Contrast in Nigeria Essay Example for Free

Contrast in Nigeria Essay The aim of this paper is to compare and contrast in Nigeria to that in the United States. The emergence, development, and settlement of ethnic conflict are related to the cultural, legal, and socioeconomic conditions in which a conflict takes place. These conditions are strikingly different in developed and developing countries. One more mediating factor in the cross-national study of ethnic conflict is the attitudes towards conflict in a society. Therefore, this paper will start with analyzing societies in the U. S. and Nigeria as well as their histories. The U. S. is the world largest economy and a country with a strong tradition of democracy. Its uniqueness is associated with the fact that the U. S. is an immigrant nation. Although ethnic conflicts were (and still remain, to a certain extent) frequent and acute, the American society has found effective ways to resolve such conflicts. The government of the U. S. tries to prevent conflicts between different ethnic groups, ensure equality, and promote tolerance. On the contrary, Nigeria is a poorer country with GDP per capita being only $2,000 (in the U. S. this figure is $45,800). However, it is Africa’s most populous country. Almost half of the population is under the age of fourteen. Mortality from AIDS is high (the percentage of people living with HIV is 5. 4%), and healthcare is inadequate. The country is composed of more than 250 ethnic groups, the following groups are the most influential: Hausa and Fulani (29%), Yoruba (21%), Igbo (18%), Ijaw (10%), Kanuri (4%), Ibibio (3. 5%), and Tiv (2. 5%) half a population are Muslim, Christians constitute 40% of the total population, and indigenous believers account for the remaining 10% (CIA, 2008). Waters (1996) suggests studying the following questions in order to understand cross-cultural perspectives on ethnic conflict: the meanings of ethnic identities (whether they are oppositional identities, immigrant identities, or symbolic identities); the attitude of ethnic groups to the state (whether they trust the institutions of the state to be fair and honest, whether these institution perpetuate oppression, whether the state is perceived by ethnic groups an instrument of power to be employed by their own group or another group or as a neutral arbiter); and the perceptions on hate crimes, violence, and intergroup encounters (whether they are seen as temporary, accidental and individualized, or as permanent, systematic, and institutionalized). In the U. S. , many people coming from other countries perceive themselves as immigrants at the initial stages of integration, yet eventually they accept their new, American identity. The overarching nature of American identity prevents the creation of sharply oppositional identities. However, double identities (such as African Americans or Hispanic Americans) remain string and may become a basis for ethnic conflict. However, the state directs a lot of effort and resources on preventing ethnic conflict. While the general view on the state’s handling of racial issues is generally positive, racism in entrenched in the social system, and there are even accusations of institutional racism. The unique feature about the American society is that it has an experience of successful resolution of ethnic conflicts, such as the movement for equal rights between Black and White citizens or governmental programmes to support Mexican immigrants. The risk of ethnic conflict in Nigeria is much higher than in the United States. In 1999, frequent clashes were taking place between Yoruba and Hausa ethnic groups. This conflict was the legacy of the British colonial rule: ‘Nigeria was brought into being under British colonial rule, when in the early 1900s Lord Lugard forged together the Moslem Northern protectorate and the Southern Christian sphere’ (Mason, 1999, para. 9). Regionalism was encouraged at that time: the country was divided into three self-governing regions based on ethnic allegiance, such as the western region (dominated by Yoruba), the northern region (mainly Hausa and Fulani), and the eastern region (mainly Igbo). ‘[T]he separate governments were designed to strengthen the colonial grip on Nigerian society and weaken the peoples potentials for resistance’ (Irobi, 2005, ‘Second Case: Nigeria,’ para. 2). The attempts of the Nigerian government to create a fully functional federal state have had limited success following the independence. Ethnic clashes turned into a civil war when Igbos attempt to form an independent state called Biafra. Nigeria took over Biafra in 1970 and maintained territorial integrity, but the conflict remained unresolved. There were incidents of sectarian violence in 2004. More recently, the conflict has centered in the oil-rich Niger Delta region. Access to oil revenue and environmental pollution are the main reasons for clashes. The government is perceived as hostile by Delta communities who used to prosper historically from the natural richness of their homeland. The clashes occur between two local ethnic groups, Itsekiris and Ijaw. Cases of vandalism are frequent; the conflict has been especially acute in 2004 when Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force threatened to destroy oil facilities and infrastructure in the region. In 2005, employees of Shell were kidnapped by the Iduwini National Movement for Peace and Development. In 