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Friday, March 1, 2013

1.  Please read the following summary of Amartya Sen's key ideas on Freedom (if you don't have access to his book, Development as Freedom): http://people.wku.edu/jan.garrett/ethics/senethic.htm. Consider in particular the five types of freedoms he identifies.  Now choose one of those freedoms that you believe is most important, as well as a country in need of advancing that freedom, and describe  how a global social worker can advance that freedom in your country, using examples from our readings and class discussions (feel free to add other resources as well).

41 comments:

  1. All Amartya Sen‘s freedoms are all interdepended and related to each other in bringing prosperity to people in democratic countries.
    As they are very related to ech other it‘s not easy to choose the most important, but in my oppinion (that can be arrgued and challenged) they can be graded similar to Maslow‘s pyramide:
    • Pshysiological needs – economic facilities: ability and access to finance are crusial;
    • Security/ safety needs – social opportunities: education, health care, services;
    • Love and belonging needs - political freedom: opportunity to vote and chose who should govern and free press for dialogue;
    • Self esteem needs – protective security, a social safety net, investing in public safety programs;
    • Self actualisation needs – transparency guarantees – ability to play role in preventing coruption, finansial irresposibility, violation of society‘s rules;

    I was really tempted to take other freedoms, but after analysing what is most important i finally (and sadly) made conclusion – that are economic facilities ... i was stugling ... i was thinking about Buthan, country that is not so rich, but maybe more advanced in providing prosperity to their nation, about Brazil, that is rich but fails to devide resources to their nation. But I would like to take my country that i live in and try to analyse to my oppinion basic economic facilities how a being implemented in Lithuania. Economic situation is the basis from wich other freedoms can be build. Can be, but not necesarry is build... And now at this point i realise that there cannot be any hierarchy in those freedoms. All of them must go equally. As it is stated by J.Garrett (2001) substantial freedoms are valuable things that can be devided up and delivered to human beings in varying amounts. It highly depends on countries political, economical and govermental strategies.
    Economic situation is not so bad in Lithuania, but it is only one finger from fife. If there is no other 4, not possible to make something with 1 finger. Economic well being must be returned to all other 4 freedoms to generalise better economic situations in Lithuania and developing better symbiosis of all 5. At this situation Lithuania takes too much attention to economics, but better economic situation not bringing as much of prosperity to the country as it could bring, becouse of inefective use of economic facilities to develope quality of other 4. It looks like there are more and more money in Lithuania, but less and less efficiency of using them in effective and quality way.
    I myself have been traveling in many third wold countries that are poor, and always argue with my friends that it‘s not so bad in Lithuania – we have everything here. But in the other hand, it is sad for me, that there are a lot of recourses, that looks good in statistics, but they are used in poor and ineffective ways. Transparency is needed and and educated society to analyse it.
    So as a global social worker i feel it would be so effective to gather major ammount of Lithuanian society and ask their government to work for Lithuania, for it‘s future. And now again .. i sadly realise that there should be educated, sensitive and sensible society that is able analyse critically what are the cryteria to vote for a particular parties and ask them to make their programs and promises to come true or provide reasonable explanations why is it not possible to implement changes.

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  2. According to Sen, social opportunities refer to the arrangements society makes for education, health care, etc., which greatly affect a person’s ability to improve his situation. Every person should have a possibility to choose the three most important things: a long and healthy life, acquire knowledge and arrange with sources, which are important in his or her life. The person who cannot get the education, effective health care is surviving the social isolation. Therefore, social worker should look out at those people, who are not able to improve his/her, situation in health care, education and in other fields of social policy. Social worker can advance the social opportunities freedom through the international policy development and advocacy. Very important is the contribution of social workers in formulating policies and taking positions on global social issues (Johnson, 2004). The effectiveness, accessibility of social policy, social welfare can increase person’s ability to improve his situation. It is also important that social workers, citizens and policy makers will active in social policy development. The active participate of these three groups not only promote health and human rights, affect a person’s ability to improve his situation, but also influence changes in national and in some ways in international policies.
    According to Minkler (1994) out of ten commitments for community health education, for social opportunities is important the ninth “foster individual and community empowerment” (Torres, 2005). A belief system of powerlessness improves abilities of people get the social opportunities freedom by supportive structures at the individual and collective levels. It is important that supportive structures will use the empowerment. In this case, empowerment means that if we seek the social opportunities freedom, we need to make decision with our clients. Social services organization based on empowerment should active in relation context between social workers, clients and others who are included in this system.

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    1. Natalja, I really enjoyed your response and I completely agree with you that education and health care are two major aspects that can affect a person's life greatly and that when one has no access to education or health care, that their whole life can be completely altered. I have learned that low-income families pay eight times the share of their income in out-of-pocket expenditures for the same access to private insurance that is paid by high-income families. That is why I believe a universal healthcare in the United States would help with the health disparities. I also agree with you that every person should be given the chance to have those three important things that you listed. However, it is unfortunate that many people aren't even given the opportunity to "have a long and healthy life, acquire knowledge, and arrange of sources," which is why as social workers it is important to help empower our clients and help them find accessible resources that can better their lives.

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  3. Amartya Sen defines five types of freedom that are essential for a country’s development and progress. The five instrumental freedoms described by Sen that are crucial in making positive freedom possible are political freedom, economic facilities, social opportunities, transparency guarantees, and protective security (Garrett, 2003). While all of these instrumental freedoms are incredibly important, I believe that protective security is the most essential freedom. Protective security is a safety net which the country provides to individuals for social, economic, safety, and medical needs (Garrett, 2003). In my opinion, protective security is necessary to both promote, and help maintain freedom.

    The United States offers protective security or a “safety net” to individuals however, it is not comprehensive and people often slip between the cracks and do not have this security. For example, there are strict eligibility requirements for programs that offer a safety net, such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). If a family does not meet the TANF guidelines, there often times is little government assistance available, thus leaving the family venerable to the poverty. The United States is in need of advancing the protective security freedom. For example, Denmark is much more of a comprehensive welfare state, with many universal welfare programs that provide families with health care, education, and protection from poverty (Healy, 2008, p. 202). A more comprehensive and universal approach that is in other countries, such as Denmark, would promote freedom to a greater degree.

    One way that a global social worker could help to advance protective security in the United States is through advocacy. This tactic would involve social workers advocating to the government to try and influence more comprehensive funding to safety net programs (Healy, 2008). An additional strategy a social worker could use is capacity building. Using this approach, a social worker could work in collaboration with the client to find alternate solutions (in this case alternative safety net options due to a lack of safety net from the government) and help develop human capital (Healy, 2008). A final way a social worker could help advance protective security is through utilizing the United Nations “Universal Declaration of Human Rights”. For example, Article 25 states “everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control” (UN General Assembly, 1948, Article 25). This article can help guide social workers to promote basic freedoms and human rights. The “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” can help serve as a decree for social workers to advance positive freedoms such as protective security.

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    1. Dear Lacey you wrote an importsant aspects in enhansing strategies to protective security „safety net“, but i would like to comment that significance of the Universal Declaration of human rights cannot be overestimated, it serves more as the moral aspect and recomendations for governments, but i want to say that many countries like Pakistan, many African countries, and my country Lithuania ratified UN Universlal Decklaration of human rights at 2006, but it‘s really up to government policy and values towards people living in their countries. Ideally in order to advance democracy and peace all forces should be reunited to tackle social problemsand creating „security net“.

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  4. Amartya Sen identifies 5 types of freedoms: political freedoms, economic facilities, social opportunities, transparency guarantees, and protective security. He says that they all have a role in making positive freedom possible. He explains that we should not act as if there is only one type of freedom, and be aware of all 5 freedoms that he defines. I think that all 5 types are important but one I feel is especially important is the economic facilities group. As Sen said, “The quantity of income as well as how it is distributed is important.” I agree with that. There are so many countries driven and controlled by money, and without money and all that goes along with money it can be hard to have certain freedom. So much of what happens in society is tied to the economy and economic freedoms, like, unemployment, poverty, and homelessness, just to name a few. Much can be done to try to improve the economic freedom in many countries. We discussed a lot in class the Grameen Bank.

