Are Same Sex Sexual Relationships Morally Permissible?

Are Same Sex Sexual Relationships Morally Permissible? Homosexuality has been for much of recorded human history a controversial topic, and has become even more so with the advent of religion. Most, if not all religious systems vehemently oppose homosexuality, so far as to condemn homosexuals to everlasting torture in the fires of hell. However, judging the immorality of a deed simply by referring to divine sources is fallacious; it runs contrary to established modern intellectual systems of determining what actions are right and what actions are wrong. In the twentieth century world, reason and well thought out and expressed arguments alone dictate the moral standing of deeds, and any other decision for that matter. The most appropriate method of arguing for or against an ethical issue in the context of its applicability to society is to test it against well-established moral/ethical theories and see how it stacks up. Thus, in this paper I shall argue that homosexuality doesnt contradict the major ethical theories, namely Utilitarianism , Kantian ethics (deontological perspective) followed by a rebuttal of some common arguments against homosexuality. Utilitarianism is a fundamentally consequentialist position, claiming that actions should be judged by their consequences, specifically the level of general happiness they bring about. Hence, in accordance with utilitarianism, one should evaluate the level of general happiness an action brings about versus the amount of pain/suffering it causes. All actions that increase the level of general happiness are morally permissible, and actions that bring about suffering are morally not permissible. To discuss homosexuality on utilitarian grounds, we must therefore first and foremost decide on its consequentialist standing i.e. where it stands on the utilitarian meter of increasing happiness and decreasing pain vs. increasing pain and decreasing pleasure. People who feel that that is what pleases them practice homosexuality. They do so out of personal choice and after much self-deliberation. In fact, since heterosexuality is the norm, converting to homosexuality would be akin to being a mas ochist, i.e. choosing to indulge in that which causes us displeasure in addition to having to face heavy opposition from relatives and society, and those types of homosexuals are beyond the scope of my paper. Hence, if you choose to accept that no individual who prefers a heterosexual lifestyle would adopt a homosexual one, then you agree that those who chose a homosexual lifestyle do so because it is what pleases them. Thus, homosexuality brings about pleasure to homosexuals, and so long as these homosexuals do not attempt to impose their homosexuality on heterosexuals (by harassing or raping them), then the heterosexual population has no right to claim that homosexuality causes them displeasure. For them to claim so, the only means by which homosexuality would have caused them displeasure is by disgusting them i.e. it is distasteful to their senses (since obviously it is not displeasuring them directly, it can only do so then indirectly by being distasteful). Such an argument woul d be fallacious and of the form: P1) All disgusting actions are immoral. P2) Homosexuality is disgusting. C) Homosexuality is immoral. While this argument is valid, it is unsound since the first premise is false. Not all disgusting actions are immoral. For example, collecting the trash is disgusting, does that make it immoral? Homosexuality does not cause any pain or displeasure. Stigmatizing homosexuality on the grounds that it is disgusting is faulty as we argued above. (Common arguments such as homosexual rapists harm children and other victims, homosexuality brings about STDs and so on are irrelevant since they apply to heterosexual acts in the same way they apply to homosexual actions.) Thus, homosexuality does not, and for that matter cannot, harm homosexuals. All it can do is bring pleasure to the people who willfully practice it (because it is what brings them pleasure). On utilitarian grounds, homosexuality increases pleasure (although for a specific part of the population) and does not cause any displeasure or pain. It satisfies the criteria for a moral act as outlined by the Utilitarian ethical system. Kantian ethics is a moral philosophy that is not a consequentialist one. It judges acts not by what their consequences are, but by how they hold under certain imperatives, and maintain the rational and free nature of humans. The principle of universizablity commits us to acting only on those maxims that do not lead to a self-contradictory maxim, and also, when universalized do not undermine the point of the action (class slides.) To test homosexuality against the categorical imperative we begin by formulating our maxim. Note that a common misconception is to formulate the maxim Practice homosexuality or some form of that. This is incorrect as this paper does not seek to argue that all people should be homosexuals, but rather that people that are homosexual are justified in acting homosexually. Let us suppose our maxim is Practice whichever sexual acts that bring you pleasure. Upon consideration, we see that this maxim brings about pleasure to whoever abides by it. Next we generalize this principle to a universal law and see its consequences. Assume a world where people practice whichever sexual acts please them, of course, without imposing their sexual desires on others. Such a world would be very similar to the world in which we live in, which is remarkably pleasant to live in as opposed to one that is a very morally tight society. Moreover, we note that such a maxim, when generalized does not lead to a contradictory world. Furthermore, as we shall see next, homosexuality holds under scrutiny by the principle of humanity. The principle of humanity defines a rightful or moral deed as one that does not use any other person as a mere means, but as an end in themselves. As discussed above, homosexual people choose homosexual acts because it brings them pleasure. Thus, when homosexual people indulge in homosexual activities as consenting adults, they both choose to do so. Since they both chose to indulge in this, and so long as theyre both content with this, then n either is using the other as a mere means, but as an end in themselves. To argue otherwise would be similar to arguing against other heterosexual acts. Other cases where the