From slavery to freedom Essay Example for Free

From slavery to freedom Essay Ironically, Fredrick Douglas all but snatched the Emancipation Proclamation from Abraham Lincolns hands to make of its flat rhetoric a sharpened call for freedom and equality. Douglass had never regarded the ending of slavery as enough, either for himself or for his people; it had to be the beginning of an embrace of the black individuals fullness as a person, a beginning that would point straight toward an end, within quick reach. â€Å"For Douglass, each gain in the struggle, and the Emancipation Proclamation decidedly was one of the greatest, simply meant that America must move on to the next gain. † (Mcfeely, 1991) Douglasss commitment to abolitionism, black elevation, and womens rights outstripped his commitment to other social reforms. His major social reform passions black liberation and womens liberation underscored his egalitarian humanism. The logic and motivation for his social reform odyssey derived essentially from his quest for morality, order, and progress. Even though his interrelated social reform enthusiasms were integral to his vision of a moral, orderly, and progressive civilization, he nonetheless evinced a keen sense of the need for priorities among them. (Martin, 1984) In retelling his journey from slavery to freedom in the middle of the decade, less than a year after the Cleveland emigration convention, Douglass was responding implicitly to the arguments of Delany and other pro-immigration supporters that in the foreseeable future blacks would remain slaves, or de facto slaves, in the United States arguments that would appear to have gained added currency with the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. Central to Douglasss continued hopefulness about blacks prospects in the United States, despite such obviously negative developments, was a renewed commitment following his 1851 break with Garrison to the informing ideals of the nations original revolutionary documents. In many ways during this period, Frederick Douglass became the prototypical American success: a peerless self-made man and symbol of success; a fearless and tireless spokesman; a thoroughgoing humanist. The most striking and enduring aspect of Douglasss heroic legacy in his day its classic, even archetypical aura has persisted down to the present. Although often viewed and used differently by others, the heroic and legendary Douglass clearly personifies the American success ethic. The key to his eminently evocative essence is twofold. Douglass’s influence had a far reaching affect. In April 1855, Uriah Boston, a prominent figure in the black community of Poughkeepsie, New York, wrote a letter to Douglass in reference to his newspaper. Boston expressed concern over the increasingly separatist tone of prominent black abolitionists like William J. Wilson and James McCune Smith. Responding to pieces they had written in the black press, Boston criticized the two for â€Å"urging the colored people to preserve their identity with the African race. † He feared that any claim of distinct national identity on the part of black people might lend credence to â€Å"the propriety and necessity of African colonization†Ã¢â‚¬â€the dreaded scheme of the American Colonization Society. For Boston, blacks could never constitute a nation within the nation. â€Å"You cannot mix nationalities,† he wrote. â€Å"No man is a proper citizen of one certain country while he claims at the same time to be a citizen of any other country. †

Ancient Greece :: Ancient Greece Greek History

Ancient Greece This paper tells you about the Golden Age of Greece, which is from 500 to 350 BC. It tells about what Greeks did, who they worshipped, and other important things. The thing the Greeks are best known for, is their gods, and stories about them. The stories explained how things became. For instance, one story said that before the earth was made, there was a fight between a god, and a giant. The god killed the giant, and the parts of the giant became the earth. His teeth became the rocks, and his hair became the grass. His hands and feet became mountains, and his toes and fingers became trees. Some of the gods were Zeus, who was the ruler of all the gods, Hera was his wife, and Hermes was his messenger. Artemis was the goddess of the moon, and Apollo was the god of the sun. Poseidon was the god of the sea, Loki, the god of mischief, and, Dionysus, the god of wine. The Greeks, made sacrifices to the gods, so that the gods would honor them, and help them in times of trouble. They sacrificed animals, and other things that were special to them. The Greeks built temples, where they worshipped the gods. Each city had several temples, because each temple was used to worship one god. In each temple, there was a statue of a god that they worshipped. They had an extra big temple, and statue for the god that guarded their city. The Greeks had lots of heroes, who were like role models for their children. Hercules was the strongest man ever, and destroyed many monsters with his strength. Perseus had killed a monster called the Medusa. If someone looked at it, they would immediately turn to stone. Oddysseus beat the Trojans in the Trojan war, and on his way home, with his cunning, tricked, and killed many monsters. The Greeks are also known for their creativity, and knowledge in arts, such as making sculptures, music, and paintings. They made statues out of clay, gold, silver, and bronze. For instruments, they used harps and flutes. The Greeks had houses like us. All the houses had a kitchen, an eating nook, and a bedroom. The richer families had rugs, and decorations, such as vases, paintings, and tapestries. They also had a courtyard in the middle of the house, and in the courtyard was a well.

