Dina Rosin (CMC ’20) Gentrification is broadly considered the process in which a neighborhood increases in property values, as wealthier people move in, which consequently pushes lower-income residents out. Many consider gentrification to be very controversial. While some argue that it improves a city, making it safer and more economically sound, others argue that it is inhumane to...
By Daisy Ni (PO ’21) The past week proved to be a tense time for the Afghan population, who faced a major change in facets of everyday communication. On November 2, the Afghan government released an order to ban Facebook-owned WhatsApp and Telegram. The deputy director of the telecoms regulatory authority justified the decision on the grounds of national security, stating that the two apps are...
By Isaac Cui (PO ‘20), Senior Editor Introduction On February 10, Daniel Ramirez Medina was taken by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and placed in detention to await deportation proceedings. Having come to the United States at the age of seven, the 24-year-old registered under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.[1] DACA gives selected unauthorized migrants[2]...
Interview by William Zheyuan Shi (CMC ’20), Staff Writer Karl Eikenberry is the Oksenberg-Rohlen Distinguished Fellow and Director of the U.S-Asia Security Initiative at Stanford University’s Asia-Pacific Research Center. He is a Stanford University Professor of Practice, and an affiliate at the FSI Center for Democracy, Development, and Rule of Law, Center for International Security...
Jacob Wang (PO ’21) Since the Tiananmen Square student demonstration movement in 1989, the People’s Republic of China has been repeatedly accused of violating international human rights law. The international community condemns China’s practices on two fronts: China’s restrictions on freedom of speech, religion, and political participation are seen as abuses against civil and political...
Allie Carter (CMC ’19) On October 25th, 2017, an undocumented pregnant minor being held under federal custody finally received the controversial abortion she had been approved for a month prior, thanks to a federal appeals court decision. Lawyers and advocates for the undocumented minor have argued that federal officials took extreme measures to hinder her and other undocumented pregnant...
By Daisy Ni (PO ’21) China has gone through momentous changes in the past few decades, growing to become the second largest economy in the world. This progress, however, has been accompanied by political corruption, a fact acknowledged by President Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). During his past term, Xi made anti-corruption a core priority and had...
By Carlisle Micallef (PZ ‘18) Legalism holds that human beings are inherently selfish and ought to be governed using to harsh, cruel punishments. It is a philosophy that actively advocated for using fear to control the masses. Legalism served as the governing ideology of the Qin dynasty but was quickly abandoned and actively rejected by the following Han dynasty. Han Feizi (c. 280-233 B.C.E) is...
By Blake Plante (PO ’19) “Thus do I counsel you, my friends: Mistrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful.” —Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra Nietzsche writes that infliction of punishment unleashes a “festival of cruelty” which reaches its most jubilant form when organized by the state; that the pleasure in punishing must not be forgotten because it is its own warning...
By James Dail (CMC ’20) A group of Republicans have just passed a resolution of disapproval addressing the proposed repeal of a regulation that benefits the financial industry over consumers. The proposed repeal would prevent consumers for filing class action lawsuits against financial companies. Though it might not be as newsworthy as some of their other Republican legislative initiatives...