2006, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger River Delta continued the attacks on Shell decreasing the oil production by three quarters. All these groups demand international companies and the government to take appropriate care of the region’s environmental situation and contribute to the region’s development (GlobalSecurity, n/d). As concerns ethnic identities in Niger Delta, they are fluid and dynamic: inhabitants of the region are quick to reconstruct their identities influenced by political opportunities and economic inducements. However, the inhabitants of the region can be regarded as having a common regional oppositional identity. The government is perceived as an inimical body responsible for the ethnic unrest: ‘When citizens perceive that the system has failed to provide essential political or economic goods, they are more likely to gravitate to communal identities and to pursue contentious mobilization’ (Lewis, 2004, ‘Abstract’). Summing up, there are several features which are typical for ethnic conflict in Nigeria, as well as the rest of Africa, namely ‘the demand for ethnic and cultural autonomy, competing demands for land, money and power, and conflicts taking place between rival ethnic groups’ (Irobi, 2005, ‘Introduction,’ para. 6). Therefore, there are many differences between the U. S. and Nigeria in terms of interethnic relations. The most significant differences are the role of the government in conflict management and the creation of oppositional identities as contrasted with an overarching American identity. References CIA. (2008). ‘The World Factbook: Nigeria. ’ Retrieved August 26, 2008, from https://www. cia. gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ni. html GlobalSecurity. (N/d). ‘Niger Delta. ’ Retrieved August 26, 2008, from http://www. globalsecurity. org/military/world/war/nigeria-2. htm Irobi, E. G. (2005). ‘Ethnic Conflict Management in Africa: A Comparative Case Study of Nigeria and South Africa. ’ Retrieved August 26, 2008, from http://www. beyondintractability. org/case_studies/nigeria_south-africa. jsp? nid=6720 Lewis, P. (2004). ‘Identity and Conflict in Nigerias Niger Delta: New Evidence from Attitude Surveys. ’ Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Hilton Chicago and the Palmer House Hilton, Chicago, IL. Retrieved August 26, 2008, from http://www. allacademic. com/meta/p59519_index. html Mason, B. (1999). ‘Ethnic conflict escalates in Nigeria. ’ Retrieved August 26, 2008, from http://www. wsws. org/articles/1999/aug1999/nig-a17. shtml Waters, M. C. (1996). ‘Ethnic and racial groups in the USA: Conflict and cooperation. ’ In Ethnicity and power in the contemporary world, ed. Rupesinghe, K, Tishkov, V. A. Retrieved August 26, 2008, from http://www. unu. edu/unupress/unupbooks/uu12ee/uu12ee0o. htm

Ethical Issues in film Erin Brockovich Essay example -- Ethics Movie M

Ethical Issues in film Erin Brockovich There are many ethical issues in the movie Erin Brockovich. This movie is about a mother of three who uncovers a water poisoning case by Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) in southern California. Once it was proved that the company had knowingly dumped hexavalent chromium into the ground water, the utility company was found liable for a $330 million dollar verdict. Erin has the responsibility to feed and educate her three children and she has a general distrust of people. She begins by forcing her lawyer Ed Masry to give her a secretarial job after he failed to get her a settlement from an auto accident. She makes him feel guilty for the way that she is currently living and blames it on him. She figures this would square things away. However, she doesn't exactly fit in at the firm. Other female co-workers do not approve of her attire and the cleavage that she shows. Women in the office don't include Erin in going out to lunch and even helping her out when she asks for assistance. Once when she asked for assistance, the women refused to help her stating that if she doesn't know the job yet, that is her problem. The women treat her poorly, but I think that they are surprised at the person she really is and what a dedicated hard worker she is. Erin fights for respect and acceptance from a world, which tends to judge from appearance only. Ed accuses her of extortion when she attempts to get raises out of him every time he approves her doing another job with the PG&E case. She asks for increase in salary and at one-point event benefits. Ed ends up giving it to her maybe because he knows that she is on to something and it could end up being really big. However, sh... ...y were living in. They instead chose to protect their corporation by creating a plan to purchase these homes and cover up any evidence that would be around. The company lawyers choose to sacrifice the lives of the neighbors to protect the company assets even though PG&E is a 28 billion-dollar company. It was believed that it would be cheaper for PG&E to dispose of the chemicals illegally since the company officials were more concerned with the profits than about people's lives. The hiding of this critical information had tragic consequences for the people involved. PG&E must have realized that they were guilty since they settled the case for $330 million in private arbitration. All in all, it probably ended up costing PG&E more money than it would have if they had properly lined the water pools and taken care of things the correct way in the beginning.