people do not consent to indulging in the sex are similar to cases of heterosexual people who do not consent to the sex they are having. Finally, we shall consider some common arguments against homosexuality and offer possible response to them in the context of the Utilitarian and Kantian moral theories. To begin with we shall consider the unnaturalness argument and its derivatives. A commonplace argument against homosexuality is that it is a misuse of the bodys organs. Such an argument violates the categorical imperative. To show this, let us attempt to generalize it into a universal law. We begin by formulating a maxim That action which violates the principal use of an organ is immoral. After generalizing this into a universal law, we run into a contradiction, as this yields a world we cannot live in. Consider for example applying this rule to any other body organ. The mouth is primarily for eating, and thus any other action apart from eating is immoral, and hence kissing, speaking, breathing from your mouth and so on would all become immoral. Thus the argument that homosexuality is immoral because it violates the p rincipal use of an organ is not applicable since it violates the categorical imperative. Furthermore, if the misuse of the reproductive organs is immoral because it doesnt lead to procreation, where does that place religious figures that take vows of celibacy? The nonuse of an organ is just as immoral as the misuse of one, since the immorality is based on its failure to result in reproduction. Moreover, another derivative of the unnaturalness of homosexuality argument is that homosexuality is unnatural in that it is not found in nature, i.e. animals do not practice homosexuality. First and foremost, the premise on which this argument rests is invalid, as studies have shown that there are certain animals that practice homosexuality. Moreover, basing our moral standards on the practices of animals is an incredibly fragile argument as one can easily observe that many of human practices are not practiced by animals, such as brushing our teeth, showering and so on. In addition, many prop onents of homosexuality argue that labeling homosexuality as not immoral would lead to the extinction of the human race. This argument is a gross exaggeration. An argument of the form P1) Homosexuals cannot reproduce. P2) If homosexuality were deemed not immoral then many people would become homosexual. C) The human race will eventually become extinct. Such an argument is invalid, and unsound as the second premise is faulty. If homosexuality were not to be frowned upon it does not follow that many people would become homosexuals. No heterosexual person would willfully choose to become a homosexual simply because it is not immoral to do so. This is because one chooses to indulge in homosexuality because it is a sexual preference. Moreover, while not a fundamental argument against the extinction of the human race argument, it would be thoughtful to consider whether a decrease in the rate of human reproduction would not actually be beneficial to the human society given the problems of overpopulation that we suffer from now. In conclusion, homosexuality cannot be deemed immoral as it holds under scrutiny by the major ethical systems: Utilitarianism and Kantian ethics. It increases the happiness of the homosexual community without causing any pain or displeasure to the heterosexual community. This of course is contingent upon the homosexual people not imposing their sexuality on others i.e. rape or harassment. It should be duly noted that even if some homosexuals raped or harassed other individuals, be him/her a homosexual or a heterosexual, this cannot be an argument against homosexuality per se as heterosexuals also rape and harass other heterosexuals. Moreover, it satisfies the categorical imperative in addition to the principle of humanity by not using anyone as a mere means. Homosexuals should not be discriminated against, as their sexual preference is their own personal choice, and solely their business. Given our rights to freedom of choice that we so proudly advocate and vehemently defend, we shou ld extend this right to include the freedom of sexual preference. Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio: Themes and Effects Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio: Themes and Effects Title: Discuss the implications of Sherwood Anderson’s introduction to Winesburg, Ohio: ‘The Book of the Grotesque’. Sherwood Anderson’s post-war ‘novel’ of America in microcosm, Winesburg, Ohio, was first published in 1919. Undoubtedly, the timing of the collection of linked stories all set in Anderson’s fictional ‘Winesburg’ (like Hardy’s Wessex) influenced the critical approbation it received. It represents a dislocated people torn and shattered by war: a ‘wasteland’ such as T.S. Eliot had created in his 1922 poem of that name. Like Joyce’s Dubliners (1914) the sequence of tales is connected by major themes which Anderson sees as either representative of, or a threat to, modern life. He creates a presence from an absence, a connected representative vision from a fragmented centre. Most of the themes, and their implications, on which Anderson focuses are revealed in the introductory story to the collection, ‘The Book of the Grotesque’ which was the original title of the collection. The fact that Anderson wanted to pla ce such emphasis on the ‘grotesque’ is of primary importance when attempting to locate the author’s themes and their implications. For Anderson, like the writer in the first story, ‘salvation’ from immersion into the grotesque comes not merely from the experience of moments of vision but also from the ability to incorporate them within life in order to re-vitalise it. Strikingly, theme and method interweave to create the consciousness of the visionary or surreal within the recognition of the espoused impossibility of completion. Anderson was determined that the real and the imagined should remain separate forces but also that both should maintain importance. Again, like the writer in his tale, he is constantly reminded of the intrusion upon each ‘world’ by the other and the implications of this: The distinction that he is making [†¦] is not between truth and lie, or between fiction and nonfiction, but between separate spheres of reality. Fancy for Anderson suggests imaginative and compassionate understanding of the beauty within the most grotesque of human actions.