually see ethnic cleansing when the radical Sunnis turn on the Shias, Christians and Jews of the region; however, the damage is done, but further adding to it will not help this situation out.

Reference

Walsh, N. (2015, May 3). Analysis: Syria's al-Assad regime in trouble - CNN.com. Retrieved May 3, 2015, from http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/03/world/analysis-assad-regime-possible-trouble/index.html

Rosenstand, N. (2013). The Moral of the Story (7th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.