Democratic societies from the earliest times have expected their government to protect the weak against the strong. No ‘era of good feeling’ can justify discharging the police force or giving up the idea of public control over concentrated private wealth. On the other hand, it is obvious that a sprirt of self-denial and moderation on the part of those who hold economic power will greatly soften the demand for absolute equality. Men are more interested in freedom and security than in an equal distribution of wealth. The extent to which Government must interfere with business, therefore, is not exactly measured by the extent to which economic power is concentrated into a few hands. The required degree of government inference depends mainly on whether economic powers are oppressively used, and on the necessity of keeping economic factors in a tolerable state of balance.
However, with necessity of meeting all these dangers and threats to liberty, the powers of government are unavoidably increased, regardless of the political party in power. The growth of government is a necessary result of the growth of technology and of the problems that go with the use of machines and science. Since the government must take on more powers to meet the problems of the nations, there is no way to preserve freedom except by making democracy more powerful.
Q: "Tolerable state of balance" in the last sentence of the first paragraph may mean
A great deal of discussion continues as to the real extent
of global environment degradation and its implications. What few people
challenge however is that the renewable natural resources of developing countries
are today subject to stresses of unprecedented magnitude. These pressures are
brought about, in part, by increased population and the quest for an ever
expanding food supply. Because the health, nutrition and general well-being of
the poor majority are directly dependent on the integrity and productivity of
their natural resources, the capability of government to manage them
effectively over the long term becomes of paramount important.
Developing countries are becoming more aware of the ways in
which present and future economic development must built upon a sound and
sustainable natural resource base. Some are looking at our long tradition in
environmental protection and are receptive to U.S. assistance which recognizes
the uniqueness of the social and ecological system in these tropical countries.
Developing countries recognize the need to improve their capability to analyze
issues and their own natural resource management. In February 1981, for
example, AID funded a national Academy of Sciences panel to advise Nepal on its
severe natural resource degradation problems. Some countries such as Senegal,
India, Indonesia and Thailand, are now including conservation concerns in their
economic development planning process.
Because so many governments of developing nations have
recognized the importance of these issues, the need today is not merely one of
raising additional consciousness, but for carefully designed and sharply
focused activities aimed at management regimes that are essential to the
achievement of sustained development.
Q: Some of the developing countries of Asia and Africa have
The Romans – for centuries is the masters of war and
polities across Europe, Northern Africa and Asia Minor – have often been criticized
for producing few original thinker outside the realm of positive. This
criticism, while in many ways true, is not without its problems. It was, after
all the conquest of Greece that provided Rome with its greatest influx of
educated subjects. Two of the great disasters intellectual history – the murder
of Archimedes and the burning the Alexandria’s library – both occurred under
Rome’s watch. Nevertheless, a city that was able to conquer so much of the
known world could not have been devoid of the creativity that characterizes so
many other ancient emprises.
Engineering is one endeavor in which the Romans showed
themselves capable. Their aqueducts carried water hundreds of miles along the
tops of vast arcades. Roman roads built for the rapid deployment of troops,
criss-cross Europe and still form the basis of numerous modern highways that
provide quick access prominence to Rome’s economic and political influence.
Many of these major cities lie for beyond Rome’s original
province, and Latin-derived languages are spoken in most Southern European
nations. Again a result of military influence the popularity of Latin and its
off spring is difficult to overestimate. During the centuries of ignorance and
violence that followed Rome’s decline, the Latin language was the glue that
held together the identity of an entire continent. While seldom spoken today,
it is still studied widely, if only so that such master or rhetoric as Cicero
can be read in the original.
It is Cicero and his like who are perhaps the most
overlooked legacy of Rome. While far from being a democracy, Rome did leave
behind useful political tool that serve the American republic today. “Republic”
itself is Latin for “the people’s business,” a notion cherished in democracies
worldwide. Senators owe their name to Rome’s class of elders; Representatives
owe theirs to the Tributes who seized popular prerogatives from the Senatorial
class. The veto was a Roman notion adopted by the historically aware framers of
the Constitution, who often assumed pen names from the lexicon of Latin life.
These accomplishments, as monumental as any highway or coliseum, remain
prominent features of the Western landscape.
The history of literature can be traced to the earliest forms
of the arts. Man danced for joy round his primitive camp fire after the defeat
and slaughter of his enemy. He yelled and shouted as he danced and gradually
the yells and shouts became coherent and caught the measure of the dance and
thus the first war song was sung. As the idea of God developed, prayers were
framed. The songs and prayers became traditional and wee repeated from one
generation to another, each generation adding something of its own.