[1] The writer in the tale might survive becoming a ‘grotesque’ but he also fails to complete his writing and the immense implication of this is that even when the ‘grotesque’ is avoided, it appears inevitable that the intrusions of reality cause humanity’s plans to fail just as they are continuously altered by social, historical and political events. In a country so recently ravaged by war and about to undergo radical social upheaval, the implications of this are clear. Anderson chooses to make this implicit connection by citing the example of a man whose plans to have a carpenter alter his bed irrevocably change his life: The writer, an old man with a white mustache, had some difficulty in getting into bed. The windows of the house in which he lived were high and he wanted to look at the trees when he awoke in the morning. A carpenter came to fix the bed so that it would be on a level with the window. (p. 1). The full importance of this opening statement, with its beautifully simple syntax, does not strike the reader until much later in the story, perhaps not even until the completion of the reading of the stories as a whole. With the benefit of hindsight, the reader sees that Anderson’s theme is manifest from the first: the ‘old man’, physically impeded, desires to see further, to see ‘the trees when he awoke in the morning’, yet, what the subliminal reading invokes is that the desire to see beyond what we realise is not always present in our intentions; indeed, we may not even be aware of them. The ‘awakening’ comes not with the ‘morning’ but with the recognition of the interiorisation of longings influencing the human directive but being constantly obscured. Thus, though the ‘carpenter’ does indeed come to ‘fix the bed’ he does a lot more besides, in which the old man plays no directive part: ‘fo r a time the two men talked of the raising of the bed and then they talked of other things’ (p. 1). The ‘other things’, are what initiate the directive of the tale, as, Anderson seems to imply, they do with life, serendipity playing more of a role than we realize in our lives: Sherwood Anderson [†¦] was and still is a man of his times. His life and his career are a pictorial history of the unique mood of the modern America which produced them and made them possible.[2]. We are told that the carpenter ‘had been a soldier in the Civil War’ (p. 1) and this immediately gifts the narrative with a textual historicity which deepens its resonance (the Civil War is also referred to in another of the tales, ‘Godliness’: Part 1). Many of Anderson’s readers, after all, were within living memory of the war that split the American nation and again, its profound recognition of the nature of war, so fresh in the minds of those of the post World War era, to inflict pain beyond the immediate is recognized as significant: The carpenter had once been a prisoner in Andersonville prison and had lost a brother. The brother had died of starvation, and whenever the carpenter got upon that subject he cried. (p. 1) Again, the simplicity inestimably aids the poignancy of the telling; Anderson has no need to dwell upon the melancholy, it is self-evident. Moreover, the idea that the ‘ordinary man’, which the carpenter represents, has personal experience of the pain of loss in a past which continues to intrude upon the present; he cannot escape. Although Anderson states clearly that ‘the weeping old man with the cigar in his mouth was ludicrous’ (p. 2), avoiding the faux sentimentality of other contemporary writers, nevertheless, the writer’s plans are widely changed by him and the carpenter alters the bed ‘his own way’ (p. 2). The implication is not just that our plans are changed by present and future events but also that the past is never merely a memory but a constantly present inhabitant of life, a ‘reality’ beyond our reach to restrict or deny, and ‘stamped upon much of our contemporary fiction’[3]. Anderson has already l aid the foundation of the interchanging but ostensibly rigid boundaries of the actual and the imagined which are to cause perpetual interplay within the stories and in some sense all the characters and events are connected with himself: Sherwood Anderson is to be grouped among the most subjective of writers. He has created heroes with many different names; but each of them is the same man a projection in one direction or another of Anderson himself.[4]. Anderson begins now to build on these implications by obscuring life’s most basic and fearful boundary, death, by means of the old man’s imaginative sensibility. The carpenter has been instrumental in this, since he has brought into the narrative a death that is real, remembered and imagined; his memory is the conduit for this mutation of time and of feeling. The irony is that the author is haunted by death, yet: ‘ It did not alarm him’ (p.2 ). Death is inverted as a presence which revitalises the old man as ‘a special thing and not easily explained’ (p.2). Moreover, ‘something inside him was altogether young’ (p.2) and extraordinarily that ‘something’ is a ‘woman, young’. Anderson writes of this as like a pregnancy but what he gives birth to is an idea of the ‘grotesques’ of his previous life and relationships. Significantly, the writer switches subtly to address the reader more directly here, emphasising the idea that: It is absurd, you see, to try to tell what was inside the old writer as he lay on his high bed and listened to the fluttering of his heart. The thing to get at is what the writer, or the young thing within the writer, was thinking about. (p. 2) The ambivalent sexuality of the image is one of many which disturbed careful readers of the time, ‘back in 1919 the book was talked about only in whispers’[5].. Yet, its implications for authorship are important since an author is perpetually ‘giving birth’ and the idea of being both mother and father of his creations informs not just the sexual imagery of this story but also of others in the sequence, such as ‘Hands’ where the protagonist is accused of molestation: ‘Anderson sensed a mystery in human sexuality that defies an easy reduction’[6]. This represents a significant challenge to contemporary social attitudes towards sexuality, as women were accorded status principally allied to that of their male partners and sexual preferences were predisposed indisputably towards the heterosexual. As is typical of Anderson, he refuses to adopt or adhere to the rigidity of a society so recently war-torn and about to undergo a momentous per