Academic Essays

History has proven that we, as human beings, cannot all agree on something.

For every idea, theory, or ideology, there are those who critic it, and those who support it. One of the things that has generated both support and criticism is the use of capital punishment. Opponents argue that the right to life is a basic human right while proponents argue that it is needed to prevent and control crimes. Although these two sides seems to be incongruent, they are both fighting for the dignity of human life. This can be achieved by tackling the issues that lead these capital crimes to occur in the first place.

Proponents of death penalty believe that it is the most effective punishment for capital crimes. From their perspective, fear of such punishment deters people from committing gruesome crimes, especially violent criminals. Besides, they argue that the penalty should match the crime. For instance, in cases of murder, if a person ends a human life, they have lost their right to life, and consequently they should be executed. They also argue that execution brings closure to families. The families of the victims fear that one day the criminal might go out; the death penalty eliminates this prospect.

On the other hand, opponents of death penalty believe that it should be abolished. They believe that it is an extremely cruel punishment. Prisoners on death row endure the uncertainty of waiting, which is psychologically detrimental and tormenting. They also believe that when a convict is executed, there is a possibility that they may be innocent. Judicial systems, even the best in the world, make mistakes. In addition, they argue that nobody should have the right to end a human life, and that killing is killing no matter what.

It seems that both sides are arguing for the sake of one goal: protecting the dignity of human life. Although their point of views differ, the underlying motive is the same. Since they both want to protect human life, they can work together to achieve it. Going back to the reasons that cause capital crimes to occur might be the perfect start. Crimes do not happen out of the blue. One of the leading causes, if not the leading, is poverty. A lot of people resort to criminal activities to escape poverty. Sometimes they feel they have no choice but to engage in illegal activities when they are struggling to provide the basics. Poverty is a hurdle to receive appropriate education, and eventually many end up being unemployed or underpaid. Therefore, implementing programs that help those in need may reduce the number of capital crimes, and eventually the number of executions.

To conclude, death penalty has always been a polarizing issue; for some it is righteous and beneficial, for others cruel and inhuman. Nevertheless, the fight and controversy stem from the desire to preserve the dignity of human life. Achieving the latter can be done if both sides come together and tackle the real issues that lead to capital crimes, particularly poverty and education.

Salim Lahmiti

Semester 3, Department of English Studies

Chouaib Doukkali University-El Jadida

Since 2006, many governmental documents and contracts have been leaked to the public after being kept hidden. This happened because of WikiLeaks, a site that  leaks government information and reveals a darker picture of it.

Many people side with WikiLeaks as it is a necessity to reveal information that the public need to know about. While others believe that governmental issues should be kept as a secret. Both sides advocate for the citizens’ interest and their own good, and this can be reached if some rules and regulations are changed that both the government and the public can abide by.

WikiLeaks supporters believe that it is of great importance that the government remains transparent as the public deserves to know the truth of their country, no matter how bitter ad dark it may be. As an examples, we cannot expect citizens to elect presidents if no further information is provided about them , therefore WikiLeaks is the only tool that awakens the public eye with shocking facts, with the aim to prevent them from making irrevocable decisions when electing . However, others refute the idea that the governmental issues are to be shared; as it will expose the countries to danger. Sharing the government’s decisions specifically threatens military operations , therefore the whole country  , thus the public’s safety is being at risk. The example of this is very alive with the emerging of many wars and disputes with WikiLeaks being the major cause of them.

Despite the conflicted opinions between people who want to ban WikiLeaks in order to protect the governmental  issues, and others who support the existing of it as it helps to reveal the dark truth of the country ,there is always similar compelling goals that both sides aim to achieve. The first goal lies in finding the citizen’s own good nd interest, because both sides know that after all the public is the one who’s either benfiting or being harmed by any decision that will be taken.  As for their second goal, they aim to shield the military operations and protect the national security of the countries.

There is no right opinion or wrong one. Both sides defend their point of views in a logical manner ,however  with the two sides sharing the same goals, it is very expected that they with concur with each other , and see eye to eye.