    The Grameen Bank’s strives to address the issue of poverty and change the way the world views it. The Grameen Bank in Bangladesh started by Yunus is a great example of giving a country more economic freedom. The Grameen Bank offers those who in many cultures and countries are just written off, and gives them the opportunities to change things for themselves. In the United States we have a huge problem with homelessness and poverty. Utilizing the idea of something like the Grameen Bank would allow many people the opportunity to fight their way out of poverty. The Grameen Bank in Bangladesh helped to reduce the amount of poverty in the country. I know many people would say that something like this probably wouldn’t work in the United States. With that mindset, they are probably right. But as Yunus said, “we can reconfigure our world if we reconfigure our mindset.” Taking on the mindset Yunus had when starting the Grameen Bank could have a significantly positive affect on the economic freedoms that are experienced in the United States.

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    1. Devon, I think you bring up a great point about the effect that a Grameen Bank would have on the United States, particularly in lower socioeconomic areas of the country. Many low income areas of the country, even many inner city neighborhoods of chicago, are often void of any banks or lending institutions and are instead filled with pay day loan stores that charge incredibly high interest amounts for loans. So many people in these low income areas are not given the opportunity to be brought into the financial mainstream, thus continuing to perpetuate the cycle of poverty in these low income neighborhoods. I believe that a Grameen type of bank could help alleviate poverty in many of these areas and work toward strengthening many poor communities.

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    2. Devon, I think you make an excellent point about economic freedom and The Grameen Bank. It is the best idea in the whole world for people who are living in poverty. It is very important to take them opportunities to change things for themselves. However, I think, that in this field (poverty, homelessness) should also work a global social worker. If we will help homeless people just economically (for example we will give a home for homeless man or woman) we will not solve the homelessness or poverty problem. The homelessness/poverty also includes lot of psychological, spiritual emotional things. It is a complex problem. Therefore, state and social worker should work together, when seeking to solve the poverty problem.

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  5. PART I
    Amartya Sen identifies certain freedoms that are essential for a country’s development. These freedoms include political freedoms, economic facilities, social opportunities, transparency guarantees, and protective security. First, Sen explains that political freedoms are necessary for development since it allows individuals to have representation within their government through processes such as voting and choosing legislature representatives (Sen, 1998). This provides citizens with the right to be active participants while also giving citizens the right to express their needs. This also guarantees citizens’ rights to discuss politics as well as to express dissenting opinions while also allowing freedom of the press (Garrett, 2003). Sen describes economic facilities as the access citizens have to financial exchange and opportunity, and it takes into account how the wealth is distributed (Garrett, 2003). Additionally, Sen views social opportunities as provisions for healthcare, education, and other necessities determined by the values of the society (Garrett, 2003). Sen states that transparency stems from a need for openness and clarity when working with others, and this type of transparency encourages financial responsibility while preventing corruption (Sen, 1998). Protective security provides social, economic, and medical protection for citizens which is implemented in many countries throughout the world (Sen, 1998). This protective security also includes unemployment benefits, income benefits, and benefits related to natural disasters (Garrett, 2003).
    Although the various freedoms Amartya Sen has identified as essential to a country’s development all have great importance, economic facilities is a freedom that is imperative for a country’s citizens to thrive. When large populations of citizens do not have access to participate in the country’s economy, or the distribution of wealth is disproportionate to the population, poverty then creates issues for a country’s development. As of 2006, at least two billion of the world’s population was living on less than $2 a day, and the share of global income controlled by the wealthiest one-fifth of the world’s population has now reached 75% (Healy, 2008). One study showed that approximately 1.3 billion people living in developing countries lives below the international poverty line of $1 a day (Seipel, 2003). Additionally, women-headed households are poorer globally which impacts both women and their children, and illiteracy rates between men and women globally demonstrate high discrepancies with women comprising higher illiteracy rates than men (Healy, 2008).

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  6. PART II
    This issue is particularly prevalent in Kenya where structural violence including poverty and gender discrimination negatively impacts women which has resulted in women comprising two-thirds of the Kenyan population living with HIV/AIDS (Copeland, 2011). Studies of Kenyan women indicate that this population is knowledgeable about HIV transmission and prevention techniques, but due to gender inequality, women are often financially dependent on men and thus are less able to implement HIV prevention techniques (Copeland, 2011). Furthermore, studies indicate that once women are infected, they are often unable to afford low-cost treatment which negatively impacts their ability to work and care for their families which demonstrates the widespread impact poverty has within a country (Copeland, 2011). In order to combat this issue, a global social worker may want to implement poverty-reduction interventions to help individuals become financially-independent which may promote better access to healthcare and HIV prevention methods. A global social worker may work towards promoting the use of microlending projects which have been shown to reduce poverty particularly among women participants (Healy, 2008). The social worker may identify women who create clothing and housewares and connect them to a microlending project where they could receive a loan to establish or expand a business in order to generate individual income. This intervention would ideally reduce poverty while promoting gender equality since it could decrease financial dependence on men. Furthermore, this could begin to allow citizens access to financial exchange which would overall promote a country’s development.

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  7. Amartya Sen’s theory is focused on the concept of substantial freedom, which is interconnected to quality of life. Substantial freedoms according to Sen are defined as valuable things that can be divided among members of a society in varying amounts (Garrett, 2003). In Sen’s theory of substantial freedom he chose to focus on five types of freedom that are necessary for a country’s advancement and movement toward positive progress. These five freedoms are political freedom, economic facilities, social opportunities, transparency guarantees, and protective security. While all of these freedoms appear to be equally as important as the next so many of these freedoms are not adequately given the amount of focus that they deserve in many globalized countries. In my opinion the most important of these five freedoms is social opportunity, the social opportunity that I feel is most necessary is access to quality education. Without the value of an education people are not given opportunities for advancement or a better quality of life.

    Although the United States is viewed as the most advanced and powerful country in the world it is evident that there are many flaws within the realm of education in this country. Although all children in the US have access to a public school education, education disparities are rampant and it has proven to be a very complicated issue for national politicians and local community leaders to address in a manner that will actually cause positive change. Minority children in particular are at a disadvantage for obtaining a quality education due to lack of funding provided to schools in low income neighborhoods, this often leads to overcrowding of classrooms and lack of quality educational resources for the students in these schools. Although the freedom and access to social opportunity through education is available so many children in lower socioeconomic areas are not given the same tools as their peers in upper middle class areas due to education inequality and the ever-growing learning gap. As we have seen in Chicago, many children living in lower income neighborhoods choose to drop out of school leading to a lack of income opportunity by making them eligible for the lowest paying jobs, thus repeating the cycle of intergenerational poverty for that child and their community.

    As a global social worker one way to view this issue would be to look at programs that have been implemented in the US education system and look for ways to change them through positive community activism and advocacy for education equality. One program that I feel has increased the education gap is the No Child Left Behind Act, the goal of which was initially to create educational equality but has led to disparities due to the fact that schools are now much more focused on generating good test scores rather than teaching children quality material that is useful. Schools that do not meet criteria are then subject to decreased funding and possible school closure. The parents of these children who attend at risk schools needs to be informed of the repercussions of their children not receiving a quality education, without the parents involvement and voice it is unlikely that things will change within communities that lack educational resources. This type of advocacy for change can be linked to the concept that Torres discussed in her article regarding advocating for human rights in Puerto Rico which described ten commitments to community, one of them being ‘thou shall not tolerate the bad ‘isms’ (Torres, 2005). This forces people who are struggling with inequality to address their struggles and focus on solutions. By members of the community facing serious issues and bringing their struggles to the attention of those with power only then can things change for the better. As social workers we must advocate for those without a voice but we must also show those without a voice the value of advocating for themselves.