iod in its history from which it would not emerged unscathed or unchanged. By anticipating and pre-empting these changes, Anderson places his writing ahead of its time both in style and socio-political context. The old man in the tale now proceeds to invite into his consciousness the images of past passions, a theme he also alludes to in another of the stories, ‘Mother’. The reader is told that the old man has known people ‘in a peculiar intimate way [†¦] different from the way in which you and I know people’ (p. 3) and subsequently that ‘the writer had a dream that was not a dream’ (p. 3): this dream is the key to the subliminal implications of the tale as it is the precursor of the writing which does and does not take place: You see the interest in all this lies in the figures that went before the eyes of the writer. They were all grotesques. All of the men and women the writer had ever known had become grotesques. (p. 3). The introduction of the ‘grotesques’, not ‘all horrible’, is a pivotal moment in the tale, just as all the grotesques’ lives will be turned by such a moment in time, and the old man/writer’s perception of this is, like the reactions of the grotesques, crucial in their lives. In many ways, it is less significant that the book is not published than that it has been ‘seen’ by the author, who is gripped by ‘one central thought that is very strange and has always remained with [him]’, facilitating, we are encouraged to believe, the writing of his own book: The old man had listed hundreds of the truths in his book. I will not try to tell you of all of them. There was the truth of virginity and the truth of passion, the truth of wealth and of poverty, of thrift and of profligacy, of carelessness and abandon. Hundreds and hundreds were the truths and they were all beautiful. (p. 4) Hence, the imagined and the real feed one another but remain separate, for ‘truths’ are not the same as facts and ‘it was the truths that made the people grotesques’ (p. 5). Moreover, Anderson lays bare, here, the principal informatives of his sequence: The old man had quite an elaborate theory concerning the matter. It was his notion that the moment one of the people took one of the truths to himself, called it his truth, and tried to live his life by it, he became a grotesque and the truth he embraced became a falsehood. (p. 5) Anderson concludes his tale by making brief reference to the carpenter, one of ‘what are called the very common people’ (p. 5) yet contradicting this description by making him extraordinary as ‘the nearest thing to what is understandable and lovable of all the grotesques in the writers book’. (p. 5) Certainly, Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio set in ‘the critical decade which followed the world war’[7] can be seen as a groundbreaking novel, both in structure and content and ‘the failure of [Anderson’s] heterosexual relationships has often been cited as the reason for the â€Å"grotesque† nature of several of Winesburgs inhabitants’[8]. The stories confront issues that were to inform American writing and the socio-political post-war infrastructure as well as the realization of Modernist and post-Modernist fiction. A writer ahead of his time, Anderson is clearly shaped by the era in which he lived and was thus representative of the past, present and future as is the sequence of stories in his seminal ‘novel’ of ‘the troubled lives of the small-town individuals’[9]. Sources [1]  Adams, Timothy Dow, Telling Lies in Modern American Autobiography, (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1990), p. 44. [2]  Hatcher, Harlan, Creating the Modern American Novel, (New York: Hatcher, Farrar Rinehart, 1935), P. 155. [3] Hatcher, Harlan, Creating the Modern American Novel, (New York: Hatcher, Farrar Rinehart, 1935), P. 157. [4]  Loggins, Vernon, I Hear America : Literature in the United States since 1900, (New York: Biblo and Tannen, 1967), p. 151. [5]  Loggins, Vernon, I Hear America : Literature in the United States since 1900, (New York: Biblo and Tannen, 1967), p. 157. [6] Ellis, James, ‘Sherwood Andersons Fear of Sexuality: Horses, Men, and Homosexuality’, Studies in Short Fiction, Vol. 30, 1993 (Michigan: Gale Group). [7] Van Doren, Carl, The American Novel, 1789-1939, (New York: Macmillan, 1940), p. 334. [8] Whalan, Mark, ‘Dreams of Manhood: Narrative, Gender, and History in Winesburg, Ohio’, Studies in American Fiction, Vol 30, 2002 (Boston: Northeastern University). [9] Thomas, F. Richard, Literary Admirers of Alfred Stieglitz, (Carbondale, IL.: Southern Illinois University Press, 1983), p. 65. Bibliography: Adams, Timothy Dow, Telling Lies in Modern American Autobiography, (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1990). Anderson, Sherwood, Winesburg, Ohio: A Group of Tales of Ohio Small-Town Life, (New York: Modern Library, 1919). Angoff, Allan, American Writing Today: Its Independence and Vigor, (New York: New York University Press, 1957). Bryer, Jackson R., Sixteen Modern American Authors: A Survey of Research and Criticism, (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1974). Elliott, Emery, ed., The Columbia History of the American Novel, (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991). Ellis, James, ‘Sherwood Andersons Fear of Sexuality: Horses, Men, and Homosexuality’, Studies in Short Fiction, Vol. 30, 1993 (Michigan: Gale Group). Fiedler, Leslie A., Love and Death in the American Novel, (Stein and Day, 1966). Fisher, Philip, Hard Facts: Setting and Form in the American Novel, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987). Hatcher, Harlan, Creating the Modern American Novel, (New York: Hatcher, Farrar Rinehart, 1935). Loggins, Vernon, I Hear America : Literature in the United States since 1900, (New York: Biblo and Tannen, 1967). Noe, Marcia, ed., Exploring the Midwestern Literary Imagination: Essays in Honor of David D. Anderson, (Troy, N.Y.: Whitston Publishing Company, 1993). Thomas, F. Richard, Literary Admirers of Alfred Stieglitz, (Carbondale, IL.: Southern Illinois University Press, 1983). Wagenknecht, Edward, Cavalcade of the American Novel: From the Birth of the Nation to the Middle of the Twentieth Century, (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1952). Whalan, Mark, ‘Dreams of Manhood: Narrative, Gender, and History in Winesburg, Ohio, Studies in American Fiction, Vol 30, 2002 (Boston: Northeastern University). Van Doren, Carl, The American Novel, 1789-1939, (New York: Macmillan, 1940).

