Chinua Achebe s Things Fall Apart - 1448 Words

Based on the precolonial era of Nigeria, Chinua Achebe s fictional story Things Fall Apart, shares the story of the Igbo culture through the lens of Okonkwo, a hard-nosed tribesman living in the fictional village of Umuofia. Okonkwo is a man who epitomizes masculinity and inner strength, the core values of the Ibgo culture, and shows no mercy when faced with struggle. Although Okonkwo is faced with numerous conflicts, such as the killing of the young boy whom he raised as a son (Ikemefuna) and the seven year exile from his â€Å"fatherland† tribe, the intrusion of the British missionaries and colonial administrators who later colonize Africa is the ultimate conflict in this story as it leads to the downfall of Okonkwo, whom resists the idea†¦show more content†¦For example, Okonkwo s father, Unoka, refuses to pay his debt to Okoye by asserting, â€Å"Our elders say that the sun will shine on those who stand before it shines on those who kneel under them.† (Ach ebe 8). In other words, Unoka tells Okoye that he will pay his larger debts first before his smaller ones. Achebe continues the use of proverbs to describe the wisdom of the Igbo people by mentioning, â€Å"As the elders said, if a child washed his hands he could eat with kings. Okonkwo had clearly washed his hands and so he ate with kings and elders.† (Achebe 8). This proverb embodies one of the core values of the Igbo villagers that through hard work even a person such as Okonkwo can overcome his father s negative past to make himself one of the village s greatest men. Despite his success and valor, some villagers often thought of Okonkwo as a brute, and is described with another proverb: â€Å"Looking at a king s mouth, said an old man, one would think he never sucked at his mother s breast.† (Achebe 26). While the Igbo people had harsh traditions within their culture, such as when they sacrificed Ikemefuna for the killling of a daughter of Umuofia, they remain ed to be harmless unless threatened. Likewise, the British colonials were viewed as harmless at first but quickly displayed their true character by controlling the people of Umuofia

The Marshall Plan - Rebuilding Western Europe After WW2

The Marshall Plan was a massive program of aid from the United States to sixteen western and southern European countries, aimed at helping economic renewal and strengthening democracy after the devastation of World War II. It was started in 1948 and was officially known as the European Recovery Program, or ERP, but is more commonly known as the Marshall Plan, after the man who announced it, US Secretary of State George C. Marshall. The Need for Aid The Second World War severely damaged the economies of Europe, leaving many in a parlous state: cities and factories had been bombed, transport links had been severed and agricultural production disrupted. Populations had been moved or destroyed, and a tremendous amount of capital had been spent on weapons and related products. Its not an exaggeration to say the continent was a wreck. 1946 Britain, a former world power, was close to bankruptcy and had to pull out of international agreements while in France and Italy there was inflation and unrest and the fear of starvation. Communist parties across the continent were benefiting from this economic turmoil, and this raised the chance Stalin could conquer the west through elections and revolutions, instead of having lost the chance when Allied troops pushed the Nazis back east. It looked like the defeat of the Nazis might cause the loss of the European markets for decades. Several ideas to aid the rebuilding of Europe had been proposed, from inflicting harsh reparations on Germany—a plan that had been tried after World War I and which appeared to have failed utterly to bring peace so wasnt used again —to the US giving aid and recreating someone to trade with. The Marshall Plan The US, also terrified that communist groups would gain further power—the Cold War was emerging and Soviet domination of Europe seemed a real danger—and wishing to secure European markets, opted for a program of financial aid. Announced on June 5th, 1947 by George Marshall, the European Recovery Program, ERP, called for a system of aid and loans, at first to all nations affected by the war. However, as plans for the ERP were being formalized,  Russian leader Stalin, afraid of US economic domination, refused the initiative and pressured the nations under his control into refusing aid despite a desperate need. The Plan in Action Once a committee of sixteen countries reported back favorably, the program was signed into US law on April 3, 1948. The Economic Cooperation Administration (ECA) was then created under Paul G. Hoffman, and between then and 1952, over $13 billion worth of aid was given. To assist in coordinating the program, the European nations created the Committee of European Economic Cooperation which helped form a four-year recovery program. The nations receiving were: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, and West Germany. Effects During the years of the plan, receiving nations experienced economic growth of between 15%-25%. Industry was quickly renewed and agricultural production sometimes exceeded pre-war levels. This boom helped push communist groups away from power and created an economic divide between the rich west and poor communist east as clear as the political one. The shortage of foreign currency was also alleviated allowing for more imports. Views of the Plan Winston Churchill described the plan as â€Å"the most unselfish act by any great power in history† and many have been happy to stay with this altruistic impression. However, some commentators have accused the United States of practicing a form of economic imperialism, tying the western nations of Europe to them just as the Soviet Union dominated the east, partly because acceptance into the plan required those nations to be open to US markets, partly because a great deal of the aid was used to purchase imports from the US, and partly because the sale of ‘military’ items to the east was banned. The Plan has also been called an attempt to persuade European nations to act continentally, rather than as a divided group of independent nations, prefiguring the EEC and the European Union. In addition, the success of the plan has been questioned. Some historians and economists attribute great success to it, while others, such as Tyler Cowen, claim the plan had little effec t and it was simply the local restoration of sound economic policy (and an end to vast warfare) which caused the rebound.