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  8. As a resident of a postsoviet country, I have experienced, what „ FREEDOM“ can mean not only to a person, but to a nation, to many nations . Of course, as S.Stevenson (2005) pointed out, for post –soviet countries it was a naive idea; freedom meant not being oppressed by the Soviet Union. Common people had no idea, that after becoming „free“, we will lose all stability, and that, as R.Jurkuviene and W.D.Harrison put it, negative freedom doesn‘t make positive freedom „happen“ and easily achieved.
    As for substantial freedom that Amartya Sen talk about – all the 5 types are very important, and very intertwined. But from my personal point of view, I would think that social opportunities, as posibility to get education, and availability of health system, among other social networks, makes that base of the freedom : it would be too complicated to be involved in political activities ,if you‘re not educated, you might not even think about politics; or that transparancy is possible at all. Economic well – being would not be the key of enjoying freedom, if a person‘s health is not well; one could even say, that witouh education that economic freedom would be hard to achieve. Protective security is, of course, very close to social opportunities and is crucial, but as author says, more to sections of population.
    It is very hard to choose the country, who is most at need of developing this freedom. I think that most of underdeveloped countries are in need of advancing of all those freedoms. Education and good health could be a key build a society, that would be able to develop and satisfy at least the basic needs of the citizens. A global social worker, who has knowledge and experience of those freedoms, who has the ability to take not only his own experience, but that of his colleagues around the globe, in solving the social problems, in helping create a social system and opportunities, would be an irriplaceble ambasador of hope, and a valuable helper / teacher while building social networks and possibilities.
    In my country, global social work is incredibly important – social work as a proffesion is still too young to draw just from our own experience and knowledge. While communicating with social workers from other countries, we import many great ideas for our country‘s social system , be it programs for schools, or community building, or social work with families. While doing (global) social work in Lithuania, social workers try to help to advance „freedoms to“ , especially social opportunities by educating clients, empowering them, advancing their capabilities.

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  9. Amartya Sen’s research addresses what he considers the five most essential components of individual instrumental freedom; these components links social and economic development to the expansion of civil society (Sen, 1999). Each freedom is intertwined and no one freedom can take precedent over another. Nonetheless, for the purposes of this assignment I have chosen to focus on social opportunity.

    The attainment of a “quality” education has been linked to upward mobility and progress on a national level. In countries such as Latin America and the Caribbean, fewer than 60 percent of children who start school reach Grade 5 and illiteracy rates remain high. Jamaica, as an English speaking Caribbean island fits this profile. Several factors account for this. First, teachers and administrators in Jamaica have limited materials, little support in the classroom and training that is geared towards children from disadvantaged communities. In addition, education financing is heavily skewed toward tertiary education, leaving pre-school, primary and secondary education underfinanced. Education is also divided into class systems. Poorer students are subjected to less government aid than their more affluent counterparts. These factors lead to inadequate school infrastructure and staffing, which in turn, leads to severe overcrowding of primary school classrooms. The lack of education amongst Jamaican also contributes to rise in crime, unemployment, and political instability in the country.

    Crime in Jamaica is fueled by the feeble governance structures. Organized crime poses the biggest risk as it is used as a means to supplement the availability of social services. The move of the Cartel into the Caribbean raises concern of Jamaica becoming a new territory for such activity (Jamaica Social Policy Evaluation Project 2002). With the weak government systems it may become a target for criminal activity. Another social problem linked to lack of education amongst youth is violence. Jamaica has the highest homicide rates in the Caribbean and one of the highest in the world (JASPEV, Annual Progress Report on National Social Policy Goals 2003).

    As a global social worker it would be important for me to address the issue of access to education. Policy dialogue, technical assistance, and commodity support for the education transformation initiative are a few methods to advocate for social change on the educational front. On the community level the implication of programs for out-of-school youth and programs that foster a successful transition from school to work would be detrimental to serving this population. Additionally, raising public awareness of the services available, the impact on corruption, parental skill training, the encouragement of youth to take on leadership roles, or a panel for reform will also aid in the process.

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  10. I think the most important freedom is political freedoms. From this side people have the ability to act in politics. What is mean “to act in politics”? Political freedom is a part of democratic government, where people have a voice. There are: freedom of speech, right vote, and people can express your opinion, express complain or criticize authorities without fear of government. The political freedom, when people can participate or have abilities to act in politics and don’t afraid interference or threats (Bhargava 2003).
    According Sen, especially political freedom is important for poor. There are three reasons of political freedom:
    1. Intrinsically valuable. Fundamental to human existence and valuable by itself is to participate in the life of one’s community.
    2. Constructive value. When we have dialogue, discussion or debate, we come to understand what our real needs really are.
    3. Instrumental value - particularly in poor societies. Requirement of government accountability, the reaction to the ordinary citizen, seeking protection from bad management and etc. and by providing a space for people to come together and act publicly, they help ensure the provision of essential services and monitoring their functioning.
    But Bhargava (2003) put one more aspect of political freedom, which is:
    4. Reconstituting (or reconditioning) role in human life. Political freedoms help us to change the way we experience our current condition.
    Why I speak about political freedom? In our country we can see poverty. People, who live in poverty they don’t have possibility, use a political freedom. They are thinking about themselves problems: from where to get food for children, family. They need thinking, how keep house, how find job. Usually those people can do practically nothing about their poverty. They can’t publicly complain or act to change this condition. These people are upset and who did not see hope. Here reveals political importance, which can give these people hope, that these people are not forgotten. Here is important social worker’s intermediation between clients, organization and politics. Social worker’s role advocates between this systems, especially participation in political life when formulating aid these people. Submit proposals according to the needs of the people so that people can exercise political freedom. To help change attitudes towards political freedoms because people can use them to change your present.

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  11. Amartya Sen outlines five instrumental freedoms that are essential for positive freedoms including, political freedoms, economic facilities, social opportunities, transparency guarantees, and protective security (Garrett, 2003). The United States often posits itself as the model of freedom others should aspire to however, if one uses Sen’s definition of freedom, the US lacks many of the essentials. Politically, the US is free. While criticism is never welcomed by those in power, those who criticize do not fear for their life after they speak up. Economically, socially, transparently, protectively though, the US can barely claim competency. Of these remaining four freedoms, protective security is the most important. A country’s ability to provide “a social safety net that prevents sections of the population from being reduced to abject misery” is essential to achieving positive freedom and a basic human right. While the US does have programs such as unemployment benefits and Medicare for the elderly, these are band aids and do not address or guarantee protective security for everyone. According to the US Census Bureau, 46.2 million people were in poverty in 2011 and the poverty rate for children under 18 was 21.9 percent or 16 million children. This also translates into 16 million children living in “food insecure households” (DeNavas-Walt, C, Proctor, B., & Smith, J. US Census Report on Income, Poverty and Health Insurance Coverage in the US, 2011)). For a country that holds 39 percent of the world’s wealth, these statistics should be astonishing (Ewing,J., New York Times, 2013).
    Fortunately, social workers possess the skills to begin to increase protective security for Americans without it. This can be accomplished through both advocacy and direct work within the community. Through organizations such as the Red Cross, Americorp, and the YWCA, American social workers can participate in both of these actions. Sen distinguishes between helping on an individual level and helping on a more macro level and protective security is exactly the type of issue that would improve with large scale overhaul (Garrett, 2003). This is a systemic problem and not the result of individual action on the part of those suffering. Through the American Red Cross, social workers can lobby to influence congress and advocate for the organization to demonstrate effective solutions which will influence others to fund or further implement solutions (Healy, 2008).

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    1. "This is a systemic problem and not the result of individual action on the part of those suffering..." I agree with you! Most people don't realize that people's struggles are not their own to blame, but rather a result of an oppressive system that continues to set people up to fail rather than to succeed. Protective security should be provided in this nation without any form of stereotype, or labels. Protective securities that not only provide a safety net for people but also assist people in achieving their personal goals. Along with protective securities we need a system that promotes equality all across the board, education, income, employment to name a few.

