Adya Kadambari's Collection of Essays

ALL LIVES HAVE EQUAL VALUE: we are impatient optimists working to reduce inequity The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is an NGO founded by the Gates in Seattle Washington twenty years ago. With a $46.8 billion (2018) endowment, this private foundation is the largest of its kind in the world. Its primary goals are to improve healthcare, reduce extreme poverty and improve access to education on a global scale. They believe not only in financial aid but also in coming up with innovative solutions to problems. The Gates couple along with the third trustee Warren Buffet help run this foundation with the hope of giving people the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and poverty and empower their lives so they can get on the path to success. They identify poverty as the biggest barrier that prevents people from making the most out of their lives. Poverty is seen as more than just a financial problem, and by dividing the scope of the foundation into 3 main areas, it allows th...

‘Curiosity killed the cat’-sounds like a line straight from the text Arabian Nights , doesn’t it? The second part of this saying, ‘ but satisfaction brought it back’ sounding even more like an excerpt from the book, is actually a 16th-century quote from the playwright Ben Jonson. Curiosity is a constantly recurring theme in the book that often enters, like a devious omen, the banal lives of mundane characters like the fisherman, or farmers. Curiosity brings many characters fortune and many dismay; the Arabian Nights offer no identifiable pattern as to the outcome of indulging curiosity. Rather the moral that can be gathered from the tale is that free will is the sacrifice that must be made to indulge one's curiosity. The tale shows several examples of characters who find themselves in a situation out of their control because they were eager to know more.  The premise of the Arabian Nights starts off with King Shahrayar in a fit of anger against his wife’s infidelity targeted...

Mufasa : Yes, Simba, but let me explain. When we die, our bodies become the grass, and the antelope eat the grass. And so, we are all connected in the great Circle of Life. -The Lion King Death is an important part of every religion; Hindus cremate their dead, Christians and Muslims bury their dead, and Parsis often leave the deceased out to be eaten by crows that they see as embodiments of their ancestors. But what about after death?  The Bhagavadh Gita is a dialogue between Prince Arjuna and Lord Krishna on the battlefield and the advice Krishna gives Arjuna to pacify his qualms and anxieties are telling on Hindu values, ethics, and beliefs about but not limited to life after death. While Arjuna worries about killing his family on the battlefield, Krishna lays out a series of reasons why it is Arjuna’s duty to continue fighting the battle. Krishna’s strong intention to convince Arjuna is brought out by Krishna posing different theories about the journey afterlife, in ho...

With 2/3 Senate approval, the Constitution gives the President exclusive powers to appoint ambassadors and make treaties. The president can make treaties with the consent and advice of the Senate but it’s the president’s choice how much input they want - President Jackson often involved the Senate whereas President Wilson didn't. Its overlapping nature (domestic and foreign) makes it difficult to tell when Senate advice is needed. During the Panama-Canal Treaty, Senator Robert Byrd and others went to Panama to negotiate changes with General Torrijos; could have been avoided had the President evolved the Senate(257) The Commerce Department and American Embassies encourage private groups to negotiate with foreign entities. Presidential autonomy of foreign affairs is further compromised by the ‘fast track’ legislative process — bills automatically get introduced to Congress. The Logan Act, however, disallows individuals to have unauthorized correspondence with foreign governments...

The Constitution only grants Congress control over funds; it doesn’t allow them to violate the recipients' constitutional rights. An unethical example of this is that in 1976 the Supreme Court was forced to uphold the Hyde amendment; disallowing taxpayers money to be used for abortions (216).  Congress and Presidential budget priorities: Prompted by WW1, the Budget and Accounting Act 1921 dictates that the president create a budget request for the Congress. The responsibility placed on the president, it is simply a recommendation and congress holds the prerogative to increase or decrease it. Some Presidents chose not to use the impoundment funds: Johnson chose not to use the $312.5M added to the agriculture appropriation bill and save it for the coming years (223) . Because Nixon canceled several programs for refusing to accept Congressional add ons, the Impoundment Control Act 1974 now requires permission from both houses to terminate impoundment funds. It is difficult to c...

