Is globalisation detrimental to African morality? Discuss

This
question is difficult to answer because its terms are somewhat vague. "Globalization"
is a popular term most frequently used to describe the expansion and integration of the world
economy beginning in the final decades of the twentieth century. However, economic connections
between different parts of the world can be said to date back much earlier, to the days of the
transatlantic slave trade, or at least to the European colonization of Africa in the nineteenth
centuryto name two historical events of profound importance to African life.

While Africa is simply too large and diverse a geographic area to be said to have a
single moral system, it is possible to make at least some preliminary statements about the
relationship between the moral ideals of a society and major trends of history that have
impacted that society. Colonialism, for example, certainly had effects on all aspects of African
civilization, in the realm of ethics and morals as well as politics and economics. Similarly,
the political shifts of decolonization and national independence that African societies
underwent in the decades after World War II, as the continent undertook its own leadership in
the form of modern nation-states, shifted the frames of reference for both powerful elites and
millions of ordinary people in many regions of Africa. Some traditional societies remained
largely untouched by these trends, while others saw drastic changes to their ways of life,
structures of governance, and cultures. Economic globalization, bringing the material goods and
mercantile values of the Western world more deeply into the day-to-day life experience of
individuals (at least in the continent's urban centers) may simply deepen this long-term
displacement of cultural traditions.

By taking note of the historical context
described above, it may be possible to answer the stated question by attempting to define one's
understanding of "African morality" and relate it to the broad changes in the
contemporary world invoked by the phenomenon of "globalization."

I need help with a good thesis statement on forgiveness.

For a
simple five-paragraph essay, forgiveness can be an unwieldy concept. Its the same as writing an
essay on the meaning of love: impossible to do well in less than five hundred words, unless you
connect forgiveness to a very tangible, concrete situation.

Have you recently
read any novels (for school or outside of school) that connect to the theme of forgiveness? If
your high school or middle school reads The Kite Runner, you could connect
Amirs guilt over his failure to protect Hassan from violence, and its repercussions twenty years
later. If your school reads any memoirs, like Marjane Satrapis Persepolis
or Elie Wiesels Night, you could discuss how each work's author/
forgives/doesnt forgive their persecutors.

Have you thought about writing a
thesis statement on a current issue? For example, you could easily research the idea of
forgiveness as it relates to debates over the death penalty, or in an even more recent current
event, the forgiveness extended by the family members of those murdered in the Charleston
shooting.

Start with this link to NPR to research the death penalty debate.
http://www.npr.org/2015/04/22/400445794/debate-is-it-time-to-abolish-the-death-penalty

Explore the idea of renunciation and self-sacrifice expected from women€”for instance, implicit in the sentence "don't feel bad about giving up"€”in...

The renunciation of the
self that is expected of women in the community described in this text is implicit. The main
speaker never tells the girl she speaks to that the girl is expected to be self-sacrificing: it
is implied by the way the speaker addresses the girl, as well as by so many of the directives
she offers. The main speaker rarely allows the girl to get a word in edgewise and barely
acknowledges whatever the girl says to her, if at all. It is as though the narration nearly
erases the girl's voice totally. Further, the main speaker shows the girl things like how to
"iron [her] father's khaki shirt so that it doesn't have a crease," as well as how to
"iron [her] father's khaki pants so that they don't have a crease." Instructions like
these make it clear that the girl is there to serve the man in her life: as she is still young,
this man is her father. Even directions regarding how to "smile to someone you don't like
very much" and "how to smile to someone you don't like at all," show that, no
matter what, girls are expected to smile and be courteous, even when they strongly dislike the
other person. The girl's feelings toward the other person are relatively unimportant: she still
has to smile, regardless.

When the main speaker instructs the girl on how to
"love a man," she says, "and if this doesn't work there are other ways, and if
they don't work don't feel too bad about giving up." This is notable because the speaker
never describes the love the girl should expect from a manwhat she ought to
look for in terms of her own satisfaction, fulfillment, and even pleasure. This implies that her
satisfaction, fulfillment, and pleasure are unimportantnot even worthy enough to be mentioned.
Only the man's feelings are important here. This is another example of the self-sacrifice
required by women in this society.

In the book The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, what are readers' expectations about the story? How can I express a personal connection to this book as...