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  12. I. To speak about freedom is always difficult, I think. Because of understanding and perception of concept. Even on micro or macro level. If we will speak about individual freedom, how it’s understood by person, we will see different understandings, for example: the freedom for prisoner will not be the same, like the freedom for in poverty living people. Everything depends on context ant content. Amartya Sen lists the five groups of instrumental freedom (Dr. Garret J, 2003). It’s not so easy to choose, which is most important. I think, that all of them are intertwined and involved, and, of course, very important. But for Lithuanian context I choose the economic facilities, to concentrate at and which is in need to advance more.
    Not so long time ago, Lithuanian people was dreaming about the freedom, the freedom from Soviet Union, but everyone understood it differently. As R. Jurkuvienė noticed, “I have come to understand, that on that memorable day when we were standing in the square each one of us had his or her own understanding of the term “freedom” (Jurkuvienė R., p. 95). Today the understanding of freedom have changed for that people, not so long time ago they thought, that they have the same understanding of freedom, it’ so clear for everyone. But time passed, everything changed, even the concept of freedom. Now our country is independent. But is it the freedom of all sense of the word? Nowadays we have political freedom, we have freedom of political expression, we can choose between political parties and vote and do not be afraid to showing hesitation about politicians; we can choose the places to work at, universities to study at; the health system is quite good and available for majority of people and etc. . But for today, I have doubts about the economic situation in our country. Of course, at first sight, everything looks not so bad: we have free market, we can choose what to study, to work in the field what we want after graduating; ultimately Lithuania is the member of European Union! But looking closely, in Lithuanian, according to economists from bank, are only 27 % of people, which describe as middle class, in the same time, in other European countries, there are about 60-70% (http://www.ekonomika.lt/naujiena/lietuva-salis-be-vidurines-klases-32529.html). Well developed countries are, where in the middle class are high percent of population, it means, that there are no big social exclusion. But in Lithuania are a big gap between rich people and people living in poverty. Without the big percent of middle class, we have many people, who live on allowance, it means, that they mostly are unemployed, have disabilities or little children, they are not tax payers. It’s interesting, that there are people, who receiving allowance from government don’t want to go to work, because it’s not worth for them. The size of allowance is not so big, it’s hard to imagine, how it’s possible to survive having such an income, but in other hand, the people receiving allowances are generally uncompetitive in the labor market, because of low education, social skills and low motivation. Mostly in labor market they can expect a minimum salary, which is not much bigger than allowances. Here we come to stalemate. I will try to explain why.

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  13. II. If we will look at this situation from economic discourse, we should have in consideration, that “individuals are self-interested, rational actors. It is assumed that individuals act in ways that reflect and promote their individual self-interest and that, in so doing, contribute to the “betterment of everyone” (Healy K., 2005, p. 29). And, of course, people have freedom to choose and use economical facilities as they want. I can say, that it’s not right to blame people, which do not want to work, because their income from allowances, compensations for heating, kinder garden and etc. . That people really behave rationally. Who can argue? I think, that it’s a problem of Lithuanian government, tax system in fact. It is not beneficial even for government and for people too. Here, we, as a global social workers, need to find the ways for changing the situation in better way. I think, that there two areas, in which needed to advance. First one, is a mezo level: government, politics and economic situation in Lithuania. How to change a tax system, the best example can be Sweden tax system, where the taxes is very high, but everybody is happy, because they have free education, most health care and pension benefits and so on (http://www.sweden.se/eng/Home/Work/Labor-market/Salary-and-standard-of-living/ ). Of course, it cannot change in one day, but it can be a good example what to reach to. As a social worker, the micro level (individuals) in this situation are the area, where our work can be more succeed and very important. I think, would be good try to use 5 steps to beat poverty:
    1. “First is giving the poor access to information, as they often lack critical pieces of information and believe things that are not true”. More true information for people, who live in poverty, to empower them.
    2. ”Second is recognising that the poor bear responsibility for far too many aspects of their own lives. The richer you are, the more right decisions are made for you”. To motivate people, that work is more beneficial and promotes self-confidentiality and better quality of life.
    3. ”Third, understanding the impact of some markets simply not being open to the poor. Savings accounts or loans, for example, are impossible or too expensive for people at the bottom of society, as is health insurance. But this can be altered by using ideas such as microfinance, or allowing money transfers on mobile phones”.
    4. ”Fourth, poor countries are not doomed just because they are poor. It is important to keep seeking improvement because although some projects may not work and some programmes might end up in the wrong hands, these failures are often a result of what the authors call the three I's — ignorance, ideology and inertia”.
    5. ”Fifth, expectations of failure become self-fulfilling prophecies. Children give up on school when teachers and parents signal that they cannot manage the curriculum. Fruit sellers do not pay their debts because they expect that they will fall back into debt anyway”. (http://gulfnews.com/arts-entertainment/books/five-steps-to-beat-poverty-1.1000345).
    It’s good to remind people about self-determination and that they have more than one freedom.

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    1. Vitalija-your example about the lack of a stable middle class in Lithuania is really good. You really show just how necessary economic facilities are in order to obtain a fully developed nation. I also liked how you talked about how solving this issue is not something that can be easily fixed or finding agreeable solutions. But I also like how you tried to do so anyway. This was very informative and it helped me learn so much more about the sociopolitical system in Lithuania.

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  14. 1. Out of the five freedoms Amartya Sen describes I believe the most important one is Social Opportunities. The country that I believe is in need of this freedom is Pakistan. In one of our class we talked about a 15-year-old girl who was shot because she was advocating for women’s right to get an education. Having this freedom of Social opportunities, such as education is extremely important. I believe that it is important for everyone to receive the education they deserve and need. In the article by Isadora Hare (2004), she describes social work activities in two components for the profession. She states that these components are the clinical services and community work. For a global social worker to help get this country with this freedom, they need the component of their profession, community work. Being a social worker you are concerned about a person’s rights and basic needs.
    “Social workers across the world have used the motivation of social justice to engage in social action, sometimes facing imprisonment for their activities in countries with authoritarian regimes” (Hare, Isadora, 2004). In our text book there is a chapter on International Professional Action. In this chapter there is a list of international social work organizations. One of the organizations that would be helpful in working with Pakistan on getting equal education for women would be the International Association of Schools of Social work. The purpose of this association is “to promote and develop quality education, training, and knowledge for social work practice worldwide, to encourage exchange among educators and to represent social work education globally” (Healy, 2008). One of the strategies mentioned in the book would be a good idea to start helping this country; this strategy is having international conferences. I am unaware if the U.S. has any connection to Pakistan and having an international conferences and/or seminar would be a great way to exchange information with other countries. There is also the possible to form other relationships with other countries. Forming these relationship can help us come together to help all women have the equal right to a proper education. I would also like to get 10x10 campaign, mentioned in Shabana Basij-Rasissh’s speech to help with supporting the Pakistan girls to receive the education that they deserve.

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  16. I believe that there needs to be an equal opportunity for ALL people ALL across the board. This is what I believe in, but the reality is…there is no such opportunity allowed to all. That said…the most important freedom presented by Sen is, Protective Security. With this freedom Sen suggests that there would be a social safety net that prevents sections of the population from being reduced to abject misery. He refers to “fixed institutional arrangements such as unemployment benefits and statutory income supplements to the indigent as well as ad hoc (temporary) arrangements such as famine relief or emergency public employment to generate income for destitute.”
    Per our conversation in class, I have come to the realization that more “safety nets” need to exists in this country. As a working lower middle class mother, my stress level would subdue had I have the security of affordable safe daycares, as well as the security of not losing my job or my income because I chose to have a child. Should these securities be afforded to the population, I believe that the overwhelming feeling of staying afloat would no longer dictate parenting abilities and self-care. As a global social worker, one can advance this freedom by helping create policies that will take into account the systemic inequalities and structured violence that our clients endure on a day to day basis. We can advocate for human rights and fight for a freedom that will support our clients to achieve their goals.

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  17. a) According to Amartya Sen, there are 5 types of freedoms essential for a country’s development: political freedoms, economic facilities, social opportunities, transperancy guarantees, and protective security. Not only are all five of these freedoms vital to the development and sustainability of a country, but that they are interrelated to one another. Not only are they interrelated, but each freedom advances the effectiveness of one another, and if you take away one all are impacted by the loss. While I feel all five are vital for a country to thrive, I believe social opportunities is the most vital freedom.

    Social opportunities provide the knowledge and skills necessary to take part in the other four freedoms, as social opportunities provide education to gain skills and knowledge, as well as the means to care for oneself and others to be able to have the health to take part. For me, one of the most important of social opportunities is education. Education is what provides people not only skills to survive in the world, but also become informed about social and political affairs and become engaged in the political and social progress. Sen himself had discussed in Development as Freedom that there is a “complimentarity between reducing…neglect of…education and social opportunities” with other freedoms such as economic development and political freedom (Sen, 1998). This point made by Sen is one which I am inclined to agree with: without the advancement of social opportunities, participation in other freedoms cannot occur.