Human condition and the passage from innocence to experience Essay

In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley reflects her views on the faults and weaknesses of human beings and the disasters these imperfections can cause through the personalities and actions of the characters in the novel. The results of the characters personalities and actions show how significant certain undesired traits can be. Through the journeys of the individual characters Mary Shelly shows how we, as human beings, develop in the path from innocence to experience. Surprisingly, the majority of Shelley’s obvious criticisms are divulged through the ‘hero’, Victor Frankenstein. Frankenstein is used to fulfil this purpose in a multitude of ways: In her 1823 Introduction, Mary Shelley suggests that Victor’s main crime is his presumption in displacing God. The works of Milton could have inspired this; by way of her parents, he would have been a natural choice of inspiration for Shelley. Milton believed that power corrupts human beings and distrusted anyone who could claim power over anyone else. Therefore, Frankenstein does wrong in claiming power over the monster’s life by creating him. We see a change in Victor’s views on this subject; at the beginning of the novel Frankenstein is fixated with the idea of creating a new being from the remains of dead people and bringing this new being to life by means of electricity. As the novel develops, through his experiences he begins to see the true repercussions of his actions and finally sees the magnitude of what he has done in his thoughtlessness (innocence. ) This can also be seen as an attack on human nature. As the creature opens his eyes for the first time, facets of Victor’s character become revealed. Whereas the read expects Victor to reflect the joy of having finally received his goal, his reaction is on of horror: â€Å"now that I have finished, the beauty of the dream has vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart. † While one may assume that his repulsion is due to the physical appearance of the â€Å"wretch† (p56), Victor had created the monster and knew very well what the creature looked like before it awoke. Therefore, his terror seems to represent a sort of subconscious self-vision. This could be Shelley’s way of criticising how we can become clouded by ambition and do not realise the consequences of our actions until it is too late. Towards the end of the novel Victor has learnt from his experiences and realises what the possible consequences could be of creating a companion for the monster. He knows the destruction of the female monster could result in his own death but for once he is selfless and takes responsibility. Unlike his first venture, he is thinking of the greater-good rather than his own happiness. In the beginning of the novel we see the development of Victor’s ambition from healthy to obsessive. Fired by his enthusiasm during his first experiments, he imagines how â€Å"A new species would bless me as its creator and source†¦ No father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I should deserve theirs†(p54). A possibly interpretation here would be to presume that this is a criticism of man’s belief that he is indestructible and he can thus take on the role of God and do whatever he likes. This could have sprung from the death of Mary’s mother; human beings believe themselves to be all-powerful and virtually invincible but they cannot avoid death. On the other hand, perhaps the crime upon which Shelley focuses is not what he does, but what he fails to do: nurture his creation. Victor’s ambition and achievement may be heroic, problems only occur in his inability to bear responsibility for his creation. In Brannagh’s film interpretation, Frankenstein’s soul motivation for the creation of the monster is to ‘cheat’ death (possibly an honourable purpose which would not suggest that Shelley meant Victor to be disliked). However, in the novel, there is no evidence to suggest that this is the case. Frankenstein is also portrayed to wish to undermine the power and position of women. By this we see him rebelling against the ‘normal family unit’ and the responsibilities that belonging to such a unit entails. This could be interpreted as a fear of the natural process of birth, possibly echoing Shelley’s own mixed feelings towards childbirth. First pregnant at sixteen, and almost constantly pregnant during the next five years, Shelley lost most of her children soon after they were born. Victor’s â€Å"workshop of filthy creation† (p55) may have ‘womb-like’ suggestions. Following this argument, Helen Moers likens the description of the newly created monster to that of a newborn baby in her book ‘Female Gothic. ‘ Shelley also uses Frankenstein, and his failure to comply with social expectations in his creation of his creature, to criticise society on many different levels. When Frankenstein gives life to the monster, he is so disgusted with its appearance and its deviation from a normal human being that he rejects and abandons it. This reflects how society shuns anyone or anything that does not conform to their idea of ‘normality. ‘ This particular criticism probably sprung from Shelley’s up bringing. With two revolutionary parents, Mary