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Essay Instructions: Bartolem? De Las Casas

I. Introduction

A. Often characterized my modern historians as the ?Defender and the apostle to the Indians, ? Bartolom? de Las Casas is known for exposing and condemning the violent practices of Spanish colonizers of the New World against Native Americans. Marked by emotionally charged language and often exaggerated statistics. Las Casas?s works caused him to be harshly criticized in his own lifetime as a threat to Spanish rule in America. Though more than four hundred years have passed since his death, the works of this controversial Dominican friar to elicit strong reactions from both detractors and defenders.

B. This paper will be discussing the life of De Las Casas as a Human Rights Activists during a period when the New World that Spain had discovered, what we now know as Mexico back then Mexica. It will focus on how De Las Casas, be viewed as an original Human Rights Activist but approaching from his Religious perspective.

II. Body - It will address how De Las Casas developed a change of Heart in becoming a
protector of the Native Indians in Mexico by attacking the Spaniards and their treatment of
them
A. While preparing a sermon in 1514, Las Casas had a change of heart, realizing that the treatment of the natives was unjust and tyrannical. He informed Velazquez that he was renouncing his Indians, and he began to give sermons against the robbery and wrongs of the Spaniards

B. In 1516 Las Casas was appointed Protector of the Indians and tried to influence the Jeronymite commissioners, but his zeal met determined resistance from the Spaniards who exploited the labor of the natives. When he told Bishop Fonseca of Burgos that seven thousand Cuban children had died of starvation in three months because their parents had been taken to work in the mines, Fonseca asked how that concerned him or the king.

C. In 1519 Bishop Juan de Quevedo, using Aristotle as his authority, argued that Indians are slaves by nature. The aristocratic Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo, the first official historian of the Indies, seemed to agree, but Las Casas kept this history from being printed

III. Conclusion

A. The political system of the time and its relation to the Catholic Church makes every situation involving members of the clergy to have political repercussions. The royals used De Las Casas to take power back for them selves; De Las Casas used his political leverage and the crowns responsibility to protect the values of Christianity to aid his cause. While it is clear what the monarchs' gain from De Las Casas was, De Las Casas' passion to help the Indians seems purely genuine to me.


References Materials:

Briffault, Herma. Devastation of the Indies: A Brief Account. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992.
Fuentes, Carlos. The Buried Mirror: Reflections on Spain and the New World. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1992.
History of the New World, Volume 21
By Girolamo Benzoni

http://books.google.com/books?id=lmcMAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false


Inventing America: Spanish Historiography and the Formation of Eurocentrism
By Jos? Rabasa

http://books.google.com/books?id=luonOeN1HzoC&pg=PA152&dq=Fray+Francisco+de+los+Angeles+Qui%C3%B1ones&hl=en&sa=X&ei=xkHmT8GvMYmK2wXe0djoAg&ved=0CGUQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=Fray%20Francisco%20de%20los%20Angeles%20Qui%C3%B1ones&f=false


An Account, Much Abbreviated, of the Destruction of the Indies, with Related ...
By Bartolom? de las Casas

http://books.google.com/books?id=pjWWAMZ-oBMC&pg=PR57&lpg=PR57&dq=The+Devastation+of+the+Indies:+A+Brief+Account&source=bl&ots=8QsRo_N7zX&sig=5zbltW0ZUMtN7sWK9s5kuCJr4A4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Sz-5T-6KPMeiiQK-4PyUBw&ved=0CFwQ6AEwBDgU#v=onepage&q=The%20Devastation%20of%20the%20Indies%3A%20A%20Brief%20Account&f=false

Bartolom? de Las Casas: Great Prophet of the Americas, Volume 13
By Paul S. Vickery


BARTOLOME DE LAS CASAS IN HISTORY. TOWARD AN UNDER-STANDING OF THE MAN AND HIS WORK. Edited by Juan Friede and Benjamin Keen. Dekalb, Illinois: Northern Illinois University Press, 1971. $

Essay Instructions: COURSE OVERVIEW-----NON-MARKET STRATEGY PROJECT
It is an advanced strategy course that focuses on how firms achieve competitive advantage by managing various external pressures outside their market place - arising from interactions with governments, NGOs, activists, media and so forth. While a firm?s competitive advantage is created in large part through developing and exploiting difficult-to-imitate capabilities and resources in the market environment, the “non-market? environment in which the firm operates also presents important risks and opportunities for business leaders.