Development of Independence From Colonialism

Development of Independence From Colonialism Ghana was the first country in black Africa to achieve independence, on March 6, 1957. It showed the way to the rest of Africa to free themselves from the colonization which was spread everywhere on the continent. Kwame Nkrumah was the one who inspired by India’s independence came out with the Convention People’s Party (CPP) and brought imperial Britain to leave the Gold Coast (Ghana before the independence) only thanks to political means. After this victory, Kwame Nkrumah became the symbol of a generation as the anti-colonialist struggle, recognized by the most as the first real African activist victorious over the colonialism. The independence of Gold Coast had a magnitude all over the continent and was at the basis of the many nationalist actions realized afterward. After the independence of Ghana : No one doubted about the bright economic future of Ghana as it is the first cocoa exporter worldwide and was producing big quantity of gold (about one tenth of the world’s production). Ghana was also full with crops, forests and even gemstones.Finally, many in Ghana were well-educated and a quarter of Ghana ’s population was literate. Besides, Nkruhmah was becoming more and more appreciated by people thanks to the inspiration he provided to them. He got the heavy responsibility of rebuilding again this country, to unit its habitants although they shared very few things in common and still, the colonization ended up recently. Indeed, in this year, many groups still remain hostiles toward each other from the hundreds of years of wars and of slave trade. Tensions were still present as Ghana was trying to change its face. The country wasn’t stable yet, the population could have been influenced by others therefore Nkrumah decided that all the political parties whether regional or tribal oriented were forbidden in order to prevent any internal problems caused by feelings of nationalism. 1958 was a dark year for Ghana which was no longer the world’s largest cocoa supplier. Unfortunately, the country was facing an economic downturn which created a social crisis. Nkrumah’s government lost its popularity toward the mass and the rural population. The government’s response makes the situation even worse: Indeed, Nkrumah became dictatorial and took many hard measures against the manifestations and to anyone who disliked his government. While, he said once: â€Å"If we get self-government, we will transform the Gold Coast ( Ghana ) into a paradise in 10 years†[1] Strikes were considered illegal and severely punished. He implemented of a law which without trial allowed to arrest anyone suspected being against the state for five years which turned to be ten years later on. All political parties were prohibited. As a result: Nkrumah declared himself president for life; Ghana as a one-party state and finally achieved to turn his country as hell on earth for Ghana ’s workers. In 1960, Nkrumah is designated president of republic. The president had high expectancy for Ghana and started many expensive and ambitious projects without unfortunately getting profit from them. As a matter of fact, Nkrumah wanted to use the resources of Ghana to promote the industry development and the economic growth for the country. Ghana had a lot of bauxite and that could assure a good rise of the sector especially thanks to the manufacture of aluminum, by exporting worldwide. However to start these projects, the need for electricity became a necessity. As a consequence, the process of industrialization began, leading to the Volta Dam project. The project was only half successful as many others Nkrumah had run but nobody could doubt the good intentions behind them. The agricultural sector remained unheeded whereas it represents the basis for a developing country and overall for Ghana as it disposes of a lot of natural resources. As a consequence, the economy started to turn bad and Ghana contracted a debt which was increasing highly. The positive mood in the recent past years which tend to stay confident in Ghana ’s development ended and provoked a big change in the political climate. Later on, in 1962, the economic situation evolved so badly that all foreign investors and industry were in the obligation by law to invest again more than 60 percent of their gains within Ghana . The president had no choice than to force his investors as he did with the population to continue providing money to its system that no one else believed in any more. As if the fall was endless, in 1964, one year after W.E.B died; (he was the first African American who graduated at Harvard and to earn a doctorate. He was also known as an activist against racism and the segregation. After the independence of Ghana , he was invited by Nkrumah to live in Ghana ); the president Nkrumah suspended the constitution and therefore the democracy. Ghana was finally officially recognized as a one-party state ruled by a dictator. Again, the West reacted after realizing to what situation Ghana fell after the Independence . Criticised by western societies, Nkrumah began to work with communist countries such as principally the Soviet Union . At that time, Ghana ’s economics’ crisis has reached its climax: The country is out of control and the people keep getting poorer. The dictator is totally unpopular because of its previous actions against his people. The economy is out of control and the population is getting poorer. Nkrumah is no longer a popular leader as he hits hard on demonstrations and arrests anyone in opposition. The first coup On the 24thof February, 1966: A military takeover occurred in Ghana, it didn’t make any big losses as it was planned to happen while Nkrumah was away from the country visiting his friend President Sà ©kou Tourà © in Guinea. The military coup was realized by British-trained officers who had the ambition to stop the hard rule of Nkrumah and his government. Therefore, while the president was away every of its statues in Accra were taken down by the people. The new military government called itself the National Liberation Council (NLC). They declared that their intention was to fight off corruption and to make some change in the constitution so that Ghana could come back one more time to a democratic system. Unofficially, Britain was intervening in Ghana because of the orientation the country was undertaking during the last years of Nkrumah’s dictatorship towards the communist countries. Indeed, it was the cold war, the world was divided in two and the tentatives to attra ct countries to one side or the other weren’t rare; overall in these underdeveloped countries. As a consequence, the NLC’s council tended to be rather more conservative than socialist and therefore, it kept under a strict control all politicians and ideologues whether they were either socialists or communists. All connections to the Soviet Union were broken and technicians from USSR and China were expelled in order to get rid of any influences that could lead Ghana to communism. Ghanawas having his chance another time, to the eyes of the West, Ghana was taking a new way, a proper one to democracy and self-sustainability. After three years of provisional leading: The NLC legalized another time the participation of multiples political parties. Finally, new elections were announced for September 1969 which marked the beginning of the second republic. A new civilian government is created by Dr. Kofi Busia and the Progress Party. His party got a good start as the national economy regained strength thanks to the high prices on the cocoa market. Very quickly, prices drop again, the economic situation of Ghana go from bad to worst in 1971. Indeed, a political decision has been made to devaluate the Cedi which led to higher prices and to demonstrations, conflicts with violence by the population. In 1972, Kwame Nkrumah dies, despite his political failure, African masses still see in him a brave activist, the symbol of the struggle anti-colonialist and as the founder of Ghana . On the 13thof January, 1972: Once again a coup occurred, realized by forces of