Shelley was certainly not born in to a conformist family. A particular example of this is the fact that Mary Shelley’s parents were not married. At the time this would have been virtually unheard of in decent families. Mary was possible criticised by her peers as having radical parents, or being bullied because her parents were not ‘normal. ‘ She shows her anger at their ignorance by showing Victor be uncaring, and leading the reader to sympathise with the monster rather than his cruel creator. After the conviction of Justine we see a possibility that Victor will admit to being responsible for the death of Justine. However, he is cowardly. He claims Justine to be innocent, and claims to know William’s murderer but does not confess. Again, it is his failure to act that results in disastrous consequences. However, by announcing his faith in Justine’s innocence we are endeared to him. Shelley used this to show us how he improves with the experience he gains. Towards the end of the novel the monster requests that Frankenstein grant him a companion to end his misery. We see a blinker of sympathy and consideration for the monster in Victor at this point. He has improved himself slightly by this point. When the monster makes his proposition, Frankenstein actually considers with the monster. We can, therefore, see that by this point he becoming prepared to reason with the monster like an equal. We begin to think he is going to take responsibility for his actions by taking pity on the monster. After all it cannot be forgotten that the monster could have honoured his promise and disappeared with its mate, thus preventing the death of Clerval, Elizabeth and possibly Victor’s own father. But on the destruction of the female monster’s body Victor fails to take true responsibility and virtually caused the deaths of Clerval and Elizabeth. Again, his experience has made improved him, almost to the point where he could redeem himself of the crime that is abandoning what is effectively his child. At the end of the novel, although Victor’s dying wish is that the deaths of his loved ones be avenged, we can see how his journey has changed him. His last expressed feelings are that of fatigue and exhaustion. This shows how Shelley hopes human beings will become tired of their flawed ways of thinking and learn from their experiences. In a direct contrast, the monster’s passage from innocence to experience only produces negative results. In spite of his unnatural creation, the monster can be seen to symbolize a new start. However, as he proceeds with his education, as he moves from nature to culture, the monster learns more and more about the injustices of society. He learns about human emotions and comes to desire compassion and love but is rejected on account of his repulsive physical appearance. He masters language, but language fails him; rather than allowing his entry into human society as he had hoped, it only serves to make him more fully aware of his unique origin and alien nature. His education is part of what makes him miserable. It is only when he is exposed to, and suffers from the viciousness of human society that he himself begins to demonstrate violent behaviour, to act as the monster his appearance suggests him to be. What I perceive to be the monster’s most vicious act is the murder of Elizabeth on Victor and Elizabeth’s wedding night. Without his primitive human emotions he would never have known what he was missing out in a female companion. With his experiences with the DeLacey’s he saw how strong the family unit could be and felt even more bitter when he was rejected. Without such knowledge or experience he would never have had the determination to enact such a terrible crime. It is his human emotions that finally cause his misery to consume him at the end of the novel. When Victor dies, the monster if found by his body crying. This is a common human characteristic; in most cases, even if two people did not get along well in life or had not spoken in years, if one is to die, the other forgets the past and exonerates their dead friend, acquaintance or family member by mourning their loss. They regret things that they may not have said or done, and wish they could turn back time to put things right before the other passed away. It is the monster’s sadness at the death of his creator and his regret for the events of the past that finally consume him and tear from him his desire to live. Without these human emotions, the monster may not have destined himself to such a tragic end. It could be argued that Shelley was criticising the power of human emotions and the negative results they can produce. As I mentioned before, Shelley lost many of her children, this must have caused her great depression misery. These may have affected her ability to live her life; thus, she may have been suggesting that if she could have been less humane, her life may not have been as miserable. In conclusion both the monster and Frankenstein show Shelley’s feelings towards human behaviour, how we learn from our experiences, and how we deal with things in the future. However, it is arguable whether she is intending to show that knowledge or ignorance is bliss through he contrasting passages of Frankenstein and his creation.