The constitutional limits of each branch of the government are unclear because of the ambiguous roles of the three branches. Power cannot be delegated by the legislative in an unwarranted fashion. Certain powers pertaining to profits, discrimination and public interest can be delegated to administrative or executive bodies if the congress supplies safeguards and guidelines. Agencies have the discretion to make rules under the APA (1976) in order to guarantee fairness [pg97]. Although the vague wording of delegation is criticized because it’s hard to gauge legislative intent, the courts acknowledge that it is unavoidable. Locke argues that power must be delegated because Congress cannot always be in session. In 1810, it was the role of Congress to bring into effect a policy which they did through delegation of the treaty renewal to the president [pg 99]. Commissions are favored: a panel of people will better be able to carry out safeguards than one supervisor. The legislative was sto...

The Supreme Court says that the President withholding information from the Congress and the Congress’ investigative powers are implied. The investigative powers of the Congress are to help enact the legislation, oversee the administrative process, and to protect its integrity. In 1795, Robert Randall's attempt at bribing senators introduced the investigative power of Congress to protect their dignity (177).  Post-1978, there were three reasons to punish for contempt: the civil contempt-main objective is to extract information; crucial contempt-objective is punishment; and as shown with the Clinton Administration in 1995, those who ignore the Senate subpoena are issued a court subpoena as well as a citation for ignoring the first. Congress cannot compromise on individual rights stated in the First amendment during their investigative process - The 1881 Kilbourn case ruled that Congressional investigation must have some legislative purpose (183).  The committee of invest...

"One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”-Neil Armstrong ‘Why?’ - The question that unlocked tremendous advancements in science, art, religion and the general attitudes of the generations to follow since the Renaissance. The first clock, printing press, and microscope all came during this period of high enlightenment. Similarly, paintings went through a tremendous transformation and there are certain characteristics with which one can tell which era a painting came from. Facets of Renaissance art such as the revival of Greek and Roman art, its incorporation of depth, and humanism are clearly reflected in La Chute d’Icare or the Fall of Icarus by Bruegel and because of these tell signs, one can identify its era without researching. After the protestant reformation, people paused social conformity to stop and ask “why?”, initiating the birth of the Renaissance (1300 – 1600 A.D). The catholic church prior to the reformation held that research and studying into a...

Which form of governance is the best in our day and age? Socrates’ stages of political degeneration can broadly be classified into three groups: the power of few (oligarchy and timocracy), power of many (democracy), and power of one (tyranny). The purpose of this essay is to use real-world examples to see which form of government is the most common and to see if it follows these stages of degeneration.  Socrates' first stage of degeneration and most similar to Socrates’ just city is the power of few. Power is centralized and decision making is quick and efficient as it doesn’t involve the populous. It allows people to participate in their own activities and their career. The rulers will also want to maintain power hence won’t make any radical changes that steer society into risky ventures. That said, the ruling class ends up with more wealth than the rest of society and it is tough for people to enter the ruling class. When they realize this, it can cause a war, as seen in the...

“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth,” said Roman emperor and philosopher Marcus Aurelius.  Do our childhood experiences shape who we are and how we view the world? Maarten Bak from the Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology, Maastricht University in the Netherlands conducted a study with 4000+ members; concluding that early experience of trauma increases the risk of dysfunctional responses to anomalous experiences *. In the context of Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson, Ruth’s childhood experiences influence her perception, distorting her attitudes and portrayals of other characters in the book; specifically Sylvie as the protagonist and Lucille as the antagonist.  Ruth’s early life influences her decisions and her stories, the absence of a stable mother figure growing up created a need for a caregiver; a need so strong that she filled in the role with an inadequate guardian, Sylvie. Ruth also grows ...

Natasha Tretheway's collection of poems titled ‘Native Guard’ is a deeply emphatic account of instances in her life and her past that revolve around themes of death, family, prejudice, and freedom. These themes are hinted at throughout the poem weaved in with the distinct unique idea present in each section. After the first read, the difference of each section is very visible-the first chapter of the book is about her mother, second about the Civil War and the history of her town, and the final deals with her personal identity as a mixed-race woman. The famous phrase ‘life is a journey’ is brought put in her first poem in section I, titled Southern Crescent. The poem is able to effectively bring out how close Trethewey and her mother are; describing two instances of disappointment at the hands of two men (her mother’s father and husband) shows that the lives of Tretheway and her mom seem complete without male presence and they seem optimistic about the final train ride. Although ...