You have
asked an interesting two-part question here!  First of all, a reader experienced with 's
writings probably has very high expectations in regards to the story of . 
You see, Sebold's first book was actually a memoir of her own rape.  The book was called
Lucky because Sebold herself was told (according to Wikipedia) that she was
"lucky" not to have been killed because another young woman of a similar age (18) was
both killed and dismembered in the same tunnel where Sebold was raped.  Through this memoir,
Sebold herself says that she wished to bring "more awareness to rape."  She certainly
did. 

Anyone who read Sebold's memoir would wonder whether Sebold would
continue to explore this subject in the context of .  She does.  Upon first glance, a title like
The Lovely Bones immediately brings a murder to mind.  One wonders whether
Sebold was considering the "unlucky" woman from her previous memoir while devolping
the character of Susie Salmon.  Considering Sebold's memoir won awards, the expectations were
high for her second work. 

Sebold did not disappoint.

The
second part of your question implies that many readers, perhaps, did NOT know of the high
expectations involved (perhaps not even knowing about Sebold's first memoir).  In that case, the
expectation would most likely be that this is a story about a beautiful young girl who is both
murdered and somehow reduced to bones.  This is true, although ironically not what the title
fully means.  Why a young "girl" instead of "man"?  Because young men are
usually not referred to as "lovely."  Why "murder" instead of, let's say, a
medical school skeleton specimen?   Hmmmm, just a guess.

Further exploring
the second part of your question, you should ask yourself a few questions:  Have you ever been
afraid of being raped?  Have you ever been afraid of being murdered?  Have you ever been afraid
of losing your life too soon?  Have you ever known someone, a certified "loner," who
kept apart from society and aroused suspicion?  Have you ever experienced the variety of ways
people can deal with the loss of a loved one (different ways of expressing grief)?  My answers
to those questions are going to differ from yours.  For me, my personal connection to the novel
is the absolute horror and fear of the same thing happening to one of my daughters.  This
connection makes Susie Salmon's murder scene absolutely unbearable to me.  Your answer will
depend on your response to the above questions.

In "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" by Jonathan Edwards, what are specific similes and metaphors used in the sermon to persuade?

uses the
emotional appeal of fear to persuade his audience that they should turn to God. A first way he
does this is through the image of hell. He does this in athat suggests hell is a burning pit of
fire that God holds his people over and is ready to drop them at any moment:

O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in: it is a great
furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath, that you are held over
in the hand of that God, whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you, as against
many of the damned in hell.

You can see this is also
a metaphor of hell to mean a furnace... it must be hot.

A good is in this next quote:

The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one
holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully
provoked.

Both of these quotes paint a picture of God
that is mean as if He wants to doom people to hell. If I were in that audience at that time and
heard Edwards utter this fire and brimstone sermon, I think I would have been fearfully
persuaded too.

 

 

How can ethnocentrism have an impact on the success of an international manager?

Ethnocentrism
would have a very negative impact on the success of an international manager.  Ethnocentrism is
the general belief that your own ethnic group is better than other groups.  An international
manager would be badly hurt by this belief because they would tend to look down to some extent
on people from other cultures or ethnic groups.  They would have a hard time getting along with
such people because their attitudes would probably end up being communicated in one way or
another.  They would have a hard time accepting feedback or taking comments from people of other
ethnicities because they would not really take those people seriously.

In
other words, an ethnocentric international manager would not work at all well with people from
other ethnic groups.  Since an international manager must by definition work with such people,
an ethnocentric manager would not be likely to succeed.

Why is the narrator afraid to answer the door when he hears tapping in "The Raven"?

The
narrator is alone at midnight on a bleak December night, and he has been reading quaint and
curious forgotten lore. When he suddenly hears a tapping, it naturally frightens him. He is also
somewhat unnerved by the rustling of his purple curtains. There is very little light inside his
room. Most of it is coming from the dying embers of his fireplace and from
"lamp-light" by which he has presumably been reading. What really frightens him is his
own imagination. He imagines that it might be a ghost outside, the ghost of his deceased loved
one . When he stands peering into the outer darkness without finding any human being there, he
frightens himself still further by "dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream
before." These dreams, or fantasies, have to do with the possibility that Lenore, though
dead, has come back to visit him in answer to his prayers. He whispers the question,
"Lenore?" He must be feeling more and more certain that he is being visited by a
supernatural spirit. He is eventually relieved to discover that the tapping was only made by a
bird which apparently was a tame pet that had somehow gotten free and was seekiing shelter in
another human habitation.