As man slowly grew more civilized, he was compelled to
invent some method of writing due to three urgent necessities. There were
certain things that it was dangerous to forget and which, therefore, had to be
recorded. It was often necessary to communicate with persons who were some
distance away and it was necessary to safeguard one’s property by making appropriate
tools and taking protective measure in a distinctive manner. So man taught
himself to write and having learned to write, purely for utilitarian reasons,
he used this new method for preserving his was songs and his prayers. Of
course, among these ancient peoples, there were only a very few individuals who
learned to write, and only few could read what was written.
Q: As for the war songs and prayers each generations
Through the U.S. prides itself on behing a leader in the
world community, a recent report shows that it lags far behind other industrialized
countries in meeting the needs of its youngest and most vulnerable citizens.
The U.S. has a higher infant mortality rate, a higher proportion of low birth
weight babies, a smaller proportion of babies immunized against childhood
diseases and a much higher rate adolescent pregnancies. These findings,
described as a quiet crisis requiring immediate and far-reaching action,
appeared in a report prepared by a task force of educators, doctors,
politicians and business people. According to the report, a fourth of the
nation’s 12 infants and toddlers live in poverty. As many as half confront risk
factors that could harm their ability to develop intellectually, physically and
socially. Child immunizations are too low, more children are born into poverty,
more are in substandard care while their parents work and more are being raised
by single parents When taken together, these and other risk factor can lead to
educational and health problems that are much harder and more costly to
reverse.
The crisis beings in the womb with unplanned parenthood.
Women with unplanned pregnancies are less likely to seek pre-natal care. In the
U.S. 80% of teenage pregnancies and 56% of all pregnancies are unplanned. The
problems continue after birth where unplanned pregnancies and unstable
partnerships often go hand in hand. Since 1950, the number of single parent
families had nearly tripled. More than 25 percent of all births today are to unmarried
mothers. As the number of single parent families grows and more women enter the
work force, infants and toddlers are increasingly in the care of people other
than their parents.
Most disturbingly, recent statistics show that American
parents are increasingly neglecting or abusing their children. In only four
years from 1987-1991, the number of children in foster care increased by over
50 percent. Babies under the age of one are the fastest growing category of
children entering foster care. The crisis affects children under the age of
three most severely the report says. Yet, it is this period-from infancy
through preschool years- that sets the stage for a child’s future.
Anthropologists who study orangutans, distant cousins of the
human race, find in the animals behavior hints of how our earliest ancestors
may have lived. It has long been accepted that primates originally dwelt in the
treetops and only migrated to the ground as forests began to dwindle. While to
a certain extent, all primates except humans spend at least some time dwelling
in trees, the orangutans, can grow as heavy as 330 pounds and live for decades,
requiring copious amounts of fruits simply to stay alive. Thus, they become
very jealous of the territory where they find their food. Compounding his
territoriality are the breeding habits of orangulants, since females can only
breed every few years and, like humans, give birth not to litters but single
off-spring.
Recent advances in science and technology have made it possible for geneticists to find out abnormalities in the unborn foetus and take remedial action to rectify some defects which would otherwise prove to be fatal to the child. Though genetic engineering is still at tis infancy, scientists can now predict with greater accuracy, a genetic disorder. It is not yet an exact science since they are not in a position to predict when exactly a genetic disorder will set in. While they have not yet been able to change the genetic order of the gene in germs, they are optimistic and are holding about that in the near future they might be successful in achieving this feat. They have, however, acquired the ability to manipulate tissue cells. However, genetic mis-information can sometimes be damaging for it may adversely affect people psychologically. Genetic information may lead to a tendency to brand some people as inferiors. Genetic information can therefore be abused and its application in deciding the sex of the foetus and its subsequent abortion is now hotly debated on ethical lines. But on this issue geneticists cannot be squarely blamed though this charge has often been leveled at them. It is mainly a societal problem. At present genetic engineering is a costly process of detecting disorders but scientists hope to reduce the costs when technology becomes more advanced. This why much progress in this area has been possible in scientifically advanced and rich countries like the U.S.A., U.K., and Japan. It remains to be seen if in the future this science will lead to the development of a race of supermen or will be able to obliterate illness from this world.
Q: why, according to the author, is genetic misinformation severely damaging?