The non-market environment consists of the laws, regulations, norms and institutions that shape the nature of competition within markets. Governments, regulators, courts, the media, non-governmental institutions, international treaties and cultural norms all affect how firms compete and which capabilities are valuable. For instance, barriers to entry, new product introduction, global competition, and operating practices can all be enhanced or constrained by the formal and informal "rules of the game." This is true for many industries, from energy to pharmaceuticals to information technology. Yet these rules are not simply exogenously given. They are instead the outcome of competition between businesses and other organized groups within policy-making arenas. In many industries, corporate activity in the policy-making process is a key element in creating or maintaining a company?s competitive advantage.


Non-market strategy: formulating and implementing strategies for managing
government, regulators, activists and NGOs; non-market strategy for globalization and international business; integrated market and non-market strategies.



Non-Market Strategy Project


The focus is on applying the insights from the second module to a company or organization confronting a non-market issue. You should adopt the perspective of an analyst (or evaluative/investigative journalist), and develop a briefing about a specific firm?s actions, opportunities and outcomes regarding a particular non-market issue.
You are required to choose one specific company of interest and one non-market issue connected to topics that we have discussed in the second half of the course. The report should be framed as addressing a specific question, for example, "How should Porter Airlines deal with the opposition of local activists in its proposal to operate at the Toronto City Centre Airport?" Your report must not be repetition of other course work. The report should cover at least the following points:
- A discussion of the issue, its stage in the policy life cyle, and its degree of importance to the firm (and competitors)
- Analysis of the interests that have a stake in the issue; the preferences of interested stakeholders on the non-market issue; their degree of organization and the level of support or opposition for the firm in non-market arenas; their effectiveness in shaping the issue
- Analysis of the institutions involved in determining the non-market issue outcome
- Discussion of plausible non-market strategy options that could enable the firm to cope with the issue. Implications for the firms market-based competitive strategy. Coherent, logical recommendations on the best non-market strategy to adopt.

The content and style of managerial publications such as Business Week, Fortune and the Globe & Mail should serve as a guide for the written report. Students are expected to use companies? annual reports, media reports, analyst reports, independent studies, and other reputable sources to conduct their analysis (please fully cite all sources). Stronger reports might also include your findings from short interviews with one or more managers, industry or other experts. Course concepts should be used in both the analysis and the recommendations.
The report is to be a maximum of 4000 words (again, please use single-spaced pages, 12-
point font), plus any exhibits. Your challenge is to write an insightful analysis of the nonmarket environment and to develop a plausible action plan. For larger firms, focusing on a single line of business should help you to focus your report. Naturally, I expect to see sufficient depth to demonstrate your understanding of key course concepts.

N:B You need to check for the non-market issues in the other 2 materials I attached.

WHAT EXACTLY TO DO

The tile above titled “COURSE OVERVIEW-----NON-MARKET STRATEGY PROJECT” contains the question and what is required. You should note that you’d have to READ the two articles (would be attached) to have a good understanding of what is required. The first one-(Non-market environment -- explains the assignment/project concepts as discussed in class and what to understand about it, it also helps with the requirements) while the second one (non-market Environment 2??"goes deep into the analysis and using Boeing as a case study??"need to understand this for good result).

I also attached 2 non-marketing issues you can choose from. The first is

1) The Beer industry project
This is based on the beer industry and you would have to choose a firm (smaller brewer such as brick beer) to discuss the non-market issues but with further research. If you choose this, you’d need to deepen the research but also meet the requirements above " COURSE OVERVIEW-----NON-MARKET STRATEGY PROJECT " as indicated in the “Beer industry project”

2) Shell & Militants

Company of Interest is-------Shell
Non Market Issue is-----------Militants (Activist in Nigeria)