Law of nature Essay

There are several books that deal with philosophical questions of liberty, social restrictions, pursuit of property and freedom versus enslavement. I have selected six related to these themes to be reviewed and closely analyzed to understand those themes better. The second treatise of Government by John Locke has been ever since its first publication in 1689 an influential source of political and social interpretation. The USA constitution is based on the principles and themes John Locke deals with in this master piece of philosophical reasoning. His main argument in the book is that the sovereignty is in the hands of the people and that the government is in their service. Locke underscored the importance of being aware as people of our natural and fundamental rights but that we have had to relinquish certain aspects of this human freedom to be able to coexist peacefully within a society regulated by laws established to maintain the order. People are thus originally endowed with certain inalienable rights in a state of nature where freedom exists in absence of laws or rules to abide to. This law of nature does thus not require people to obey each other but instead people are free to be themselves. The state of nature is defined by Locke himself as: â€Å"To properly understand political power and trace its origins, we must consider the state that all people are in naturally. That is a state of perfect freedom of acting and disposing of their own possessions and persons as they think fit within the bounds of the law of nature. People in this state do not have to ask permission to act or depend on the will of others to arrange matters on their behalf. The natural state is also one of equality in which all power and jurisdiction is reciprocal and no one has more than another. † Locke deals thus with the topic of civil society in this book and how we can politically coexist together as people. To understand the true and best form of a civil society we need to comprehend the fundamental right we are born with as humans which is simply freedom in its complete sense. Taking this into consideration we have also to acknowledge the full meanings this brings along with it for everybody despite color, ethnicity, religion or race. Since all people are born with this right then it follows that all people are equal and deserve to live in a system that secures this equality and freedom of pursuit of one’s dreams. Locke’s second main argument is how governments should only rule with the consent of the people and that any government that does not becomes as a result illegitimate and deserves to be overthrown by the people through their right to revolution. He also deals with the themes of conquest and slavery, property and representative government. Property for instance lead to the creation of the civil society as men sought to protect his property through the law. People exchanged some of their natural rights in order to achieve this form of civil society where they could coexist peacefully with other people in a safe and secure atmosphere. The representative government on the other hand is only legitimate if it is acknowledged by the people and serves the needs of the people. It is this way that Locke established the rule that governments should be there for the service of the people rather than vice versa. Locke’s ideas about slavery on the other hand are that it is essentially a form of involuntary servitude and the only way slavery could be justified as a system that goes against the order of the natural state is through the absence of the state of nature and the presence of the opposite which is the state of war during which exceptions were allowed. The discussion of slavery leads us to another major work concerned with the subject: The Life of Olaudah Equiano which is an autobiographical work that was first published in the 18th century and recounts the story of slavery and its horrors. The story of his enslavement, acquired freedom and pursuit of work as a seaman and merchant is a very fascinating tale of forward movement and determination at achieving success, despite the hardships encountered along the way, in order to earn the natural right of freedom back. Olaudah, like Locke, was a fighter for a cause. Locke’s book helped revolutionize the ideas about government and shaped the USA constitution the way we know it now. His defense of the rights of the human continues to influence the discourse on democracy, human rights and politics. Olaudah’s journey and struggle for freedom has also left tremendous impact in the literature of slavery and he also helped in the process of abolishing slavery later on. Those two prominent men had a social vision of what a society was supposed to be like and fought to achieve it. The book starts with the recount of Olaudah’s personal life before enslavement when he used to live in an African region called Assaka. He was kidnapped and forced into slavery(something that enforces Locke’s opinion about the forced status of slavery as an institution) at the age of ten and transported to the New World or to be more specific the plantations of Virginia. He was purchased by a lieutenant in the Navy called Michael Pascal who named him Gustavus Vassa, a name he also came to be known by. His life as a slave was a continues struggle and suffering. He could not tolerate the idea of deprivation of his right of freedom and chose to rebel through denying the new name his owner gave him which lead to his punishment as if he was a mere dog whose job was to obey without reluctance. Being deprived of his freedom reduces the human being into an animal. The life of the slave was really hard according to the journals of Olaudah. He was later sold in the Caribbean and acquired by a Philadelphian Quaker who taught him how to read and write better and educated him in the Christian faith. He allowed him to trade to earn the money required to buy his freedom as young man in his twenties and traveled to England where he fought for the cause of slavery abolition. Olaudah observed in his book how slaves were treated as inhuman subjects with no feelings. It was almost as if the masters considered them to be a different specie or an alien creature. Our third book or novel is concerned with a creature that displays those characteristic: Frankenstein. Frankenstein by the author Mary Shelley refers to the scientists within the book Victor Frankenstein who knows how to create life and decides to create a creature that is like man but with more powerful characteristics. The novel is made up of the correspondence between the Captain Robert Walton and his sister. Walton happens to know about Frankenstein’s creature and recounts the story to his sister in his letters. The story starts with Walton traveling to the North Pole where he will be trapped by a sea of massive ice rocks. This is how Walton meets Victor Frankenstein and this is also how he comes to know about the monster Victor had created. Victor is himself terrified by what he has created and runs away thereby allowing the monster to be released. The troubled scientist feels sick with guilt and his depressed state only worsens when he hears about the murder of his brother. It appears that the monster was who murdered his brother and this was explained by the monster himself as an