Test Driving A Spouse

Idalis Burgos

I was listening to Elvis Duran radio show in the morning on my way to school a few days ago and the topic of that day was the 2 year renewable contract marriages in Mexico.  Surprisingly, many of the callers were opposed to this kind of marriage arrangement.  I have always heard of contract marriages, but what I didn’t know was that somewhere in the world this is actually about to become legal, or the norm even.  If passed, the law is said to help newlyweds avoid the hassle of the tedious process of divorce.  The couples can sign a marriage contract with a minimum of two years with the option to opt out of the marriage after two years.  And I quote, "’the proposal is, when the two-year period is up, if the relationship is not stable or harmonious, the contract simply ends,’ says the bill's co-author, Leonel Luna of the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution, Reuters reports.”  If a couple wishes not to renew their contract they can walk away scot free, no legal hassle, and no dragged out legal matters.  This makes me wonder what effect this will have on the constitution of marriage. 

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2011/09/mexico-city-lawmaker-propose-renewable-marriage-contracts/1#                                                                 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/opinions/10202377.cms

Growing up, I always imagined getting married to the person that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.  The culture in which I was raised taught me that you marry for love and you spend the rest of your life fighting for that love.  Wedding vowels are to be recited to your partner before family and friends and most importantly, locked and sealed before God.  And you spend the rest of your life compromising and growing in love unless it becomes harmful, dangerous or unfaithful.  If the idea of a renewable marriage contract spreads, why would anyone feel the need to salvage a marriage when in just two years, they can opt out?  In other words, why fix something that can easily be replaced?  Some people already take marriage as a joke and this will only reinforce that kind of careless behavior. 

Now, I understand that life doesn’t always work out as planned.  But throughout the course of the radio show, I still could not understand the idea of going into a marriage without the intent of spending the rest of your life with that person.  It just seems like God is being taken out of everything and being replaced with the government and what’s convenient.  The constitution of marriage is based on love, faithfulness and endurance amongst other things.  It seems so superficial, like leasing a car with the option to buy.  In this case, test driving a spouse with the option to renew your marriage contract.  I don’t know.  What do you all think?

Tes

Media Propaganda

By: Aftab Ali

 Media is the only source of getting fast and quick information from all over the world. Different forms of media such as TV, radio, print media and Internet are used to get or send information. Unfortunately people trust on media too much without doing any investigation and are not trying to see both side of the image. Most media never tell the whole story because media is controlled by the people in power such as political leaders and media’s owners etc. They are the people who have a particular mind set and have their own agenda against a person, a religion, a race, a nation or a country. They use different propaganda techniques against a person or a party. The different propaganda techniques media use are; presenting limited facts and incomplete statements without any explanation, showing only positive side of something, focusing on one issue to motivate their targeted audience.

       Propaganda is the science of mind control and game with people’s emotion and feelings play by the politicians and leaders; half lies and half truth and a free publicity. Media especially television show such kind of images and videos which are more attractive and gain people’s attention quickly. There are different types of propaganda media use to achieve their target. But let me mention two types of propaganda, political and economical propaganda.

      The political propaganda of mass media is the propaganda use by the politicians through a partial media to gain more and more support of the people. They focus on one issue again and again and only show those things which support their ideology, for example the propaganda of the Weapon of Mass Destruction of the Bush administration against Iraq. This issue was exaggerated in such way that people support Bush against Saddam Hussein. In the article “War programming: The Propaganda Project and the Iraq War” MacArthur says that “the success of Bush’s war was largely dependent on a compliant press that uncritically repeated almost every fraudulent administration claim about the threat posed to America by Saddam Hussein” (qtd. in Altheide  and Grimes 617). The video shows some clips about Iraq by Bush administration.

      The economical propaganda is use to make more and more money. They are the people who want to fulfill their greedy interest. There are many techniques people use to increase their bank balance. The video show the propaganda of drug manufacturing companies about swine flu H1N1.

       Media has both negative and positive impact depend upon its use. Media also have helped a lot of people around the world who are victims of poverty, violence and injustice. Media has a very vibrant role in highlighting people’s problems. Through media people knew about other people problem and helped them. But unfortunately not all or not every time do play this effectively. Most of the time media become part of the problem not a solution. They focused on such things for their interest which destroyed other people. They never tell the whole story but a part of it. So to conclude my points, the role of media has both negative and positive effects. We not suppose to trust on media blindly because media also depend upon a valuable source of information so media might simply reflect whatever stands are taken by the officials in power or the information provider source .  We should look both side of the image before we judge a person, a religion, a race, a nation, or a country.