I attached the file called “Shell & Militants” which contains some information about Shell and this sheds light a bit on the matter??"Pls note that it doesn’t mean everything in it is right, it sheds light on the issue. I would expect you doing your research because there are tons and tons of sources on wikileaks, youtube, WSJ, google, etc...I also attached a file called “oil links” which contain several links to enlighten you about the topic and what to discuss-here also, I would expect more research from you. Lastly, look at the power point slide called “presentationn” to give you better knowledge about the topic ??"Also, it doesn’t mean everything is right, just sheds light on what happened.
NOTE: If you choose this one, you need to focus on "Shell" as the one specific company of interest and "Militants" as the one non-market issue---the requirement of the project...That is what you need to deepen the research on/focus on and you answer the questions in the document titled “research project” based on it. I personally believe it's a better choice (than the first one) and there are enough articles and topics about it online.
N:B Would also attach the requirements once more. Let me know if you have any question.

There are faxes for this order.

Essay Instructions: 1.
After 13th Amendment freed the Africans from legal slavery, the question arose: what would be so1`me effective strategies that could be used to enable them to uplift themselves out of the poverty and oppression that resulted from their prolonged enslavement, and fit into the society?



This question was widely discussed during the period of Reconstruction and after (1865 ? 1877 and up to approximately 1915). Within that context, three of the major social activists: Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and W.E.B. DuBois - proposed solutions to the problems involved. You assignment is to address the question of: (a) the problems they identified, and (b) the proposed solutions they offered. (See below).


A.- Begin your response with reference to: (a) the following excerpt from the ?Declaration of Independence? which states that:


??We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness?.? And ?



(b) The 13th and 14th amendments to the ?Constitution of United States? which granted African Americans legal freedom from slavery citizenship rights (please read).


In continuing the essay, organize your points and discussion as follows:


B.- The major conditions of deprivation and degradation that the three social activists identified as factors that were depriving African Americans from access to their human and civil rights, and their rights to the pursuit of prosperity and happiness.


C. - The proposals for upliftment that they were offered


D.- DuBois? main criticisms of Washington?s proposals as outlined in his idea of ?the triple paradox? in Washington proposal. (Google ?the BuBois/Washington Debate)


D.- Write a brief amendment to the proposals of Washington and DuBois:

What modifications would you make to resolve the conflict between their visions?

What points would you add in your amended proposal?


Include discussions of examples of the creative literature (such as poetry, or novel such as Margaret Walker?s Jubilee to expand/support the arguments by the three activists).

Essay Instructions: Topic 1:

Here are my questions that need to be addressed in a ONE page essay
Under the First Amendment should corporations (and other organizations such as trade unions, non-profit organizations, etc.) be considered "persons" under the law and therefore have the full and unfettered rights to free speech? Under this Supreme Court ruling - unless and until Congress passes new laws to restrict them - many believe that large corporations and like entities now have the ability to flood the mass media with paid political campaign ads which in turn could overwhelm the political discourse and in effect allow elections to be "bought". Do you agree or disagree with this view? What does this ruling mean for "balanced" media coverage of national elections? What do you see are other implications if corporations now have the full rights as "persons" under the First Amendment, especially as this might relate to other areas of the mass media?


Topic 2:

I need a one-page essay that discusses the following:
How is how in a democracy are officials to balance support of First Amendment rights against their responsibilities to protect public health and safety. Imagine that you're the mayor of new York for instance. You generally support the protests and their exercise of free speech - as I suspect mayor Bloomberg does - yet you have growing concerns about the health and safety of the public and the protesters themselves as winter is arriving and the temperature in the part is dropping below freezing at night. What would you do? Is the First Amendment absolute even when it puts the speakers themselves at significant risk? Should the mayor sit back and wait until some of the protesters in the Occupy Wall Street encampment freeze to death? What should the limits on freedom of speech and assembly be?