Nour Jabrane

S3 Department of English Studies

Chouaib Doukkali University – El Jadida

For centuries, in various parts of the world, it has been reported throughout recorded history that people have been experiencing the sightings of UFOs – unidentified flying object- which raised questions about the existence of other creatures in the universe. These creatures were given the name of aliens. However, there is more to know about the term “alien”, about its origin as well as what this word implicates.

The word “alien” refers to creatures arriving from another world, living extraterrestrial life that may occur outside Earth. It has never been confirmed that these creatures actually exist, still it is a major subject of interest. The term “alien” is derived from the Latin alienus; meaning a slave; it stems from an extinct Indo-European language called Oscan, then later on, in c.1300 the word came to mean “strange or foreign”.

The idea of “aliens” goes back to philosophers in ancient Greece , and  ever since then, there were many debates  among Western philosophers and scientists, questioning the existence  of these creatures  and whether they have ever visited Earth .1947 marks the year during which the first UFO sighting occurred , Kenneth Arnold; a businessman; claimed to see a group of nine high-speed objects  shaped as crescents in Washington while flying his small plane, he described their  extremely fast movements as “saucers skipping on water” , hence the term flying saucer appeared .

However, the word alien is not only restricted to extraterrestrial creatures; it can also mean a person belonging to another place or thing. In informal usage we can say “I feel like an alien” (out of this world), to express your feeling of “not belonging” in a certain group or feeling alienated. In English law, an “alien” is a person born outside of the monarch’s dominions and who did not owe allegiance to the monarch; these people were not permitted to own land and were subjects to different taxes. We also say “undocumented alien” to describe any person who is liable to deportation because of his illegal presence in a nation and is violating the immigration laws.

Understanding the origins of a word and learning its meaning on more profound levels enables us to improve our lateral thinking.  A term does not only have one singular meaning you can always find more. With the word “alien” we understood that it has more to it other than the association with fictional creatures.

Nour Jabrane

Semester 3, Department of English Studies

Chouaib Doukkali University – El Jadida

Smoking should be illegal because tobacco products can be very damaging to health, they can induce various health problems, including cancer, heart attacks, and obesity.

In 2000, 4,83 million deaths were attributed to cigarette smoking globally. In people over age 30, smoking accounts for one in every five deaths among men and one in every 20 deaths among women globally. The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that approximately 5.4 million people died worldwide from tobacco-related illnesses in 2006 and says that “unless urgent action is taken, tobacco’s annual death toll will rise to more than eight million by the year 2030”.

Smoking also causes many dangerous illnesses and diseases such as cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung disease, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Additionally, smoking increases risk for tuberculosis, certain eye diseases; and problems of the immune system, including rheumatoid arthritis. In U.S.A, for every person who dies because of smoking, at least 30 people live with a serious smoking-related illness.

Some people think that smoking does not have bad effects on health and claim that it has benefits such as reducing stress, helping people relax and concentrate. They also think that genetic predisposition is more impactful in causing problems for one’s health. However, the former mentioned studies totally contradict this opinions and show that the damaging effects of smoking on health is beyond these opinions.

Being addicted to drugs, after knowing all the dangers of smoking, and through my own experience, I would do anything to quit and I think that smoking should be illegal because most of smokers especially in Morocco start smoking at an early age and they don’t know its serious effects.

Mohamed Ilyas Ettaqi

Semester3, Department of English Studies

Chouaib Doukkali University -El Jadida

Neil Gaiman, one of the greatest fiction authors, said:” Google can bring you back 100 000 answers, a library can bring you back the right one “.

As online learning becomes more common and more resources are converted to digital form, some people have suggested that public libraries should be shut down; instead, everyone should use e-readers. While others disagree and claim that libraries are fundamental and should not be closed.

Both the internet and the library are considered to be a big depository of information. A library can be defined as a collection or group of collections of books and other print or non-print materials organized and maintained for use. While the internet is defined as an electronic network providing access to millions of resources worldwide. Both of them seem to serve the same purpose but as the world moves to new inventions and directions, the question whether the internet/e-reading is going to replace libraries arises.

