Melting Pot or Salad Bowl?



In multicultural societies there are different models of racial integration.

The USA is traditionally called a melting pot  because with time, generations of immigrants have melted together: they have abandoned their cultures to become totally assimilated into American society.



But in the UK, where cultural diversity is considered a positive thing, immigrants have always been encouraged to maintain their traditions and their native language.This model of racial integration can be described as a salad bowl,  with people of different cultures living in harmony, like the lettuce, tomatoes and carrots in a salad.

However, managing cultural diversity is not always easy.The world was shocked by the terrorist attacks which happened in New York in 2001.All these attacks involved people from Muslim ethnic communities, who seemed to be well integrated in society.

Both models of multicultural societies have contradictory aspects:- in a melting pot there is no cultural diversity and sometimes differences are not respected;- in a salad bowl cultures do not mix at all.



For example, in multicultural cities, some people spend their entire lives living and working without ever learning the country’s language.





//So which model is better?//

The ideal situation would be a society where all citizens have equal rights and opportunities, but can also maintain their own individuality.It is not easy to put this ideal into practice, but multiracial society is now a reality and we must learn to live together in the best possible way.







From Rags to Riches



"From rags to riches, from dishwasher to millionaire" - the hope of self-improvemnet and success is traditionally expressed in the term "American Dream". For many it has been a vision, an aspiration - and for others an illusion. Some of the immigrnats whom emigrated to the United Staes belived that in "the land of pro



mise" the streets would be paved with gold. The more realistic immigrants, however, simply hoped for a better life. They firmly belived that in America personal success was possible and within reach of each individual because of the social, economic and political conditions for hard-working people. The American Dream implies liberty, justice and the pursuit of happiness, as expressed in the American Decleration of Independence of 1776



The belif and trust in personal achievemnt based on private initiative has become the foundation of American society. However, this dream of a democratic and prosperous society guarateeing "liberty and justice for all" has not yet been achieved for all groups in America.



In the 1960s, in his famous speech "I have a dream" Martin Luther King referred to the ideal of equality as "a dream deeply rooted in the American Dream" and expressed his optimism that it would come true for black people, too. In 1997, President Clinton reminded the American people to continue striving for the realisation of the American Dream for all Americans: "Martin Luther King's dream was the American Dream.

The persuit of Happiness



Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness is a well-known phrase in the United States Declaration of Independence. The phrase gives three examples of the unalienable rights which the Declaration says have been given to all humans by their Creator, and which governments are created to protect. Like the other principles in the Declaration of Independence, this phrase is not legally binding, but has been widely referenced and seen as an inspiration for the basis of government.



The United States Declaration of Independence was drafted by Thomas Jefferson, and then edited by the Committee of Five, which consisted of Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston. It was then further edited and adopted by the Committee of the Whole of the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. The second paragraph of the first article in the Declaration of Independence contains the phrase Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.



Other tripartite mottos include liberté, égalité, fraternité (liberty, equality, fraternity) in France; Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit (unity, justice and liberty) in Germany and peace, order, and good government in the Commonwealth (including Canada and Australia).It is also similar to a line in the Canadian Charter of Rights: life, liberty, security of the person (this line was also in the older Canadian Bill of Rights, which added enjoyment of property to the list).



The phrase can also be found in Chapter III, Article 13 of the 1947 Constitution of Japan, Chapter II, Article 10 of the 1987 Constitution of South Korea, and in President Ho Chi Minh's 1945 declaration of independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. An alternative phrase life, liberty, and property, is found in the Declaration of Colonial Rights, a resolution of the First Continental Congress. The Fifth Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution declare that governments cannot deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.

The Manifest Destiny



Manifest Destiny was the idea that the United States had a God-given right to take over every part of North America. The phrase Manifest Destiny was created in 1845 by a newspaperwriter named John L. O'Sullivan. Quickly, the idea became very popular.



The idea of Manifest Destiny told Americans that they had a mission – a special job given only to Americans. This mission was to make the United States bigger so the borders of freedom could be open to even more people. Only they could make sure that people living in un-free countries across the world could learn how to govern themselves and live freely in America.



Of course, there were many other reasons, besides Manifest Destiny, that people wanted the United States to grow. More and more people were coming to America, especially to the cities, which were getting crowded. People wanted land of their own, instead of having to work for other people. The more land a person had, the more money they could make. If a person had their own land, they were working for themselves, and they were free.

If was a mixture of all these things, and many more, along with Manifest Destiny that caused the United States to grow this quickly in just 40 years.



The United States was very determined to take control of all of North America. Unfortunately, the parts of North America they wanted were not empty. They were places that Native Americans had always lived.

The United States government wanted these tribes to move outside the United States, to what is now Oklahoma. The government was able to convince some of these Native American tribes to sign treaties saying they would leave their lands.

When some tribes refused to leave their lands, the United States government committed an ethnic cleansing against them. In an ethnic cleansing, ethnic or religious groups are forced to leave an area by a more powerful ethnic group.