HERE IS INFORMATION THAT WILL HELP WITH TOPIC 1:

The Robert's Court has recently handed down one of the most significant - and in my view troubling - media law case decisions in decades. Even President Obama took the Court to task over its activist ruling in Citizes United v FEC as did the opposing justices in their minority opinion. Citizens United v FEC, while having its greatest impact on future elections, is at its core a First Amendment media law case. Fine and read one or more of the many news articles on the case including the following copied from the 2/1/2010 edition of Newsweek, and address the questions at the end of the article in a ONE page essay:
The End of Restraint Alito, Roberts, and judicial modesty
By Stuart Taylor Jr.
Published Jan 22, 2010 From the magazine issue dated Feb 1, 2010
The Supreme Court's five conservatives are properly protective of American citizens' First Amendment rights to spend as much of their money as they wish on political speech, both individually and by funding nonprofit advocacy groups. But this was no justification for the court's blockbuster, precedent-smashing Jan. 21 decision unleashing corporate executives to pour unlimited amounts of stockholders' money?without their consent?into ads supporting or attacking federal candidates. Indeed the 5?4 decision would allow any big company to spend a fortune attacking candidates whom many, or even most, of its stockholders would rather support. And corporations?including multinationals controlled by foreigners?will spend money on elections not to advance the political views of their stockholders, but to seek economic advantage.
So the court's decision strikes me as a perverse interpretation of the First Amendment, one that will at best increase the already unhealthy political power of big businesses (and big unions, too), and at worst swamp our elections under a new deluge of special-interest cash. More ominously still, Citizens United v. FEC lends credence to liberal claims that all five of the more conservative justices are "judicial activists," the same imprecation that conservatives have for so long?and often justifiably?hurled at liberal justices.
Judicial activists?at least as I define them?are judges who are unduly eager to aggrandize their own power and impose their own policy preferences on the electorate. They invoke farfetched interpretations of the Constitution to sweep aside democratically adopted laws and deeply rooted societal traditions. I'd hoped that Bush-appointed Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, who came across in their confirmation hearings as believers in judicial modesty, would bring a healthy dose of restraint to a court long populated by activists, and would thereby shun sharp lurches to the ideological right. It appears that I misjudged them.
I don't accuse the conservative justices of being any more activist than the liberals, who are all too eager to promote their own ideological agendas. But the conservatives have booted away any standing that they may once have had to pose as the guardians of judicial restraint. To wipe out a 63-year-old congressional ban on virtually all corporate and union spending in support of, or opposition to, federal candidates, the conservative justices overruled major Supreme Court precedents from 1990 and 2003. (The decision left intact the ban on direct corporate contributions to candidates.)
Writing the majority opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy proclaimed this necessary to protect the free-speech rights of "citizens." But corporations are not citizens. And while most corporate officers and stockholders are citizens, those who want to pool their money to support or oppose federal candidates have long been free to do so through political action committees. Conservative justices point out that most corporations are owned by one person or a few people for whom forming a PAC would be burdensome. True. But such people have no need to use their corporations as conduits for their campaign spending.
To be sure, two types of corporations have compelling arguments for exemption from the ban on corporate campaign spending. Congress has long exempted media corporations. The First Amendment explicitly protects freedom "of the press" as well as of speech. Those who buy stock in media companies know of, and implicitly consent to, their roles in supporting and opposing candidates. The other group consists of nonprofit ideological corporations whose members pool their money precisely for the purpose of influencing policy. Examples are the Sierra Club, the NRA, and the ACLU. Since 2002 Congress has banned these corporations from election spending?not to prevent corruption by these groups, but rather to stifle "negative attack ads" criticizing members of Congress and other candidates.
The court could, and should, have exempted nonprofit ideological groups without disturbing the ban on business corporations and union campaign spending. But all nine justices passed up the opportunity to carve out such a pragmatic, principled decision. The liberals thereby demonstrated that they are all too ready to sacrifice the First Amendment rights of real citizens who want to pool their money for election spending. But the conservatives?all too eager to expand the political power of big business in the guise of protecting First Amendment rights?are in the driver's seat.


HERE IS INFORMATION THAT WILL HELP WITH TOPIC 2:

On orders by the mayor of New York and to protect health and safety of the public and the protesters, the Occupy Wall Street encampment was raided and removed by NYC police and health and sanitation authorities. The same actions are being taken in other cities across the country to remove the encampments of related Occupy protesters. These mayors are certainly within their legal authority to enforce local laws and ordinances - and may actually be legally liable if they fail to do so. However, America has a long and important history of civil disobedience as various groups have driven the democratic political process forward by exercising their First Amendment rights in direct violation of other laws - think the protests against the Vietnam War, the many protests during the Civil Rights movement as just two of a legion of important examples in our history.