Nelson Mandela "Facebook"

What if...

Anonymity

– does it make the perpetrator more or less responsible?: regardless of the insult being anonymous or not, it still should be taken seriously, just because the perpetrator is anonymous, it does not make him less or more responsible, as he/she still gets to see the effects of his insult on the person.

Harassment

– what does it involve?: Harassment is basically disturbing an individual, many people don’t realize this but, cyber bullying has the same effects as physical bullying, it disturbs the persons mind, thus making the insulted or targets to feel depressed, feel like they don’t belong or something along those lines, these kind of mind-sets relate to teen suicide.

Duty to provide a safe or study environment

– what roles do schools and teachers play?: A student that is cyber bullying should at least be given detention or be sent to a guidance councilor for a period of time, a teacher can help investigate who the perpetrator is or help comfort the student that is getting bullied.

Right to freedom of expression

– what limits should be placed on it?: The rights to freedom of expression is normally abused by the general public, this makes them think they’re entitled to say or write anything they wish, but in fact, there are limits that are or should be placed on it, and that is, the person expressing their thoughts or emotions should not express them in a demining or hurtful way.

Right to security of person

– should people be protected from written or verbal attacks?: It shouldn’t be against the law to insult a person, either by writing or verbally saying it, it should just be against school policy and frowned upon by the law.

Defenses and confounding factors

– what makes a possibly libelous statement okay?: To make a possibly libelous statement okay is that the statement should both be true and not too hurtful, only then is a libelous statement understandable.

Truth

– when the statement is accurate: If the statement is accurate, it shouldn’t be put in a format where it is meant to hurt or demine the other person, the impolite truth shouldn’t be spread too widely either, as this may affect the person indirectly.

Fair comment

- a legitimate journalistic intent: In cyber bullying, a third party should be the only person stating a fair comment is a third party, and not the impetrator nor the insulted, as they may have different views on the story, the “fair comment” should be made by a neutral person.

“The reasonable person”

- how offensive does something have to be before it becomes libelous?: For something to become libelous, it has to be extremely offensive and at most times, untrue, like an insult to the persons parents or false insults, that are just made up to hurt the person in a very serious way.

Amnesty International Visit Reflection.

Few lessons ago, we were fortunate enough to be visited by two ladies from Amnesty International. However, the lesson before they visited, we were asked to research about this organization and find out what they stand for and how it works.
During my research, I found out that this organisation is a Human Rights group that is heavily against the Death Penalty. This group also stands for the belief that everyone should have a right.

On the day of the visit, one of the ladies started us off with a presentation and a video which explains more (in detail) about what the organization does and how does it work. While listening to the presentation, I was lucky enough to get in some notes, I learned that they;

• Are a Global human right organization 
• Have over 2.8 million members in 150 countries
• Worked with Eleanor Roosvelt and came up with the universal declaration of human rights which is made up of 30 articles saying that everybody in the world should be entitled to equal rights no matter who they are.  
• I was researching more about this at home and passed by this link which has all the 30 articles. http://www.amnesty.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights-anniversary/declaration-text 

After the presentation, we talked about the Death Penalty, which was when everyone started bombarding questions. Throughout the Q&A session, most of the people who asked the questions were against the will to abolish the death penalty. Which leads me to the question,

Am I For or Against The Death Penalty?

To be honest, before and during the visit of the Amnesty International, I was for the practice of death penalty. Because I believe that no matter what the reason is or who you are, you should pay for what you have done. And if you have murdered someone or put someone's life in danger, you should pay the same price. 

But later on when we went back to our respective classes, we started to discuss more about this topic. And even though I didn't contribute much to the discussion, I was thinking really deeply about this topic which some may call an issue. Then, I decided to write about the pros and cons. 

Advantages

The family and the one closed to the victim would feel safer knowing that the person who has killed their loved one is no longer walking in the streets; potentially being a threat to their own lives too. Furthermore, everyone has to pay for what they have done. Not in the "an eye for an eye" way but, something of that sort. There's always a consequence when we don't do something. In this case, if you have took someone's right to live away from them by killing them, you have to pay the price. Which could probably a lifetime in solitary confinement in a prison or a death sentence. 

 Disadvantages

It is inhumane, though I firmly stand on my belief that everyone has to pay the price of what they have done, killing someone IS inhumane. It's expensive, did you know that the rope used for the sentence has to be specially imported from ENGLAND and it has to be CUSTOM-MADE and it costs over FIVE THOUSAND POUNDS! So for everyone who said that it's a cheap punishment. Hahaaaaaa, noooo... 

Going back, I still think that the death penalty is necessary. Because I do believe in some countries, that crime rates will actually rise if it does get abolished. Miss Nora said that in a state of USA, when the death penalty was abolished, the crime rate decreased. She said that it was because the state government heavily enforced the laws. But in some countries, that might not even work. 

Therefore, I am for death penalty, but I think that they mandatory death sentence should be amended. No one should die without a trial or having to justify themselves. For all we might know, that person might even be totally innocent.