The Banishment of Chinese Lepers essays

The Banishment of Chinese Lepers essays The banishment of Chinese lepers to D'Arcy Island was an incorrect decision based on both ignorance and racial prejudice. The conflict between the Chinese lepers and the government could have been solved better, in a different way. The Chinese lepers were treated very poorly, violating their basic civil rights. The government of both Victoria and Canada turned a blind eye upon the Chinese, and leprosy in Canada. Ignorance among Canadians was a major factor in the mistreating of the Chinese lepers. People knew very little of leprosy and believed that even being near a leper gave them the chance of contracting the disease themselves. In fact, only 10% of the Canadian population in the late 1800s had any chance of contracting leprosy. Little research was done on this disease, mostly due to fear, and all lepers that were discovered were immediately shunned and shipped away. Racial prejudice toward all those who were not British was also a factor in the poor treatment of the lepers. Plus, most of the lepers discovered in Canada were Chinese immigrants. The British thought of the Chinese as inferior, and treated them very poorly. Many of the Chinese were unemployed and lived in very poor conditions, the perfect breeding ground for a disease like leprosy, after that, all Chinese immigrants were checked for leprosy, and treated poorly. The leper colony on D'Arcy Island was found upon racism and prejudice. British Canadians diagnosed with leprosy were sent to Tracadie, NB. There was a hospital there for lepers. Resident nurses, doctors, and cooks treated the white lepers. But the Chinese lepers sent to D'Arcy Island had to face very poor living conditions. Crates of supplies were brought over once every three months, and the doctor who came did brief examinations, only staying to count the remaining lepers. Even Chinese lepers found in Toronto and Montreal were shipped to D'Arcy Island, even though Tracadie was much clos...

A Definition of the Nguni Word Ubuntu

A Definition of the Nguni Word Ubuntu Ubuntu is a complex word from the Nguni language with several definitions, all of them difficult to translate into English. At the heart of each definition, though, is the connectedness that exists or should exist between people. Ubuntu is best known outside of Africa as a humanist philosophy associated with Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Curiosity about the name may also come from it being used for the open source operating system called Ubuntu. Meanings of Ubuntu One meaning of Ubuntu is correct behavior, but correct in this sense is defined by a persons relations with other people. Ubuntu refers to behaving well towards others or acting in ways that benefit the community. Such acts could be as simple as helping a stranger in need, or much more complex ways of relating with others. A person who behaves in these ways has ubuntu. He or she is a full person. For some, Ubuntu is something akin to a soul force - an actual metaphysical connection shared between people and which helps us connect to each other. Ubuntu will push one toward selfless acts. There are related words in many sub-Saharan African cultures and languages, and the word Ubuntu is now widely known and used outside of South Africa. Philosophy of Ubuntu During the era of decolonization, ubuntu was increasingly described as an African, humanist philosophy,  Ubuntu in this sense is a way of thinking about what it means to be human, and how we, as humans, should behave towards others. Archbishop Desmond Tutu famously described ubuntu as meaning My humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound up, in what is yours.1 In the 1960s and early 70s, several intellectuals and nationalists referred to ubuntu when they argued that an Africanization of politics and society would mean a greater sense of communalism and socialism. Ubuntu and the End of Apartheid In the 1990s, people began to describe Ubuntu increasingly in terms of the Nguni proverb translated as a person is a person through other persons.2 Christian Gade has speculated that the sense of connectedness appealed to South Africans as they turned away from the separation of Apartheid. Ubuntu also referred to the need for forgiveness and reconciliation rather than vengeance. It was an underlying concept in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the writings of Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu raised awareness of the term outside of Africa. President Barack Obama included mention of Ubuntu in his memorial to Nelson Mandela, saying it was a concept that Mandela embodied and taught to millions. Endnotes 1 Desmond Tutu: A Personal Overview of South Africas Truth and Reconciliation Commission No Future Without Forgiveness,  Ã‚ © 2000.2 Christian B.N. Gade, What is Ubuntu? Different Interpretations among South Africans of African Descent. South African Journal Of Philosophy 31, no. 3 (August 2012), 487. Sources Metz, Thaddeus, and Joseph B. R. Gaie. The African ethic of Ubuntu/Botho: implications for research on morality. Journal Of Moral Education 39, no. 3 (September 2010): 273-290. This article expands upon the definition of Ubuntu published by Alistair Boddy-Evans

News Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 3

News Analysis - Essay Example A tabloid newspaper will have celebrity gossip on the front or cover page while a quality publication will have political news or news about a scandal on its front page. Different newspaper publications focus on different conventions (Bignall, 2007, p. 19). As a result, it is vital to decipher the signage within a news story across a range of news publications (Culler, 2011, p. 21). The aim of this exercise is to analyze the different codes and their effects on the perceived meaning of a story. This essay will analyze three newspapers: the Daily Mail, Daily Mirror and The Times. The story that will be studied focuses on a meeting between French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron at a summit in 2012. National publications carried the story the following day, on February 18. 2012. In the Daily Mail, the story was reported by Daniel Martin under the title, â€Å"Le Snub Forgiven and Forgotten as Cameron cosies up to Sarko and Backs Him for French Election†. Tom McTague of the Daily Mirror reported the story under the title, â€Å"The Reservoir Duds: Cameron, Clegg and Hague Play the Toff Guys at French Summit†. The Times had a heading that read, â€Å"A pat on the back and lots of handshakes as the entente gets embarrassingly cordial†. This story is important because the newspapers covered the story from different perspectives. The three newspapers demonstrate the interpretations of publication news conventions. Two months before the two leaders met, President Sarkozy expressed his reservations towards David Cameron because he vetoed a European Treaty for dealing with the financial crisis. The financial crisis was hurting a number of European economies. The President refused to acknowledge Cameron, and the two leaders could not shake hands (McTague, 2012, p. 1). The second meeting during the Paris summit was a makeup exercise as the two leaders hugged and talked freely. In my opinion, the story would have been front page news had