attempt at taking revenge of Victor who had treated him with horror and disgust. He begs Victor for a companion since he cannot stand the loneliness. Victor does decide to oblige but later on regrets it and destroys his second creation to which the monster vows revenge that he soon fulfills through killing one of his friends. The monster manages to also kill his bride and Victor decides to follow the monster which led him to meet Walton and dies a few days later on. Walton concludes his letters by recounting how surprised he was to find the monster weeping on his body in agony and loneliness. It turns out that the monster had feelings like any other human being and could be good or evil like any other normal person. But Victor’s fear and prejudice blinded him from seeing that. The same thing happened with the white owners of slaves in the era of Olaudah. They stopped seeing the slaves as human beings and regarded them as mere properties to be feared and doubted if they acted differently the way Olaudah did through educating himself. The fear of the unknown is a characteristic of the human psyche but what is also a common aspect between the white and black man and the monster of Frankenstein is the need of freedom. Our fourth book is the Communist manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. The first publication of the book took place in 1848. Just like John Locke’s The Second Treatise of Government the Communist Manifesto is a very influential political manuscript. The main theme of the book is the class struggle and the weaknesses of the capitalist system. The Communist Manifesto is what the communist party strengthened the ideology of the Communist party. The Manifesto’s main aim was to make communism more understood by a larger number of people since the party was feared and doubted by many. Karl Marx continues then to mark the differences between the bourgeois and proletariat class since his main focus will be throughout the paper on how the proletariat has been victimized by the capitalist system and bourgeois class. He states in the first section that: â€Å"The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary re-constitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes. † Marx arguments of class struggle resemble those of Locke to a certain extent. He also echoed the claim that the human need for property is what leads to the creation of civil society as we know it today. Marx acknowledges this human need for the acquisition of property but seeks to regulate it more through establishing laws that do not allow for a minority of rich people to subject and benefit from a larger group that is the real driving force of any society: the proletariat class. The proletarians will, according to Marx, rise to power through class struggle. The bourgeois continues exploiting the proletarians but the latter will use their right to revolution (Locke again) to throw this form of social establishment and create a new reality more fit for the general and larger public. This vision was eventually realized by the Bolsheviks in the former Soviet Union. Our human need for freedom equality and development is according to Locke, Olaudah, Marx and Shelly a fundamental aspect of our psychological nature. This leads us to the fifth book to focus on: On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin who explains in this work how humans have developed from their natural state to their current one and how they have been able to survive. The natural state described by Darwin in his book is different from that of Locke in that he focuses on how we developed physically as people from the shape of monkeys to that of humans. It is needless to say that his book has caused the necessary controversy in the religious circles. Darwin presents a very interesting evolutionary idea in this particular book to explain the process of human evolution: the survival of the fittest. The idea of the transmutation of the species was however not welcomed by the Church establishment of that time and is still not looked at with favor by several even nowadays and despite the many scientific data that has been supplied to enhance his theory. Natural selection or to use the other phrase, the survival of the fittest, has been described by Mr. Herbert Spencer as: â€Å"Owing to this struggle for life, any variation, however slight and from whatever cause proceeding, if it be in any degree profitable to an individual of any species, in its infinitely complex relations to other organic beings and to external nature, will tend to the preservation of that individual, and will generally be inherited by its offspring. † Charles Darwin’s book has also helped in reshaping the human thought regarding its origin and nature and developed the notion of the necessity of strength and relentlessness to succeed and earn the right to exist since only the fittest survive. Our last book is also closely related to the themes we have seen so far in relation to human rights and natural states and the preservation of an efficient civil society. Civilization and its discontents was first published in 1929 and became one of Sigmund Freud’s most renowned works. Freud’s main theme in this book is the state of conflict between the individual and his society. Just like with Locke’s book we come to wonder how much the relinquishment of our fundamental right of total freedom affects our psyche and therefore our performance within the civil society we created. The primary source of conflict, according to Freud, is the individual’s desire of freedom and the clash that creates with society’s expectation of the individual to conform to the general rules. The majority kills with this the individuality and our natural states are denied for the sake of preserving the general picture agreed upon by the majority of the citizens. Humans have certain desires and characteristics that are hard to control. The desire for sex is the most prominent one which has lead to the creation of many laws to regulate sex conduct in public and punish the acts of rape and sexual aggression. The natural instincts come to be subjected to laws and regulations to allow for the peaceful existence within a society. The six books that we have seen so far all deal with several issues related to humanity’s primal needs that can clash at times with society’s expectations of the individual. Our quest for freedom and property creates conflict all along but we never are able to let go of one of the two. Humans have always wanted the two together and the need for more property led to the enslavement of millions to satisfy the need for cheap labor thereby violating the natural human state of being free by birth. But humans are creatures who seek pleasure and understanding and bonding with the other. That is also another reason why we co-exist within a society and try to abide to the rules to sustain the civil form. Works Cited Darwin, Charles (2002). The Origin of Species. W. W Norton & Company. Equiano, Olaudah (1999). The life of Olaudah Equiano. Dover Publications. Freud, Sigmund (1989). Civilization and its discontents. W. W Norton & Company. Locke, John (2002). The Second Treatise of Government. Dover Publications. Marx, Karl (1998). The Communist Manifesto. USA: Oxford University Press. Shelley, Mary (2004). Frankenstein. Pocket.