    One country in particular which does not have adequate social opportunity is Afghanistan. Afghanistan has a history of limiting social opportunities for many of its people, but women in particular are vulnerable. When the Taliban gained control of Afghanistan, they “prohibited girls and women from attending school”, and when NGOs tried to create schools for girls, the Taliban made rules which only gave education to “girls or younger and restricted to studying the Qur’an” (Iacopino, 1998, 102). Afghan women have inequality in access to “educational facilities…public space, transportation…and travel”, which hinders social opportunities for them as well as the country in general (Gallagher, 2005). As nearly half of Afghanistan’s population consists of women, this obstruction of social opportunity also affects boys. Since forbidding women from going to school, as well as working outside the home, schools for boys “have a severe shortage of teachers” (Iacopino, 1998). So not only does this hinder social opportunities for girls, but the men are impacted as well. A country which does not provide social opportunities for women is a country which needs assistance in advancing that freedom.

    Ways which a global social worker can address the need for social opportunities are through education, community activism and advocacy. When a community becomes informed how a situation affects them both individually and nationally, they become more aware of the situation and motivated to make a change. In Torres’ article, she discussed one of the key rules of community health education: “fostering high levels of community participation (Torres, 2005). Having solidarity between men and women is important to bring education to all as it is a matter that affects everyone, and not just women. By demonstrating how education for both genders will improve the quality of life for not just women, but for the entire country in general. Furthermore, advocacy is also important. A social worker must be able to help the community voice its concerns about inequality in social opportunities, and advocating for those who are unable to voice their concerns. However, a global social worker must be able to allow those impacted by the inequality to advocate for themselves, by helping those affected think and act for themselves. This way, a global social worker can both help a community in need while at the same time providing them with the tools to empower themselves and bring social opportunities for everyone.

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  18. Advance protective security for Children in China
    Nowadays, Chinese economic development has occurred rapidly due to the ‘open dorm’ economic reform policy. In the past two decades the standard of living of Chinese people has been improved impressively. However, accordingly, the old centralized social welfare system broke down due to its inability to amend the great gap between the privileged and marginalized group caused by the economic reform (Liu, 2009). The building of a new social welfare system can’t keep pace with the economic development, especially the legal protection for the vulnerable groups like children and women. Child abuse has come to the attention of the Chinese public, due to the recent exposure of kindergarten teachers abusing children in eastern China. However, the situation is worse than what we can imagine. There are a couple of laws prohibiting child abuse in China, but better domestic laws are necessary to protect children, including clearer legal definitions of violence against children and reporting requirements (UNICEF). The children, like any other citizen, should enjoy freedom from abuse and violence. As a global social worker, I propose that we should do the following to advance protective security for children in China.
    1. The foremost and urgent task should be the enactment of a children protection law. However, social work is a new idea in China and social workers barely can affect the policy making process. Recently the Chinese Media have exposed a couple of cases about child abuse and death of children caused by their parent’s physical violence. Due to the specific political environment in China, international social workers, especially those who have skilled research experience but can’t work (not allowed to work) with case work dealing with Child abuse, might be able to cooperate with local academic or global organization like UNICEF, to initiate big scale research on the child abuse situation in China. In this case, an international social worker, on one hand could be the researcher, as well as the educator for the research. Being an educator is not only to facilitate the research study, but also to raise the awareness of the seriousness of child abuse among social work students. The latter can disseminate the idea through their works. However, the deeper purpose of the research will be to convince the policy-makers that there must be need for strong action on child maltreatment.
    2. Being an educator in the social work schools or supervisor in the field related to child protection: Social work is a new profession in China, so that most teachers in the social work faculty don’t have practical experience, and thus social work education is in need of specialists who have experience in practice and teaching. In such cases, international social workers can work as educators, and introduce a sophisticated child protection system into China. In China, social workers don’t have the right to take away the child even though serious violence happens to the child. Furthermore, there is no foster care home where the abused child can stay. Thus, to establish a legal, complete and productive child protection system is needed. International social workers can bring experience from their own countries and adjust according to the Chinese situation and culture while cooperating with their Chinese peers.

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  19. (PART 1) In my opinion, transparency guarantee are one and most important things constructing stable and long-living society. In clear society it is easier to reach other’s Sen’s instrumental freedoms. In nowadays then money has biggest physical capacity improving better life conditions, for example if country (society) has money, they can purchase (almost everything) and meet their needs. For example drinking water, food, shelter and other basic needs, or even higher needs such as improving life conditions. In emerging country (society) are cases then personal greed hinders the development, I think, main thing is to have clear structure helping people to help public. For example, as Lithuania, today (2013-03-11) is celebrating restoration of independence. In free democratic society we are living 23 years. If in this number we look as a person age, we may say, that he should be responsible, adequate generating his future plans. But then the country is free only for 23 years, we can say, that she is only in the start of creating her substantial freedom.
    In Lithuania we had and still have many scandals, which was a seed of opaque decision. If we write in www.google.com “trūksta skaidrumo” (“lack of transparency”) we can see a lot of articles, media posts, about lack of transparency in public sector, private sector, NGO sector and so on. There is an example of politicians, who creates their companies, NGO wins projects, and they do nothing and the money is laundering. Our government accepts strange decisions, and if we look deeper we can understand, that they serves for the monopolists, or for the people who generously have supported their election companies, but not for society. There are a lot of cases, where large sums of money just disappeared from budget, and nobody can answer there is the money and who are responsible for this money wasting. Over the last two years where was suspended activity of two Lithuanian banks. It is hard to imagine, then you wake up one morning, and you understand that your money that you had have in bank account disappeared or are freezed, and you should live (it is not clear for how long) until you get your money back. Society was not informed that this thing could happen, and a lot of people where shocked. As I mentioned people has right to know, what is happening with their money, their life's and their freedom. And if we want that this thing will happen in our society we need to work increasing transparency in our society.
    In unclear society people who has power tries to use it (in legal and illegal ways) to improve their well-being. Corruption is: “... acts in which public power is used for person - all gains in a manner that contravenes the rules of the game” (Jain 2001, 73) . In an environment where wealth is the most important measure of success, can public officials be blamed for wanting to enrich themselves by using those powers? According Arvind K. Jain corruption leads to misallocation of resources, economic stagnation, social and economic disparities and, eventually, political violence. There are three conditions in witch corruption exist:
    • The first condition necessary for the emergence of corruption is that there be rents associated with a government’s regulatory powers.
    • The second condition necessary for corrupt bureaucracies be somewhat independent within the remaining (if honest) administrative structure of the government.
    • The third condition requires that the public institutions controlling corruption be weak and ineffective (A. K. Jain).

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  20. (PART 2) There are two main branches of corruption - public sector corruption and private sector corruption. If we want to reduce corruption that requires the commitment and cooperation of those who benefit from corruption, that is not in their self-interest and it is the hardest thing. If we want to fight against corruption and make more transparency in our society we should do that in three dimensions (A. K. Jain). Firstly, to make that law strong enough to create a deterrence. It is, however, not enough to have laws on the books – there must be a will to implement them, and in Lithuania, I the lack of that will. Second thing, corruption cannot be tackled without a strong civic society, which could fight for her right to know, and to ask for transparency (media can play a big role in this step). And finally, barriers to participation in the economic life of a society must be removed. Corruption has its losers – the population at large. When those who are hurt by corruption are allowed to voice their discontent, the chances of a decline in corruption increase. The global social worker can start changes now. For example start to talk about good examples of countries that have minimized corruption. Initiate media to reveal corruption cases, and talk about them loudly. We should not forget, that social worker can influence the law’s (discourse of law), which will pay more attention to corruption and transparency guarantee. Social worker should be as the spider in the net, who will find the recourse’s to implement the law, citizen and media.
    Good example of transparency could be Sweden. In 2005 there was confirmed “The Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness”. And the Sweden started to act. Improving transparency guarantee they have created the website (http://www.openaid.se/en/countries) in which we can see how much money was given to the aid for countries who needed it.
    Transparency guarantee allows society to develop their well-being without corruption. I as a global social worker could initiate fight against corruption. For example start to look for good experience in other countries, find more people who are not apathetic for that trouble and start to work for better well being. Like I said it could be like lobbying in media, public and even in policy, with those politician's who are interested to maintain or even improve their popularity.