It s On Us- Take The Pledge Now - 1345 Words

It’s On Us- Take the Pledge Now College can be one of the most influential and exciting times of self-discovery and exploration in a young woman’s life. In addition to expanding academic horizons, a woman’s college years can be used as a time of self-exploration and discovery. For some students, however, despite all the wonderful experience college has to offer, young women need to be mindful of a silent issue plaguing campuses everywhere: sexual assault. Gager defines sexual assault as â€Å"a public health and public safety problem with far-reaching implications.† According to Wikipedia, sexual assault is any â€Å"involuntary sexual act in which a person is coerced or physically forced to engage against their will, or any non-consensual sexual†¦show more content†¦One in four college-aged women has experienced rape or attempted rape, although 95% of attacks go unreported.† According to a survey from the American Association of University Women, the results showed that there a re 3% of women in the colleges across the country have been raped or have suffered attempted rape. While only 2% of incapacitated rape survivors report assault. There are several reasons why many women do not report being raped or sexually assaulted. Many female college students buy into myths about rape and sexual assault causing them to believe that it was their fault and that they were somewhat responsible for what happened. Most victims usually blame themselves, so they choose not to come forward, some others are scared that law enforcement won’t believe them, while others are simply embarrassed, or they might be afraid their attacker might retaliate. A friend of my friend, she has been sexually assaulted after deinking, but sadly as a victim of a rape, she was too scared to step forward and she didn’t even report the rape to the law enforcement because she thought it was her fault to drink alcohol. She was also too embarrassed and uncomfortable to talk about the r ape and answer any questions. Even she chose to drink alcohol, what happened is not her fault. Because whatever the reason is, no woman should blame herself for being raped or sexually