Establishment Of Capital Markets In Least Developed Countries Finance Essay - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 4 Words: 1154 Downloads: 7 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Finance Essay Type Argumentative essay Did you like this example? Today most economy around the globe are judged by the performance of their capital markets. Capital markets can play a significant position in the growth of economy and success of nations. Most of the African nations including those in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have in recent times under gone financial area reforms such as streamlining and privatizing of nation owned banks and establishment of capital markets. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Establishment Of Capital Markets In Least Developed Countries Finance Essay" essay for you Create order In literatures there are many different views on the bond between the establishment and the development of capital markets and of economic growth and prosperity of a country. The other arguable issue in the literature is the vital role of institutions towards the economic growth of nations in general and to the performance of capital markets in particular. North (1996) showed that, differences in economic institutions are the foremost sources of cross-country differences in economic growth and prosperity. High quality institutions have optimistic influence on the deepness and progress of the financial sector of nations. Stallings and Studart (2006), institutions are even more important with respect to the capital markets, where the concern of confidence is crucial. This research proposal will primarily check with the literature about the relationship between capital market establishment and development and economic growth and the responsibility that institutions play in capital markets and attempt to identify and relate these to the Rwandan context. In the most developed capital markets, households are the key participants as investors. Saunders and Cornett (2004) claimed that in the U.S, households are the sole largest holders of business stock (holding 38.4 percent of all corporate stock outstanding in December 2001). But, the capital markets of less developed nations are very small-minded in terms of capitalization because of a restricted number of listed companies and narrow parti cipation of households (savers) this is either due to lack of competence or lack of knowledge as to the capital markets. Thus this research will as well examine the impact of the households (savers) in the capital markets in less developed nations in Africa including Rwanda. 1.2 Problem Discussion Regardless of a surge of international investor interest in the 1980s and 1990s, the African countries have been bypassed by the immense global capital flowing to developing countries. Cumulative capital flows to the developing nations have been rapidly greater than official development support flows since 1980s. But, Africa remains the emergent region in which development backing flows exceeds private capital flows (Senbet and Otchere, 2006). This was primarily attributed to the lack or absence of well developed financial sectors and the deprived business policies and institutions in African countries. Capital markets are an imperative part of an economy making it promising for industry, trade and business to develop without any hindrance in terms of capital. The capital markets serve a vital purpose in the growth and development of a company that wants to expand. For such companies with expansion plans and new projects in need of funding and investors looking for a better return, t he financial market is the best platform. The private sector usually lacks access to credit facilities. Investment, growth and economic welfare are all too low in developing countries. This is more severe in Africa, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa (Platt, 1998). Most African countries, particularly those in Sub-Saharan Africa, have recently undergone extensive financial sector reforms. The reform package includes restructuring and privatization of state owned banks, the introduction of private banking systems, along with bank supervisory and regulatory schemes, the introduction of a variety of measures to promote the development of financial markets; including money and stock markets (Senbet and Otchere, 2006). Rwanda is one of the African countries that were engulfed for years severely with economic and political problems. Currently Rwanda has no proper capital market, though; it established a capital market in 2003. The Rwanda economy is not still doing anything good. A small number of economies in Africa and those in Asia and Latin America had performed well. There are many different factors that accelerate economic growth of a nation. Economic sector reforms such as establishment and development capital markets are thought to be one of the foremost variables to accelerate the financial growth of a nation. Given the existing economic policy, legal form of businesses the banking sector and institutions, the business communities, can Rwanda embark on the establishment of a capital market? Are there feasible conditions that can be justifiable to do so? Are there competent institutions in which confidences of the stock market participants depend on? worldwide organizations like International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) as part of an effort of economic sector liberalization are pressuring Rwanda and many other African nations to privatize the state owned banks and establish stock markets so as to incorporate with the rest of the globe. This research will draw closer the conclusions and recommendations to establish a stock market in Rwanda, if there are feasible conditions that can be justified to do so. 1.3 Problem Statement Both economic markets (mostly capital markets) and institutions were coined by several commentators as to their relevant role and significance to the financial growth and success of nations. In developed financial markets such as in U.S. households (savers) are the foremost participants in the capital markets (Saunders and Cornett, 2004). Will this part of participants have a positive impact in the development of capital markets in less developed countries? What about in Rwanda? The purpose of this proposed research is primarily to consult with the Existing literature and will find out: whether capital market establishment in the least developed nations such as Rwanda is an alternative towards the economic growth and development. The responsibility of institutions toward the establishment and development of capital markets and whether capable institutions exist in Rwanda to get on the establishment of capital markets or not. Whether households savings will make a genuine/real impact on the overall performance, liquidity, and market capitalization of the capital markets in least developed African nations (with or without capital markets) or not. 1.4 Statement of Purpose The main purpose of the study/research will be to examine and review the literature on whether capital market establishment leads to the economic growth and development of least developed countries and what impact will institutions have on the performance of capital markets? 1.8 Research Method A research method can be quantitative or qualitative. the quantitative method is based on statistical observations and aims at generalizing a phenomenon through formal analysis of the selected data. The qualitative method is mostly characterized by descriptions instead of statistical data and intends to create a general understanding of the topic being studied. This research will use qualitative approach to deal with the 1st and 2rd research questions and for the 3rd research question, qualitative and to some degree quantitative approach. Part of this research will be conducted based on the existing literature (both theory and empirical studies) on the establishment and development of capital markets in least developed countries as well as on Institutions.