the army, for a change of government. This time, The National Redemption Council decided to impose a leader for Ghana . So, they chose Colonel Ignatius Acheampong to rule the state. However, the head of the state doesn’t have enough experience in any domains whether they are political or economical. A lack of vision from Acheampong led to a rise of corruption from the basis to the top of the society and the government. As a consequence, big strikes are organised by the youth in the country to claim their disappointment toward the critical situation the country was conducted. One year later, the economy was almost falling to pieces and no agreement could have been found with NRC-government.Acheampong took the initiative to put an end to the government and implemented the Supreme Military Council (SMC) constituted of a little group of seven persons chose by himself. The SMC ruled the country in a very roughly way: Any opposing to the regime was victim of multiples persecutions and even jailing without any sentence. On the 5thof July, 1978, Acheampong was in the obligation to resign while the general William Akuffo was taking the command of the â€Å"Supreme Military Council II†. He engaged himself to reform a civilian government, to allow for another time the political parties in Ghana . Finally he declared that he would set a date for new elections. Later on, on the 4thof June in 1979, after a first failed coup in the same year, Jerry John Rawlings a flight Lieutenant planned a takeover some days before the planned election. He was finally victorious, the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council achieved to take power. His ideas were principally inspired by socialism whether they are political or economical. His goal was to find an issue to corruption and the economical situation in which the country remained. Rawlings’ intention was to settle democratic elections but in a first time to stop the generals of the â€Å"Supreme Military Council II† from running away wealthy whereas they turned the country in chaos. Two weeks later, Dr. Hilla Limann leading the People’s National Party succeeded the election. As a result, the party got only 71 of the 140 seats in parliament making them a bit powerless to undertake decisions to free the country from the problems it faced until now. Rawlings understood that the PNP couldn’t rule properly Ghana as long as corruption, order and justice are not restored. In this sense, he strongly encouraged and helped the AFRC to put an end to all these problems before letting Ghana coming back to democracy. Finally, in the same year, thanks to the AFRC, all the persons linked to the SMC government and who were accused of corruption was tried. As a result: Hundreds of businessmen are sent to prison as well as government officials and the leader of this former government: Acheampong, Akuffo and Arifa were sentenced to death. The third republic In September 1979, the AFRC gives power to Hilla Limann. Rawlings and his soldiers came back to the army. Unfortunately, this news government didn’t help Ghana to solve its economical problems. During two years, the PNP have been trying but without any success: They haven’t been able to leave the country from the economic stagnation. Indeed, many economic reforms haven’t been applied or the government renounced to them in order to avoid a new takeover. Indeed, all economic changes proposed by the PNP’s government presented hard terms for Ghana ’s people but they were declared as necessary for the rise of the country. In 1980, the corruption came back and brought many violent conflicts in the country which put a definitive end to the PNP’s government. At the end of 1981, on the 31st of December. Rawlings took again the command of Ghana thanks to the military, he took over the country. He formed the Provisional National Defence Council of which he became the chairman. This time, Rawlings established that the country would be a one-party state for a temporary time, to make of Ghana a stable country and to ensure in the long-run a real democracy.

The Joyride :: Creative Writing Essays

The Joyride    Rain clouds began to tear themselves away from the jagged peaks of the Koolau range and rays broke through the clouds and beat down on the muddy water of Pearl Bay. Bobby glanced toward them, but his mind was elsewhere. He paced back and forth along the isolated stretch of the narrow beach. Now and then he would kick at loose pebbles along the muddy grey shoreline. For the moment, Bobby was still in his private world, consisting of little more than a strip of mud flat along one small section of the bay. But his world was about to be invaded. Chris, his best friend since kindergarten, would be showing up any minute. And Bobby knew that before this afternoon ended, their two lives, so entwined these many years, would forever be changed.    Bobby clutched a smooth black stone in his fingers. He leaned into the light breeze, preparing to skip it across the harbour waters, but stopped abruptly, remembering that the gods did not like land removed from the island. As the stone slipped from his fingers, his eyes followed the ripples that glided on and off the grey beach where he stood, then rose almost by habit to gaze once more at the Arizona Memorial stretching white and graceful, remembering painfully that this would be the last time that he would ever walk along this beautiful beach.    As his eyes watched the waves, and how they caressed the muddy shoreline, he began to think of the future. His thoughts were quickly disrupted.       â€Å"Hey bud, how's it going? What was so important that you had to talk to me about?† Chris asked.    â€Å"It's to hard. I can't go on with it.†    â€Å"What? What can't you go on with?† Chris demanded urgently.    â€Å"It's just, that, that, this will be our last weekend together†.    â€Å"Wait a minute. Slow down, your not making any sense. None at all. What do you mean that this will be our last weekend together? We have the whole entire summer planned out. Fishing next weekend, canoeing to Ford Island next month, our bike.....†    â€Å"NO STOP!!! You don't understand. My dad got transferred. We're moving.†    â€Å"But why now. School doesn't start for another two months, and colleges start even later than that!† Chris replied.    â€Å"I know, it sucks. I can't do anything about it. I've tried everything. I've even asked my parents if it would be okay to move in with my grandparents for the rest of the summer. But it's no use. They say I have to get used to the town, meet new friends,and get a job.

Edgar Allen Poe Essay -- Essays Papers

Edgar Allen Poe Edgar Allen Poe, an America writer, was known as a poet and critic but was most famous as the master of short stories, particularly tales of the mysterious and the macrabe. The literary merits of Poe’s writings have been debated since his death, but his works have continued to be popular and many American and European writers have declared their artistic debt to him. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Poe was orphaned in his early childhood and was raised by John Allen, a successful business man of Richmond, Virginia. Taken by the Allen family to England at the age of six, Poe was placed in a private school. Upon returning to the United States in 1820, he continued to study in private schools. He attended the University of Virginia for a year, but in 1827 his foster father, angry by the young man’s drinking and gambling, refused to pay his debts and forced him to work as a clerk. Poe, disliking his new duties violently, he quit the job as a clerk, thus estranging Allen, and went to Boston. There his first book, Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827), was published anonymously. Shortly afterward Poe enlisted in the United States Army and served a two-year term. In 1829 his second volume of verse, Al Aaraaf, was published, and he completed a agreement with Allen, who secured him an appointment to the United States Military Academy. After only a few months at the Military Academy Poe was dismissed for neglect of duty, and his foster father disowned him permanently. Poe...