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    2. Hi Bronius, your idea about transparency guarantee makes me recall the notorious scandal happened to one charity organization in China.There was one woman who claimed she was the manager of this organization. She showed off her luxurious life style on internet which provoked huge reaction from people--each year, people donated numerous money for that organization and they were shocked by this woman's behavior and speech. People were angry and disillusioned and that organization encountered and is still encountering crisis of trust. I agree with your point that we social workers can work with media to expose such corruption and to impose public pressure on organizations and even government. However, I presume it is a good lesson for us social workers also--we work in organizations and how we can be responsible for donors and clients by correctly handling organizations' finance, since once the trust is distorted, it takes much more effort to rebuild.

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  21. I believe that of the five freedoms described by Amartya Sen, the most important is the freedom to social opportunities. Social opportunities include elements such as education, health care, mental health care, child care, adoption, marriage, religious and spiritual services, and recreation. Many countries have seen barriers to access to various social services, and many times these barriers are more formidable for certain groups of people. Examples from the readings include:
    • Access to HIV-related medical care and counseling for people in Haiti (Castro & Farmer, 2005).
    • Healy (2008) touches on the unequal rights for sexual and sexual orientation minorities in many countries. In the United States there is a battle for marriage rights amongst the LGBTQ community.
    • Marriage and divorce rights for women in Egypt (Deif, 2005)
    • Effective mental health care for Asian immigrants in Canada and the United States. Wong & Tsang (2004) touch on this issue in their article and more will be discussed shortly.
    There are many ways that a global social worker can help to advance the freedom of social opportunities in a particular country. Each issue should be analyzed individually in the context of the people, institutions and cultures surrounding the situation. In addition, as a global social worker, any ideas and concepts that can be extracted from international exchanges should be incorporated as well. Hugman, Moosa-Mitha & Moyo (2010) describe this concept of “glocalization” which I believe is integral in helping solve global issues. A global social worker uses the idea of glocalization to understand that many issues related to the access of social opportunities are issues in many other countries, but that also it may be manifested slightly differently within each culture. Therefore it is important to understand both the local and the global contexts of the issues.
    For a specific example, there is a lack of use of mental health services amongst Asian immigrants in the United States. This issue has a global context in that many other countries also have groups of people who do not utilize mental health services enough. One example is the general stigma attached to mental health issues. However in the local context there are specific issues with Asian immigrants in the United States. Many researchers have pointed to the lack of cultural sensitivity and awareness as a major reason for this underutilization. There are many aspects of this issue, one of which is nicely explained by Wong & Tsang (2004). The dominant American culture may have preconceived notions of what Asians think of mental health rather than appreciating the diversity within the group. On the other end, many people in the dominant culture may not understand that there are general differences between cultures. This idea of universalism vs. cultural relativity comes to full light here as I do not believe that there is one correct definition of what mental health is. Therefore as a global social worker, it is vitally important to not only practice cultural sensitivity, but also to advocate and educate others in the community about cultural differences. This is but one step that can be taken to improve mental health services for Asian immigrants.

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  22. Amartya Sen’s five distinct essential components of instrumental freedom are: political freedoms, economic facilities, social opportunities, transparency guarantees, and protective services. I believe all five of these freedoms are extremely valuable and closely intertwined, however, I think political freedoms is the most significant because if the government doesn’t let you do what you want then you cant have social freedom or economic freedom. Political freedom means you have social and economic freedoms including equal access to economic opportunities, and the exercise of social or group rights. Citizens in politically free nations should be able to participate freely in the political process, vote freely in legitimate elections, elect representatives who will be accountable to them, exercise freedom of expression and belief, assemble and associate freely, have access to an established, equitable system of rule of law After hearing Shabana Basij-Rasikh’s story, I learned that because of Taliban’s rule in Afghanistan, Shabana didn’t have the luxury of going to a real school and instead had to pretend to be a boy and hide her books in fear of getting caught, which saddens me greatly because she is fearful of what may be done to herself and her family for doing something that is her right as a human being.
    The current situation in Syria, known as the Syrian uprising, is a massive humanitarian crisis. This civil war is an ongoing-armed conflict in Syria between forces loyal to Syrian Ba’ath Patty government and those seeking to oust it. Since Syria is lacking in political freedom, the death toll has exceeded 70,000, 1.2 million Syrians have been displaced within the country, and to escape the violence, as many as 1 million Syrian refugees have fled to neighboring countries. According to the news, the Syrian government has committed the majority of severe human rights violations. This horrific catastrophe has led to thousands of children going through trauma because they are experiencing political violence in their every day lives. Garbarino explains to us that it is important to understand the impact of political violence on children and in order to help the child deal with the stress of the political violence, it is important that there is constant family support and parental well-being around the children. Children who have experienced violence in any way may exhibit symptoms ranging from mild stress to severe trauma (Garbarino, 1996.)
    As a global social worker, I would like to sit down with my United States Government and help them become aware of the disparities we have in this country. While the United States gives our citizens many opportunities, there is also much that needs to be worked out. I would love for the government to focus on the poor in our country and those that don’t have access to resources that every citizen of the United States should be able to retrieve in any given moment. Again, a good example for them to look at would be the disparity between the rich and the poor and how after Hurricane Katrina, the low-income refugees suffered more greatly than those that were wealthy.

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  23. I am heartened by the fact that multiple people mentioned social opportunities and more specifically education in their blog posts. Natalja, Stephanie, Jovita, Marsha, Samantha, and Julia all mention education extensively in their answers. I think these are all great answers and they each provide great reasoning of why education is so important. I personally did not include education in my answer because I wanted to save that for my presentation for class.
    But I wholeheartedly believe in the power of education. As a student I have experienced first-hand the transformative power that education can provide. I have assertted half-jokingly that if everybody in the world studied Social Work and Human Behavior, the world would be a much better and more peaceful place because people would not only learn more about other people, but they would learn a lot more about themselves. This self-learning can cause drastic changes in the way people view themselves and their potential. It can provide a sense of hope even if other forces are holding them back. It opens up possibilities that were not seen before. It can also transform other people through the efforts of those receiving the Social Work education.
    Education is also an area where Social Workers can directly be involved and make a tremendous impact. Social Workers can be professors or teachers, helping others learn about different aspects of social work. Social workers can help improve access to education through case management services as well as using Motivational Interviewing or other therapeutic techniques to get clients more interested in attending school. More so than in many other areas, education is an area that any Social Worker can be well-equipped to make a difference if we all can just take a little effort to do it.