Generally, replacing libraries with tablets would be a serious mistake. First, digital books and resources are associated with less learning than print resources. A study done on tablet vs. book reading found that people read 20-30% slower on tablets, retain 20% less information and understand 10% less of what they read compared to people who read the same information in print. Additionally, staring too long at a screen has been shown to cause numerous health problems, including blurred vision, dizziness, dry eyes, headaches and eyestrain, at much higher instances than reading print does. People who use tablets and mobile devices excessively also have a higher incidence of more health issues as shoulders and back pain, and muscle strain. We should not add to these problems by giving people, especially young people, more reasons to look at screens.

Proponents of the idea that libraries should be shut down, state that it will save local cities and towns money because libraries are expensive to maintain. They also believe it will encourage more people to read because they won’t have to travel to a library to get a book, they can simply click on what they want and read it from wherever they are. They could also access more materials because libraries won’t have to buy physical copies of books, they can simply rent out as many digital copies as they need. However, it is incredibly narrow-minded to assume that the only service libraries offer is book lending. Libraries have a multitude of benefits including providing jobs, keeping the community connected and so on…

While replacing libraries with tablets may seem like a simple solution, it would encourage people to spend even more time looking at digital screens, despite the myriad issues surrounding them. It would also end access to many of the benefits of libraries that people have come to rely on. In many areas, libraries are such an important part of the community network that they could never be replaced by a simple object.

Khaoula Jraif

Semester 3, Department of English Studies

Chouaib Doukkali University, El Jadida

For years, government transactions and contracts have been kept from public who may wish to review where their taxes go and how their elected officials act in their behalf. Arguments from supporters and opposition of WikiLeaks have grown throughout the years, posing a question as to whether or not WikiLeaks is beneficial or detrimental to the public. Although some may see WikiLeaks as a threat to national security due to the nature of its disclosures, WikiLeaks highlights the necessity of transparency and policy reform.

Wikileaks is a non-profit organisation that started in 2006 by Julian Assange, an Australian editor and activist. WikiLeaks got attention in 2010 when it published a series of leaks about the operations of US army in Afghanistan. Since its website started in 2015, it published over 10 million of documents that revealed serious violations of human rights. Also, diplomatic phone calls and messages between governments’ leaders, which exposed many hidden personal agenda that governments kept hidden from the public. Wikileaks main purpose can be described as James Ball, an ex-WikiLeaks staffer, said: “Same as the CIA or [Britain’s] GCHQ find secrets for their governments, the idea was WikiLeaks would get them for everyone.”

Wikileaks benefits ranged from exposing non-ethical military actions to governments corruption. In 2010, Wikileaks leaked many documents which reveal that hundreds of people were held for years in Guantanamo without any charges and ill-treated. For example, many of those detainees, documents revealed, were isolated for more than two weeks in solitary confinement in preparation for interrogation. This led to change U.S. image internationally from a country that leads liberties to an oppressive and unjust one. Wikileaks was involved in the 2008 Peru oil scandal by leaking audio tape of a conversation between a government official and a lobbyist agreeing to let a specific company to win contracts. This scandal ended by the prime minster at then to resign from his position. Therefore, Wikileaks plays an important role in changing toward a more transparent world.

Although Wikileaks benefits are undeniable, it has some drawbacks. People who are against Wikileaks says that it exposes sensitive information that could put countries security at risk. For example, Wikileaks revealed ways that a state-of-the art television could serve as a listening device even when it was turned off. Larry Pfeiffer, the former CIA chief of staff, said “these kinds of breaches informs the potential enemies of a technique we use, that they can now develop countermeasures against”. Also, “WikiLeaks published stolen documents obtained from computer hacking or otherwise obtained illegally”, James Lewis QC, a representer of US Government said. That mean it infringes privacy plus security. However, these claims are not solid enough because revealing how US government may spy on its citizens is not security threat it is the opposite, and most of leaks that Wikileaks expose were sent by citizens or government officials that fed-up with their non-ethical behaviours of their government.

While Wikileaks disclosures may have some downsides such as threatening countries security, its benefits are more important in order to push government to change its policies of transparency as the latter is for the common good of people, which is the first priorities to achieve by any government.

Salah Eddine Benchabiba

Semester 3, Department of English Studies

Chouaib Doukkali University of El Jadida