The Role of Dreams in Genesis, Song of Songs, and The Oresteia Essay

The Role of Dreams in Genesis, Song of Songs, and The Oresteia When describing the role of dreams in ancient texts, Freud wrote, â€Å"They took it for granted that dreams were related to the world of the supernatural beings in whom they believed, and that they brought inspirations from the gods and demons.   Moreover, it appeared to them that dreams must serve a special purpose in respect of the dreamer; that, as a rule, they predicted the future.†Ã‚  Ã‚   He goes on to explain the findings of a fellow psychiatrist, Gruppe, who believed that there are two classes of dreams in ancient texts.   The first class is influenced only by the present or past and does not play a largely significant role in these texts.   The second class, however, is determinative of the future and is quite important to the understanding of the texts in which they appear.   This class contains dreams that are direct prophecies and directly show the future, dreams that are foretelling of the future and indirectly hint at what the future will be, and dreams that are symbolic and require interpretation to fully understand their explanation of the future.  Ã‚   The gods use all these types of dreams to play a direct role in the lives of men in Genesis, Song of Songs, and The Oresteia.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The use of dreams in Genesis is most obvious through the story of Joseph.   Dreams play an important role in determining the course of Joseph’s life, and are used to reveal the mind of God to the people.   The first dreams he encounters are those of the sheaves of his brothers bowing down to his sheaf, and the sun and moon and eleven stars bowing down to him.   These dreams best fit into Gruppe’s description of symbolic dreams.   While their explanation is fairly evident as showing tha... ...re very important in ancient texts because they present to mankind a world that they cannot see.   Without dreaming, there would be almost no connection to the gods, to those beings who impact and design life on earth.   As Freud states, there is significance in every dream; they each have a special meaning for the person who experiences them.   They are important because the gods can directly shape the course of a life through them, because they can be a form of communication with the gods, and because they can show what is going on behind the secret â€Å"god curtain† that humans cannot see through.   Without dreams, man would be stranded, left on earth by himself with no understanding of the meaning behind things.   For this reason, dreams are used as a major literary device, because they create a supernatural connection that everyone can experience and wonder about.   

Growing Up in a Bilingual Family Essay

Abstract Some bicultural families have to deal with the decision of how, when, and if they should make their children be bilingual. They worry that if instead of helping their kids doing so, it may hurt them. Most people agree that in long terms, being bilingual is a great tool. Since most parents agree on that, not all agree on how early kids should be introduce to a second language. Should it be as soon as they are born, or first learn one language and then a second? Growing Up in a Bilingual Family Educators and psychologists will advice to introduce a second language when kids are under the age of 3. De Houwer, (1999) says â€Å"Brain imaging studies show that languages in bilingual infants are stored closer together in the brain than in later bilinguals. This means, learning another language after the age of 3 both takes greater effort and is treated differently by the brain compared to the child who acquires them simultaneously.† The earliest a child is exposed to a second language, the better. Contrary to what many parents think that their kids may get confused and end up not learning completely either language. For instance, there are cases of kids who were exposed to two languages and by the age of 6 they know very well both languages. And the people that learn a second language in an adult age, they are most likely to have an accent after several years of been speaking a foreigner language, and most likely they will have their accent for a lifetime. Although, researches show that â€Å"The main reason for dominance in one language is that the child has had greater exposure to it and needs it more to communicate with people in the immediate environment† (Grosjean, 1983, p.209), and it is not usual that kids are exposed to two languages equally. There is usually one dominant language or mother language, and the minority language. This is why the minority language, should be balance by reading, dancing with music that has lyrics of the weaker language, watching TV shows and specially talking; conversational experiences are the most valuable, easy tool parents can used. The case of Mia, who is two years old, and William, a 4 years old boy who are more exposed to English than Spanish, the parents try to reinforce the weaker language by teaching them songs in the minority language and  making up songs with stories that calls the kid’s attention. This method worked in many families, and the result is always positive. On e of the most common frustrations in bilingual families is when their kids start mixing up two languages. Children feel single out and this situation makes them feel uncomfortable, especially when there are people around who don’t understand what the child is saying, this will end frustrating the child and start to deny speaking in a language that is not common in their environment; â€Å"Parents, who naturally tend to interpret a mixed utterance as evidence of confusion when in fact the child is getting on with the task of building up two sets of patterns by making more and more subtle contrasts† (Harding-Esch, 2008, p.56-57). Kids are not conscientiously trying to mix up two languages, they do it because is natural, it is normal for a child to pick different words from each languages to express their feelings and thoughts. We, as a bilingual parents, should instead of focusing on the mistakes that our kids make, is praise their effort and enthusiasm on their ability to speak two different languages. There are many ways that we can help bilingual kids learn two or more lan guages, the most important probably is never give up and think that the kids are not understanding or listening to what we are saying. They have busy minds, and while we think they are not listening or watching us, they are. Parents should use any opportunity to talk to them especially on the minority language. Make them feel that they are not different than majority language speakers. Getting them spend as much time possible with other minority speaker children by arranging play dates. Also, the bilingual kids should visit the country where the minority language is spoken. Cunningham, (2002, p.117), in her book In Growing up with Two Languages says, â€Å"The potential, advantages of this are manifold: The children get to know monolingual speakers of their own age, they learn to use their weaker language in different situations, they learn about the culture of the country†. This will be a great boost for bilingual children, to be exposed to a total immersion to a different culture that they are not very use to. In chapter 14, Cognitive Functions, it is mentioned that â€Å"Early exposure to some language increases ability to learn another language later.