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  25. I.
    By Amatya Sen (development as freedom, 1999) there is Five distinct types of freedom, all of which focus on human choice: political freedoms, economic facilities, social opportunities, transparency guarantees, protective security (19991 p,10). All this freedoms are related with each other and very important in all people’s lives and well-being in the society. I choose political freedom. Karen Healy (2005) wrote about few kinds of discourses, one of them is legal discourse. She mentioned law as the body of rules whereby a civilized society maintains order and regulates its internal affairs as between one individual and another, and between individuals and the state. We live in a country and act in accordance with the law, which is common to all, the law provides as required to work in different professions as social workers must provide their services at any liability for violation of law. Social worker use the law as a vehicle for social change and must know the regulations of law. Its very important to have political freedom in the country, especially for social workers, because they can advocate and represent human needs in process of regulations making process, how regulations works in reality in daily human’s life’s. By Amatya Sen political freedom described the opportunities that people have to determine who should govern and on what principles, and also include the possibility to scrutinize and criticize authorities, to have freedom of political expression and uncensored press, to enjoy freedom to choose between different political parties , opportunity of political dialogue, dissent and critique as well as voting and participatory selection of legislators and executives. Those described things of political freedom is based principles of democracy : the principle of freedom - not and can not be absolutely free of societies and states. Democracy provides citizens as much freedom as they need it, that one’s freedom must be balanced with other human rights and consistent with its rights. The principle of equality - human life - greatest asset. helping him to live normal physical and the spiritual life of each policy goal. Solidarity principle (the principle of fraternity with the principles of equality and freedom is the moral foundation of democracy. Democracy affirms human’s natural rights: the right to life, free speech, the right to privacy. Democracy breaks the introduction of dictatorship, military coups (Getukiene, Gineika, 2006). Sidney Verba and Norman H. Nie addresses (1987) noted that participation is at the heart of democratic theory and the heart of the democratic political formula. In the book they mentioned that political participation refers to activities by private citizens that are more or less directly aimed and influencing the selection of governmental personnel and actions they take. S. Verba and Norman H. Nie distinguish four kinds of political participation: voting, campaigning, communal activity, and interaction with a public official to achieve a personal goal. Through participation the goals of the society are set in a way that is assumed to maximize the allocation of benefits in the society to match the needs and desires of the populace. This based principles and things its very similar to social work principles and ideas. IFSW (2012) published Statement of ethical principles , there is emphasized human rights and human dignity, social justice (respecting the right of self determination, promotion of participation, focus on the strengths). So democracy and social work ideas talking about participation in community life, activities, and in the social work helping process its very important that client participate in this process, self determination, freedom, own choice, responsibility, empowerment, look at the client positively, and so on.

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  26. II. For example in Lithuania traditions of democracy and social work is new, people don’t know a lot of social work. Our country so many years live in soviet union, according to authoritarianism, which ideas was opposite democracy ideas, because authority always said what to do, so now sometimes people don’t know how to behave, because authority must say what to do, they are responsible for the human well-being, but not me, because its more simple to live, when someone says what to do. People haven’t opportunity in political decisions making (voting, free speech), participating. In my practice I often see this soviet heritage, that client are not active in helping process and decision making, they need the answer from me, but they are not want (or not habit) thinking for themselves. There are difficulties with self determination. Weik and Pope (1988) summarized self – determination as ,,clients right to make their own decisions, their right to actively participate in the helping process and their right to lead a life of their own choosing (P.Ewalt, N. Mokuau, 1995). I think it important to give client opportunity, let them know, that they are free of self determination and free to make decisions in them own life, they are responsible for them life’s – there is a goal of empowerment in social work helping process, and education of participation. In we look at the description of social work (IFSW, 2012), that social work as a professional work, helping individuals, families, groups of people to adapt to the communities in which they live, lifting and enhancing self-esteem, responsibility for its own internal use, interpersonal relations, and the potential of the resources provided by society (E.Marynowicz-Hetka, A. Wagner, J.Piekarski, 1999). Social worker work with specific groups, who have specific needs, issues, we can see that in helping process social worker the main aim is to involve client in community activities (various helping programs, education activities) and empowering (independency, social skills building), that’s the way how to participate in community and reach the freedoms I mentioned before., social worker role is to help client to seek those freedoms (protective security, transparency, social opportunities, economic facilities, political participation). I like the things that Grodofsky (2007) mentioned in the article ,,creating networks of association to advance civil society, ensuring a more equitable distribution of resources, fostering reciprocal relationships and peace building require interdisciplinary practice, social welfare advance, promote access to human rights. Social work practice is grounded in the building of community and community relationships that foster greater equality and participation in the struggle to reduce inequality”. I think social work helping process aim is motivate people to participle in various kind of activities, involve in community and to be collaborative member of society and be able to use resources of community, and don’t forget the right of self determination.

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  27. Amartya Sen mentions five groups of freedoms: political, economic facilities, social oportunities, transparency guarantees and protective security. Talking about Lithuania context all of them are very important. But I would like to mention political freedom, because it is very related with social work. Our work is regulated by laws and of course laws are made by goverment, so that‘s why I think this freedom is worth to talk about it.
    We have political freedom. We have Parliamentary elections, presidential elections, municipal council elections, referendums for important issues (for example to join in EU or not), we have a right to express our political will. However, sometimes and the real situation is a little bit complicated for somebody. For example I work at a social care home, which is for elderly and disabled people. Many of these people have mental illnesses (for example Alzheimers) and that’s why they are distanced from political realities. Despite this fact, they vote (it is unofficial command from the concerned persons) and it does not matter that they are incapable to do this. This example shows that somebody’s freedom can become somebody’s tool to achieve his aim. And I think that this kind of freedom, can not be called like a freedom. Despite this fact, our goverment officially declare that everyone has the political freedom in our country.
    This issue is inconvenient for our goverment and is not publicized.

    Nijolė Aukštuolytė (2011) wrote that nobody is absolutely free, we can not be free from nature, history and society. Being natural and social creatures, we are influenced on not only natural, but also historical, social factors. According to my example, it is seen that our freedom is very related with historical factors, when our country was occupied by soviets, we had not political freedom, then there was one right political party. Our modern society is strongly influenced on the past. Past events are reflected in our daily life. We need some time, hard work and hope that someday we can be more free from our history.

    Ordinary social worker fears to solve this problem because persons who can fire him or her from job is involved in this situation. However, I think that the most important thing for the solution is to rise up this difficult question aloud, to start speak that these things happen and need to be solved.

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  28. What is freedom? For some reason, when I hear the word "freedom" me first have thoughts on the state of freedom. Probably the majority of Lithuanian citizens the freedom to associate it with the freedom of independence. I think this is so because we respect the freedom of Lithuania fought very hard and now that independence is greatly appreciated.
    As for Amartya Sen, there are 5 types of freedom which talk about country‘s development: political freedoms, economic facilities, social opportunities, transperancy guarantees and protective security. It’s nor easy to choose, which freedom is most important, because all of them are involved to countrys’s development. But since I am a social worker and in my life and work environments I have more exposed to social opportunities and the freedom to use all social services, I choose social opportunities.
    I work in a medical facility - children's rehabilitation hospital and very often find the Lithuanian state medical systems and services, access barriers, which affect not only treatment and medical quality help, but people's attitudes in the same medical attention.
    I am talking about what a long and often difficult road waiting for patients to achieve the necessary doctors or medical institutions. The situation is especially difficult in rural areas and poor people. If the terms of villages and settlements in difficult to reach, it is one of the biggest obstacles is the fact that over the last decade in Lithuania was abolished in most of the villages in outpatient clinics, local hospitals, even in small villages disappeared person (paramedic), the content of medical education. State waived these posts and now in times of disaster or disruption of the health of rural people have to travel to the nearest town. As a result, rural people are very often at all do not go to any hospital and tries to be treated at home independently. And after arrival to the larger towns or cities, people are often faced with another problem - there are places to the doctor or to be a long wait for what unlocks the doctor. And that happens to sick people who can not get help, leaving the medical establishment back home.
    Well, in the case of medical service prices are also dealing with the limitation of freedom. Lithuania free service is provided only for social insured persons, but is in fact the service is free? When I work sometimes I ask, why mothers waited so long, and why have not arrived before with that sick child, it's very often I get a response that the family saved money because the hospital lying costly. This is not just about the trip, but also not reimbursed medicines, food, gifts to doctors and so on. Lithuania, we sometimes say that lying in the hospital is “a big luxury”.
    How I, like social worker would work with this and how would do changes and progress with this problem? Perhaps the most significant change I can not reach, and formed systems and procedures do not change, but as a social worker I can give our customers as much information spread options, information on social services. After all, people often do not get some kind of service because they do not know what they are entitled to and how to access those services. The social worker in this case is the person who can To provide information to the customer, to mediate between the client and social institutions, as well as to represent the client in order to ensure access to social services.
    So, in terms of greater freedom for citizens, I listed it the freedom to access medical services, but it is only one and small part of this broad and very important subject. I think most of all the freedom of the state is linked to many things and is influenced by political, economic and social aspects.

