Yemen Strikes May Target Top AL Qaeda Leaders Essay Example for Free

Yemen Strikes May Target Top AL Qaeda Leaders Essay Al Qaeda is a global militant Islamist organization founded by the late Osama bin Laden and Abdullah Azzam among other Islamic. It dates back to around August 1988-1989 in Peshwar in Pakistan. Its origins were traced to the Soviet War in Afghanistan. It operated as a network that comprised of both multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim revolution. This movement called for global jihad and implemented a strict interpretation of the Sharia laws. It was branded a terrorist organization by major organizations and countries in the world such as the United Nation Security Council, the European Union, NATO, the United States, and the United Kingdom among many other countries.               Al Qaeda functioned both on its own and through some minor terrorist organizations. The organizations that operated under the al Qaeda included Ayman al-Wawahiri’s Egyptian Islamic Jihad which was also known as el Gamaa Islamia. There were also other Jihad groups in countries such as Egypt, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia, Djibouti, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Pakistan, Croatia, Tunisia Lebanon, Albania, Philippines, Azerbaijan, Tajistan and the Hashmiri Region in India and Chechnyan in Russia. AL Qaeda kept cells and personnel in numerous countries to facilitate its operations including Kenya, Tanzania, the United States, Germany, United Kingdome, Malaysia and Canada. â€Å"Al Qaeda has no home base, but maintains cells in different countries in Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia† (Zalman) Objectives                  One of the ultimate goals of Al Qaeda was to fight off the United States armed forces out of Saudi Arabian peninsula and Somalia. They issued rulings on Islamic laws indicating that such action was proper and essential. Bin Laden led the AL Qaeda to oppose the United States for various reasons. First, they perceived the United States to have no faith because its governance was not as per their interpretation of the Islamic laws. The second reason was that they regarded the United States as a provider of vital support to â€Å"other infidel† nations and institutions. They particularly branded the Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel and finally the United Nations, as enemies of the Islamists organization. Third, Osama Bin Laden greatly contended the participation of the United States armed force in the Gulf war and operation Restore Hope in Somalia in 1991, 1992 and 1993 respectively. Above all, the presence of the American forces in the Saudi Arabian penins ula was with no doubt resented by the al Qaeda. Last but not least, the United States Government’s incredible resentment was owed to the arrest and conviction of the al Qaeda personnel or any member of their affiliate terrorists organizations. For these reasons, Osama Bin Laden led the al Qaeda to declare jihad, holy war, against the United States. He pursued this goal through all means possible. The al Qaeda made attacks on any nations or organizations allied to the United States.                Since 1988, when Al Qaeda was formed, â€Å"the organization has been credited with scores of terror attacks around the globe, which have resulted in the deaths of thousands of people† (National Geographic). Attacks in East Africa                   On 7th August 1998, well planned attacks were made on two American embassies in the East African countries of Kenya and Tanzania. In Tanzania, it is perceived by the authorities that a bomb was planted in a refrigeration truck which was later parked outside the United States embassy. It was unfortunate that these two embassies did not meet the recent strict measures that have been implemented. The attack on the Tanzanian embassy saw 11 people die and 86 more get injured. On the other hand the Kenyan bombing resulted in the deaths of 12 Americans, 213 Kenyan Citizens and had over 5000 casualties. One of AL Qaeda’s leaders, Al Libi, â€Å"was wanted for his alleged role in the deadly 1998 bombings of the two embassies in Africa† (CNN).               The aftermath of this attack was devastating and the United States in conjunction with the Tanzanian government sought to set up a new embassy. The United States impeached Osama Bin Laden as the core perpetrator of the bombing of these embassies. The united stated went ahead to offer a reward for five million dollars for his arrest and conviction.                   The United States government as devastated as it was plotted attacks on Sudan and Afghanistan. On 20th August 1998, the United States attacked Sudan and Afghanistan. It was alleged that the US targeted a chemical weapons producing plant, located in Sudan, with 13 cruise missiles. This only resulted to the deaths of the night guards. There has not been any substantial evidence that supports the attack and therefore it has come under extreme criticism. The attack on Afghanistan consisted of about 75 cruise missiles which targeted three separate terrorists’ camps and strongholds. This attack brought the deaths of 24 people but unfortunately failed in getting Osama Bin Laden. â€Å"The strikes were a response to an imminent threat to the U.S. posed by a terrorist network backed by Osama bin Laden† (CNN). Attacks in Yemen                   This is AL Qaeda’s first ever attack in its course. It is known as the Yemen Hotel Bombing of 1992. On the evening of the 29th of December 1992, a bomb went off at the Gold Mahur Hotel. This happened to be where the United States’ armed forces had been staying on their route to Somalia. Fortunately the troops had already evacuated the hotel at the time of the attack. Undeterred by any circumstances, the AL Qaeda went ahead to plot another attack. They targeted another hotel. They perceived that the American troops were staying in the Aden Movenpick. However, the bomb detonated in the hotel car park, ahead of time for their attack. The explosion led to the death of two Australian tourists. Osama Bin Laden and Mohamed Khan claimed responsibility for these attacks. Attacks in Jordan                In December 1999-2000, there was a plotted attack by the AL Qaeda to attack United States and Israelis tourists who had visited Jordan to celebrate the millennium. Conversely, authorities in Jordan disillusioned the plotted attacks and apprehended and convicted 28 suspects. This plot involved the bombing of the LAX but this was a complete failure for the AL Qaeda since the bomber, known as Ahmed Ressam was apprehended at the US- Canadian border with explosives in his car. The AL Qaeda did not stop at that. They planned an attack on the USS Sullivans