Forms of Discrimination Against Women

Question: Discuss about the Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Answer: Introduction: The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), is adopted in 17979by the General Assembly of UN. This treaty is generally known as bill of rights for women at international level. This treaty consist preamble and almost 30 articles, which defines what actions are considered as discrimination against women and it also provide actions to end these discrimination activities. The main aim of Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of 2008 is to promote and protect the rights of human with disabilities, and also ensure the enjoyment of these rights by person with disability. In this paper, we discuss the applicability of Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of 2008 in Zambia. Applicability of CEDAW UNCRPD on Zambia: CEDWA states that discrimination against women is still exist, and this treaty ensures that a woman gets equal rights and also it provides respect to the dignity of women. Zambia is the country where number of tribal groups exists, and the society of Zambia consist patriarchal cultural values. Discrimination against women is widely spread and absence of women in the political position shows the condition of women in Zambia. Womens does not take part in the decision making structures and this will result in gender discrimination in the government policy also. This is the only reason that nongovernmental organizations conduct various programs to protect and promote the rights of women in Zambia. Constitution of Zambia guarantees equal treatment of men and women. However constitution itself contains limitation in Article 23(4) (c) which put limitation on the rights of women related to marriage, adoption, divorce, and other personal law matters. On the continuous basis womens are discriminated in family law matters such as legal age of marriage is 21 years for men but 18 for women, and in many cases womens get married at very young age under customary law. There are other laws also such as De jure discrimination against women which are related to immigration law such as Zambian Immigration Act provides that if Zambian men marry non national women, then in such case that non national women automatically becomes the Zambian citizen whereas in case of women no such provision exist. In Zambia domestic violence against women occurred at large scale. The United Nations Committee comment on the Zambian report that various incidents are reported related to violence against women such as violence in prison and domestic violence, and also recommend that Zambian government must take initiatives to protect the women against violence. Whereas number of initiatives are taken by the government such as gender violence tribunal which help in solving the public issues, and also help policy makers and law enforcement officers, and Victim Support Unit (VSU) to provide ample support to the victim. Recently, government adopted a National Gender Policy, but there is no national plan for prevention and protection of women against violence. It is clear that there are number of Discriminatory laws stated in Zambia which encourage the discrimination against women. Discrimination in Zambia is set up at legal level of the country. Therefore, we can say that government signs the CEDWA but applicability of CEDWA is not up to mark. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities of 2008 (UNCRPD) - in this we discuss the current status of applicability of UNCRPD, and the condition of disable persons in Zambia. There are number of steps taken by government for meeting the criteria of UNCRPD such as enactment of disabilities Act no 6 of 2012, government also launch policy that is national disability policy and also make other efforts at policy level. Whereas government also prepares a report related to UNCRPD and submit it to UN which shows that government does not take measure steps to implement this treaty. According to the WHO findings almost 15% population of Zambia is suffered with disability, and the maximum numbers of peoples with disability is live in rural areas where basic facilities are limited. A survey was conducted in 2015 which shows employment rate that is 45.5% in case of disabled people as compared to non disable people that is 58%. A census shows large number of people stated that most disable person is self employed whereas very few are working as employers in organization, and it also shows that 80% disable people are engaged in agriculture. Maximum numbers of disable persons are live in poverty and they also have low level of literacy as compared to non disabled people. In fact, large numbers of disabled are begging on street for survival. Number of public buildings is set up to help the persons with disability, but these buildings are not able to access large number of disable people which result in various challenges to the disable persons and infringement of rights of disable persons. In Zambia there is need to formulate various strategies to protect the rights of disable persons and for the implementation of UNCRPD. Therefore, we can say that applicability of UNCRPD is not up to the mark, but government takes various steps and measures to protect the rights of the disabled persons in Zambia. Conclusion: In last, we conclude that both the treaty signed by Zambia is not implementing in country up to mark, and government does not take measure steps to implement these tasks. Government does not take accurate measures to implement these treaties. CEDWA and UNCRPD are signed by government to improve the conditions of women and Disabled persons respectively, but there are number of faults in the implementation of these treaties. Bibligraphy Treaty on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) [1979] Treaty on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities [2008]. Martignoni J., Violence against Women In Zambia (OMCT 2002) https://www.omct.org/files/2002/01/2193/zambiaeng2002.pdf accessed on 23rd November 2016. CEDWA, Third and fourth Periodic report of Zambia, https://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/cedaw27/zam3-4.pdf accessed on 23rd November 2016. Longwe, S. LEGALIZED DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN IN ZAMBIA https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PNAAX512.pdf accessed on 23rd November 2016. Ammattikorkeakoulu, D. United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Current state in Zambia : Perspective from PWDs https://www.theseus.fi/handle/10024/107690 accessed on 23rd November 2016. ILO, Inclusion of People with Disabilities in Zambia, https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@ed_emp/@ifp_skills/documents/publication/wcms_115100.pdf accessed on 23rd November 2016. Chilufya, M. Accessibility of public buildings to disabled persons https://dspace.unza.zm:8080/xmlui/bitstream/handle/123456789/3162/CHILUFYAM0000001.PDF?sequence=1 accessed on 23rd November 2016.