Narrative in Professional Contexts - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 3 Words: 822 Downloads: 4 Date added: 2019/10/10 Did you like this example? The narrative is about a soldier on the battle field. The soldier is in Iraq with his rifle as he reads an article that well defines the emotional stress that can spike adrenaline and stun your heart. This, of course, can cause quick death if it happens to someone. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Narrative in Professional Contexts" essay for you Create order Among the other ways that one can die in the battle field, the soldier learned that this was one of the ways that one could die. These other ways according to the solder are; through a bullet, through beheading and through bomb which is actually the main way that most people in the battle field die through. The author says that as they walk around or drive around the battle field they all wait for death but luck runs along for his survival. The author has been hit once by the bomb, but it was shoddy hence the impact was not rampant.   The bombs are usually hidden in dead dogs and donkeys; they are also hidden in garbage sites this keeps the soldier in wonder every moment as they pass in their car during a patrol on the site that has the hidden bombs. During the thanks giving, the author and his unit were assigned the duty to clear a certain intersection for the arrival of one of the commanders from their company. As they patrol they come across a creator that had been formed by an exploded bomb that saw a few soldiers injured. They also discover a garbage correction that was not exciting a few days ago. They approach the waste and realizes that there was a bomb. The invite of the bomb squad and they explode the bomb. They talk about what would have happened if they did not realize the bomb (Mockenhaupt, 2006). I highly agree with this article on the information given by the author about the experience in the battle field. To be honest, it is too much that the soldiers go through on the battle field that most of them risk their lives. They experience the opposition or the enemy with all their munitions of any kinds. Especially in Iraq where the war involved all the techniques from the enemy. It is true to say that they were to experience any death that the enemy prepares to execute. There is the most common method as the author has outlined that it is the major way to die in the battle field, which is booming. Suicide bombers prepare themselves and mostly finds people and even the soldiers unprepared killing many people and injuring others. Hidden bombs are also a big challenge to them; this is because there are very many situations that they may not realize the existence of the bombs. To me when the author says that they work waiting for that bomb that may explode only that luck is by thei r side, I say its right. This means that every day, they stay prepared for the worst. The impact at which the bombs explodes, it is true to say that they heavily cause damage and if anyone is within the range of the explosion of the bomb, becomes a victim. It is very likely that the bombs can easily kill if someone is close to the bomb site. Fear and tension run through the minds of the people that are involved in the battle field. This is because they know very well that anything of any kind may happen because they are not safe. Being in the foreign land fighting the resident criminals, makes the soldiers be at high risk in that the enemy knows the terrain better and therefore can easily hide and strike. This leaves the soldier with tension and always on the lookout for that kind of situation. It may seem easy to assume that there is no fear in the military officers but they fear for their lives which are always at risk in the battle field. I, therefore, agree with the author for saying that every day they wonder if the bomb will explode on them. Making it through the day without experiencing the challenges of war, like being a victim of the bomb makes the soldiers spend some time talking about the day that they had and the crazy things that were during the day. This can be a good way that they use to relieve their tension. Careless group and those who do not take careful observations in their way during patrol can easily fall into the traps, and this can cause many deaths and injuries to the entire group. In conclusion, it is important to appreciate the sacrifice that the military group offers for the protection of the nation. In fact, without them there is little peace or even no peace at all there is little peace or even no peace at all. With their help, there is a better place to stay making life to be better.