Essays on Dictatorships

US Foreign Policy and Latin America During the Cold War

The Alliance for progress was a multi billion dollar aid program that was devised by the Kennedy administration to foster economic relations with Latin America and also thwart the growth of communism in the region in the aftermath of the cold war. The Alliance for Progress was a result of the cold war between the USSR and the US, the Cuban revolution and the US fear that communism could take root in a region that was poor, unstable and economically underdeveloped. Latin America was largely colonized by the Europeans and the relation between the US and the continent was ...

Introduction

No doubt this nation has suffered greatly in the recent past and its staying power has been challenged to its limits, chief among them the insurgency of Boko HaramBoko Haram will soon know the strength of our will and commitment to rid this nation of terror we shall spare no effort until we defeat terrorism (Buhari cited in Associated Press, 2015b)). The above quotation is from the first speech of the newly elected President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari. Buhari knew exactly what he was saying, when put tackling Boko Haram as the first issue of his agenda (Associated Press, ...

The documentary, Dealing With A Dictator, aired on 12th February 2016 on CBC’s program ‘the Fifth Estate’ (CBC News). Produced and directed by Scott Anderson, the documentary was meant, in Scott’s view, to give investigative insight into the goings-on between the Eritrean government and Nevsun, a Canadian mining company. The film’s topic “Dealing With A Dictator” alludes to the county’s leadership, which does not exercise democracy and how it forces investor companies into business deals. Mr. Scott Anderson is of the belief that the Eritrean government made a sinister deal with Nevsun, and, therefore, Nevsun ...

Organization and Development for Progressive Social Change

Organization and Development for Progressive Social Change

Introduction

Organizing a large chunk population based on a concrete social, religious, or economic issue can bring breakthrough changes. During the course of time, people in different parts of the world has recognized that if they want to bring a major changes in the social fabric of the society, the collective power of the societal members is of sheer significance. The recent Arab Spring is the major example in this case. The segment of the world, which was ruled by a selected set of rulers for many decades was suddenly challenge by the society and it brought ...

INTRODUCTION

When the average person thinks of ancient Rome the first thoughts that often come to mind are the immense columns and marble architecture synonymous with the era, they imagine the power and wealth of one of the most successful Empires of its time or they see it is as the modern epicenter of, the Christian religious denomination, Catholicism for the bulk of the world. However, the history of Rome is not just a story of arts, architecture, wealth, decadence or religious locale; it is also a story of immense wars, dictatorships, religious intolerance, mass conquests, a number of bloody wars, shifting religious ...

The world portrays certain patterns in the way contemporary issues arise. These patterns are only reasonable since issues arise and spread within a certain region before extending to the rest of the world. Furthermore, many families, nations and communities share common beliefs, laws, economic and political predicaments among others. Such matters as ecological concerns also affect certain groups of people who live in a similar resource endowed region. Therefore, matters such as climate change or environmental conservation are concerns for the entire community. Issues such as international terrorism and proliferation of nuclear war are also matters of concern to the global ...

Introduction

The Internet is known for its vast access to information. However, not all kinds of information are suitable for viewing and reading by all kinds of audiences. Content containing such information tend to offend the beliefs and disturb the impressions of users. Thus, it has become a practice by website owners and web administrators alike to conceal specific kinds of information, explained or unexplained, in a move currently known as censorship. Censorship, however, is not a viable means of preventing websites from offending and disturbing users, as such could result to the misrepresentation of information that can be deceiving to them. Given ...

The military controls much of the political and economic state of Egyptian affairs. Throughout history, the images of Egypt's revolution show that the Egyptian military supported the civil disobedience in Tahrir Square. The recent events in Egypt show that Egyptian military forces maintain opposition to terrorism. Some Egyptians believe that the Muslim Brotherhood can gain unity amongst the Islamic countries in the future and create a united country and free Palestine. However, the fall of Hosni Mubarak, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), brought the military body to avow a peaceful conversion of authority within a democratic system. This fact ...

Introduction

Haiti is a western hemisphere country in the Caribbean, which is located on the western side of the Hispaniola Island. The republic of Haiti gained its independence from the French in 1804. However with all the natural resources endowment and a huge labor base, Haiti is the poorest country in the region with the most unstable government. On 12th January 2010, Haiti was hit by a massive earthquake of a magnitude of 7.0. The earthquake’s death toll was more than 250,000. Most of the residential and commercial buildings were damaged severely or destroyed. The infrastructure was crippled, and the provision of ...

Lauri Laker. Arab Spring and Social Media Technology. 2013. Web. 10 May. 2014. The article “Arab Spring and Social Media Technology” written by Lauri Laker describes the role of social media in social awakening of Arab youth in the Arab peninsula. The writer has covered different aspects of Arab spring including the phases of a revolution. In the article, the writer has projected the social media as a force to be reckoned with, as it has helped overthrowing number of dictatorships and monarchies during the Arab Spring. The article is a related to the given topic of Arab spring and highlights ...

Introduction

Just like a celebrity, the ideas of Benedict Anderson need no introduction. The scholar, theorist and modern philosopher holds the most peculiar ideas about nationalism. Benedict believes that the nation is an imagined community based on the absence of some factors. On the contrary, Partha Chatterjee believes that there was a big difference between the form of nationalism in Asia and Africa, and that in European countries. Partha Chatterjee argues that the main differences lie in the forces and reasons behind such nationalism. Worth mentioning is that nationalism is defined by the same metrics by the two scholars, but the reasons ...

In The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism (2010), Naomi Klein found numerous examples of how the United States imposed a system of free trade, free markets and laissez faire capitalism on the rest of the world over the past forty years, through manufacturing crises to impose ‘shock treatments’ and structural adjustments on Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and Eastern Europe, or simply taking proper advantage of a crisis that was already underway. She calls the many “orchestrated raids on the public sphere in the wake of catastrophic events, combined with the treatment of disasters as exciting market ...

Machiavelli was a master of political philosophy. Although born in 1469, for hundreds of years after writing his most famous work “The Prince”, Machiavelli’s works are still relevant to current political issues (Machiavelli). Some feel that his works illustrate the evils of dictatorship. The acquisition of power and the substantiation of power are the focus of his writings. “The Prince” was one of the first works to distinguish between dictatorships as a constitutional institution of the republic. Absolute monarchies are generally not regarded as dictatorships, since power exists in traditional legitimacy. Yet whenever an absolute monarchy violated the customary ...

As a mining country, the history of Bolivia has been quite long. During the Colonial period, the Spanish Empire had the good fortune of having huge amounts of silver because of the Cerro Ricco de Potosi mine where it was produced for more than 400 years (Fields). Although silver continued to be mined in Bolivia throughout the years, however, silver was also found along with it as well. At the hindmost part of the silver mining process during the Colonial period in Bolivia, vast amounts of tin were discarded as waste. Ever since then, thousands of Bolivians were forced by ...

Power and Prosperity: Outgrowing Communist and Capitalist Dictatorships is a highly acclaimed book written by Mancur Olson. The author has modishly associated the economics with the social and political systems in this book. Mancur Olson is a famous economist and American academician who is known for his innovative ideas and contributions in the economics. This paper discusses author’s ideas and other related aspects of the Power and Prosperity: Outgrowing Communist and Capitalist Dictatorships. Olson represents his thoughts in a very different and logical form, he says that when a wandering bandit robs, he takes everything but when a stationary bandit robs, he ...