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  29. In our country, especially noticing how most people tend to blame each other, rather than trying to deal with problems all together to achieve common goals and common prosperity of the state. This notice and the political situation. Lithuania has a lot of problems: poverty, deprivation, etc. And because of all these problems people have their own opinion, but maybe they don’t want or can not adequately express it.
    People have a right to express their opinion on political views vote, choosing individuals to represent their needs and views in the political sphere. However, some people say, "I will not go, not vote, it is not benefit" and then to observe how the same people accuse government "that it does not do anything." So, we have a political right, but do we use it? The question of the right to participate in public affairs were dealt with and the National Conference on Human Rights in Lithuania: situation assessment and action plan is revealed that "The public is the involvement of the state and municipal management. Exercised the right to send representatives to participate in the community of the municipal councils work. From the public active participation in state and municipal work of better social and economic rights "
    As a social worker issues I would like to make people pay to express their views and observations on certain political issues don’t blaming each other, and providing suggestions on how to make changes and improve.
    I think that social worker can organizing meetings in community centers (or in other organizations) where people could speak about the current situation, everyone can express their opinions, observations and suggestions. Then people could learn to express their mint in good way.

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  30. PART I
    Sen (1999) marks, that freedom in society has constitutive and instrumental role in country's development, which is public policy's goal. According Sen (1999) it is impossible to make influence in one's life, to shape of one's social and economic environment, to be active in political country' life without rights, substantial freedoms, which he divides into several groups:
    political freedoms, economic facilities, social opportunities, transparency guarantees and protective security.
    He marks, that to make changes and be active is important to have all set of these freedoms. In my opinion it's difficult to divide humans freedoms and decide, which is most important, but if it's necessary, i would pick social opportunities as the most important sort of freedom, which we need in Lithuania now. Sen (1999) describes social opportunities as arrangements, which society makes for education, health care, etc.
    Sen (1999) marks, that freedom in society has constitutive and instrumental role in country's development, which is public policy's goal. According Sen (1999) it is impossible to make influence in one's life, to shape of one's social and economic environment, to be active in political country' life without rights, substantial freedoms, which he divides into several groups:
    political freedoms, economic facilities, social opportunities, transparency guarantees and protective security.
    He marks, that to make changes and be active is important to have all set of these freedoms. In my opinion it's difficult to divide humans freedoms and decide, which is most important, but if it's necessary, i would pick social opportunities as the most important sort of freedom, which we need in Lithuania now. Sen (1999) describes social opportunities as arrangements, which society makes for education, health care, etc.
    Lithuania- is postsoviet country, people for almost 50 years lived how communist dictator of soviet union forced them. People learned in school, how great communism is, what kind of wonderful leader they have. The rest of population was so brainwashed, that they didn't know what to think, what is right, what is wrong. The education was used as a weapon against the people. The new ideology did not admit another ideas about anything, people were forced to forget to think critically, it was dangerous also. The evil started to act not just from outside, but inside country too, because brainwashed people believed in communism. There are stories, how brothers started to fight one with other: one for communism, another for free country. Peoples were forbidded by the communist leaders to go to the church, it was dangerous to be christian, to be religious. The leader of soviet unions told for residents, that he knows, what is good, what is necessary, what is true. He teached the peoples to be passive and to forgot to think critically, to act for your well-being, because the leader said, that he will give, what people need: food, work, society, happines. Nowadays people are free from dictator, from ocupation, political violence, but... they stayed pasive. A lot of people, who lived in soviet times for longer time, don't believe in any good changes, they have forgotten, how to think critically, how to have your own opinion, because for 50 years it was to dangerous and forbidden.

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  31. PART II
    So I think, that if we will learn children and adults to be critical, to think critical, to believe in changes, if we will teach them how to do changes, there will be more possibilities, that situation in Lithuania will be better. It depends on education, what kind of values will be teached for children. A great example is Bruce D. Bonta's (1996) article about cooperation and competition in peaceful societies, where is written about peaceful societies which “have internalized their peaceful, cooperative values so that their psychological structures accord with their beliefs in nonviolence. Children learn from parents, other adults in community, teachers the values, morality, good behavior, cooperation. So I think, that if we want any changes, we must educate society, teach them to be critical, to be active, to be responsible, to show them possibilities in life, ways for well-being. I think, that for long- term changes, which needs Lithuania's situation, it's necessary to give for people knowledge, not material goods. Because in my opinion, a man will be full for 1 day, if you give him a fish, for 1 year, if you give him a fishing rod. And he will be allways replete, if you give him knowledge how to fish.
    As a global social worker I couldn't solve this freedom's restriction, one of the biggest problems, in Lithuania by me self. But I see posibilities to influence changes. I believe, that if we would get appropriate education from early days, we would be more socialized, more oriented to community, more efficient, smart. think the start should be done in parenting training, children education, because a family is a cell of society (Bajoriūnas, 1994) and changes in one subsystem makes interactions in all system (system approach). So as a social worker I would work in strenght- focused framework and would try to improve residents of Lithuania social, parenting skills, consciousness, critical mindset, moral and humanistic values, independence etc. The question: how to do that? At the beginning, it would be logical to involve NGO's to society's education, parent, children training, then to make social advertising, a various project to increase people understanding about policy, economy, social life, well-being, freedoms, rights. Its important to advocate people for free education in schools, universities, because according Francis Bacon „Knowledge- is power“.

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  32. Amartya Sen suggests there are five instrumental freedoms that encourage well-being within a country. Although these five freedoms are interrelated, it is important for global social workers to identify when a country lacks a specific freedom so that development efforts to advance that freedom can be established. During the horrific 1994 genocide in Rwanda, schools were often the site for massacres and teachers and students “were both victims and perpetrators” of violence (Schweisfurth, 2006, p. 700). Along with the horrendous loss of lives, the educational system and Ministry of Education were practically destroyed, resulting in a “total erosion of faith in the educational system” (Schweisfurth, 2006, p. 700). However, in the aftermath of the genocide efforts have been made to reconstruct the educational system, which is seen as a tool “in the process of healing and reconciliation” (Schweisfurth, 2006, p. 700).
    In 2003 the Republic of Rwanda began offering free primary education for children (Miles, et al, 2010, p. 268). While this provides educational opportunities for some, children who wish to continue their education beyond primary school have limited “social opportunities” to do so (Garrett, 2001). One way a global social worker can advance the freedom of “social opportunities” in Rwanda is to help implement a program like, “Every Child is My Child,” which funds secondary education for children in Rwanda (www.everychildismychild.org.). If children in Rwanda are given more opportunities to further their education, they will also have more choices within their communities as well as an increased sense of self-determination.

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  33. Firstly I want to share Ramune Jurkuviene’s idea about freedom. She was writing about that time when the Lithuanians people were participating in demonstration against Soviet Union. A huge crowd was fitting for freedom, but we need to understand what means freedom for concrete person. Similar with our clients, we can’t decided for them, but they need to take actions by themselves.
    After reading summary of Amartya Sen’s key ideas of Freedom I and I think like many of us noticed five types of freedoms which arise through the text. Amartya Sen identifies and talks about political freedom, economic facilities, social opportunities, transparency guarantees, and protective security (Garrett, 2003). I must agree with idea that all of those freedoms are very important and related with each other. In that way it is not easy to choose because you can’t just put these 5 freedoms into a table and give a number from one till five saying this one is less important than the other for making country development and positive progress.
    Nevertheless from my point of view political freedoms are achieved in my country because we are independent from the Soviet Union and citizens are allowed to vote and to choose what they want to see in government. Our rights are protected by the laws. Taking about economic facilities our state is trying to distribute the wealth equally and people can have personal property. Also citizens have good opportunities to study, to get medical treatment and etc.. Social, economic, and medical protection for people are good provided too. So if I need to choose one of those freedoms I will choose transparency guarantees. I believe that this freedom needs to be the most advancing in the country. From my own practice as social worker I heard people complaining of our government, they don’t trust the police, or courts. A lot of people think that if they need a good healthcare you need to give a bribe. Payment of bribes statistics shows that nearly 70 percent the respondents in the last 5 years have given a bribe only 0-3 times, and as much as 30 percent - never. I think in a lot of procedures there is a lack of clarity.
    In my opinion freedom of transparency guarantees will not appear suddenly. It needs to take a long process to change something. Both sides are guilty. Not good if you give a bribe, but also bad way if you take it. We as social workers firstly need to show a good example and star from micro level to encourage citizens to be responsible for actions. We need to think before you do.

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