† Also it is mentioned that children are better at pronunciation and grammar when they learn a second language early in age. There is not really disadvantage on learning a second language  at any age but it is better to take advantage of the ability kids have to grasp almost anything during their first stages of life. Conclusion There is not evidence of negative effects of y learning at early age two languages or more. Instead, there are many evidences that children growing up with two languages have advantage over the ones that are not. As Grosjean says, â€Å"researchers have found that bilingualism is, after all, a great asset to the child†, and he continues, â€Å"Especially, in intelligence and cognitive growth, researchers stress the assets of bilingualism†. There is nothing to loose getting our kids to learn two languages, all what it requires is our patience and consistency. References Cunningham, U. & Anderson, S. (2002). Growing up with two languages: A practical Guide. New York: Taylor and Francis Group. De Houwer, A. (1999). Two or more languages in Early Childhood. Retrieved from http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/earlychild.html Grosjean, F. (1992). Life with two languages. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. Harding-Esch, E. & Riley, P. (2008). The bilingual family: A handbook for parents. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Cell Theory Essay

In biology, cell theory is a scientific theory that describes the properties of cells, the basic unit of structure in every living thing. The initial development of the theory, during the mid-17th century, was made possible by advances in microscopy; the study of cells is called cell biology. Cell theory states that new cells are formed from pre-existing cells, and that the cell is a fundamental unit of structure, function and organization in all living organisms. It is one of the foundations of biology. History: The cell was discovered by Robert Hooke in 1665. He examined (under a coarse, compound microscope) very thin slices of cork and saw a multitude of tiny pores that he remarked looked like the walled compartments a monk would live in. Because of this association, Hooke called them cells, the name they still bear. However, Hooke did not know their real structure or function. Hooke’s description of these cells (which were actually non-living cell walls) was published in Micrographia. His cell observations gave no indication of the nucleus and other organelles found in most living cells. The first person to make a compound microscope was Zacharias Jansen, while the first to witness a live cell under a microscope was Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, who in 1674 described the algae Spirogyra and named the moving organisms animalcules, meaning â€Å"little animals†. Leeuwenhoek probably also saw bacteria. Cell theory was in contrast to the vitalism theories proposed before the discovery of cells. The idea that cells were separable into individual units was proposed by Ludolph Christian Treviranus and Johann Jacob Paul Moldenhawer. All of this finally led to Henri Dutrochet formulating one of the fundamental tenets of modern cell theory by declaring that â€Å"The cell is the fundamental element of organization†. The observations of Hooke, Leeuwenhoek, Schleiden, Schwann, Virchow, and others led to the development of the cell theory. The cell theory is a widely accepted explanation of the relationship between cells and living things. The cell theory states: †¢All living things or organisms are made of cells and their products. †¢New cells are created by old cells dividing into two. †¢Cells are the basic building units of life. †¢ The cell theory holds true for all living things, no matter how big or small, or how simple or complex. Since according to research, cells are common to all living things, they can provide information about all life. And because all cells come from other cells, scientists can study cells to learn about growth, reproduction, and all other functions that living things perform. By learning about cells and how they function, you can learn about all types of living things. Credit for developing cell theory is usually given to three scientists: Theodor Schwann, Matthias Jakob Schleiden, and Rudolf Virchow. In 1839, Schwann and Schleiden suggested that cells were the basic unit of life. Their theory accepted the first two tenets of modern cell theory (see next section, below). However, the cell theory of Schleiden differed from modern cell theory in that it proposed a method of spontaneous crystallization that he called â€Å"free cell formation†. In 1855, Rudolf Virchow concluded that all cells come from pre-existing cells, thus completing the classical cell theory. (Note that the idea that all cells come from pre-existing cells had in fact already been proposed by Robert Remak; it has been suggested that Virchow plagiarised Remak.) Modern interpretation: The generally accepted parts of modern cell theory include: 1.All known living things are made up of one or more cells. 2.All living cells arise from pre-existing cells by division. 3.The cell is the fundamental unit of structure and function in all living organisms. 4.The activity of an organism depends on the total activity of independent cells. 5.Energy flow (metabolism and biochemistry) occurs within cells. 6.Cells contain hereditary information (DNA) which is passed from cell to cell during cell division. 7.All cells are basically the same in chemical composition in organisms of similar species. Cell Parts and Their Functions Nucleus – Large Oval body near the centre of the cell. – The control centre for all activity. – Surrounded by a nuclear membrane. Nucleoplasm – is the protoplasm in the nucleus. – contains genetic material —> CHROMOSOMES (DNA) Nucleolus – is found in the nucleus. – contains more genetic information (RNA) Cell Membrane – the outer boundary of the cell. – it separates the cell from other cells. – it is porous —> allows molecules to pass through. Lysosomes – † suicide sacs † – small structures that contain enzymes which are used in digestion. – if a lysosome were to burst it could destroy the cell. Cell Wall ( Plant Cells Only ) – non living structure that surrounds the plant cell. – protects + supports the cell. – made up of a tough fibre called cellulose. Cyto Plasm – cell material outside the nucleus but within the cell membrane. – clear thick fluid. – contains structures called organelles. Vacuoles – are clear fluid sacs that act as storage areas for food, minerals, and waste. – in plant cell the vacuoles are large and mostly filled with water. This gives the plant support. – in animal cells the vacuoles are much smaller. Mitochondria – power house of the cell. – centre of respiration of the cell. – they release energy for cell functions. Chloro Plasts ( Plant cells only ) – contains a green pigment known as chlorophyll which is important for photosynthesis. Ribosomes – tiny spherical bodies that help make proteins. – found in the cyto plasm or attached to the endo plasmic reticulum. Endo Plasmic Reticulum ( ER ) – systems of membranes throughout the cyto plasm. – it connects the nuclear membrane to the cell membrane. – passageway for material moving though the cell. Golgi Bodies – tube like structures that have tiny sacs at their ends. – they help package protein.