on January the third in 2000. This failed because they put too much weight on a small boat that was to bomb the ship. Attack on MV Limburg                   The Limburg was loaded with 397,000 barrels, equated to 63,100 m3, of crude oil from Iran en route to Malaysia. It was attacked in the Gulf of Aden off Yemen where it was to collect another load of crude oil. The Limburg was registered under a French-flag. PETRONAS, a Malaysian petrol firm, had chartered the Limburg. At some distance offshore, a small boat loaded with explosives rammed the tanker on the starboard and detonated. The craft caught fire and estimated 90,000 barrels, equated to 140,000 m3 of crude oil spilled into the ocean. Yemeni authorities apparently claimed that the explosion was caused by an accident. However investigations showed traces of TNT on the wrecked vessel. In the incident one crew member was killed and 12 others were injured. According to BBC, Ahmed al-Darbi confessed to being responsible for this incident.                      The Battle of WanatOn July 13, 2008, AL Qaeda and Taliban guerilla fighters raged war on NATO troops. This occurred near Wanat, a village in Waygal district, in Afghanistan’ province of Nuristan. This battle has been branded â€Å"Black Hawk Down†. It was one of the bloodiest attacks in the war and one of the numerous attacks on remote outposts. In comparison to the preceding ambushes that were executed in a haphazard manner, this was well coordinated and executed. â€Å"American casualties included nine killed and 27 wounded, while four Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers were wounded† (Terrorists groups). Attacks on the United States                  On Tuesday September 11, 2001 a coordinated series of 4 attacks were launched on the US in the metropolitan area of Washington DC and in New York by the Al-Qaeda, a terrorist group of Islamic religion.                19 Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four passenger airliners. The purpose of hijacking the planes was so that they could be used for suicide attacks.                  Two of the planes, the United Airline flight 175 and also the American Airliners flight II were crashed into the south and north towers of the world trade center complex in New York City respectively. In two hours the two towers collapsed. The debris from the buildings and the fires partly of completely caused the collapse of the buildings in the world trade center complex and also caused damage to another ten large surrounding structures. The Rise                  The affliction of AL Qaeda on global is seemingly a long standing affair. Its beginning goes back decades to the modern-day establishment and conversion of a non-state armed group that has made it its purpose to create exceptional regional and international changes based on unnecessary use of brutal force for political motives. Apart from prompting domestic and foreign crises, the AL Qaeda focused specifically in adapting and prospering open-endedly as it sought new approaches. All along, it is in this perspective that the growth of AL Qaeda was planned for. This was a preordained way for the group to ensure it growth regardless of any setbacks from the very beginning. This isolated it from preceding and successive Islamists groups. On the other hand, traditional Islamist factions started to institute themselves through religious preaching, political sermons and particularly through networks of domestic social amenities.                   The first incarnation of AL Qaeda was to act as a welfare provider originating in the reinter state, Arabian Gulf. On the other hand its purpose was to apparently fight the Soviet Union in the 1980s, Jihad. The superiority of this underlying principle did not translate to a sudden halt of an unsatisfied local aim but somewhat the domestic contention to spill out to the external parties. From the perspective of a failed Arab and Islamic nation building, this faction sprang forth as a project with the combination of religion and politics. I was built upon: Relocation of authority; Outwitting the state; And the belligerent empowerment of a non-state actor.                  If in the beginning the swift propagation of the five regional depictions of the Al Qaeda were questionable, an added suggestion of the organization’s inspiring global reach and its ability to function in multiple nations long after War on Terror had been declared against it, it progressively occurred that the regional affiliates were significantly at variance and their link to the mother Al Qaeda was in some way unsubstantiated.                   Although in its first fifteen years it had been able to develop globally against vital odds; for each tactical loss, the Al Qaeda earned a strategic gain. This was demonstrated by: Retreating in Afghanistan but advancing in Iraq; Restricted leadership but had proliferating contacts; Abridged physical mobility but had global impact; Additional enemies but expanding recruits. The fall                  In the period between 2006 and 2011, AL Qaeda’s leadership had changed into a self-commandment, in due course offering only political, religious and military commentary, and not operational orders. Taking everything into account, what can be interpreted as a regionalization strategy of the Al Qaeda mixed up the global representation of the organization. The required elasticity the group embraced, partially voluntarily, partially as a way to adjust to the impending international anti-terrorism campaign, brought about an ever-growing distance with the already liberated divisions.                  Osama Bin Laden’s vanishing from Al Qaeda and also the War on Terror scene, for that reason, signified the end of the reign of the original faction established in Afghanistan. This opened a new chapter in which the regional authorizations will further sanction their existing independence. In so doing they will bestow the conflict with a new arrangement by diminishing terrorism among nations. War on Terror                  Previous efforts to put an end to this menace were somehow unsuccessful until May 2, 2011. O this day, a team of U.S Navy Seals with the help of the United States intelligence located the AL Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. He was found in Abbottabad in Pakistan, 31 Miles from Islamabad where he met his demise. On June 16 the same year, Ayman al-Zawahiri succeeded Osama Bin Laden but the fight against terror continues.                The war against terror is a global war. There have been numerous efforts to curb the AL Qaeda menace. The United States has shown great dedication in trying to bring justice to the crimes committed by this faction, the Al Qaeda. These efforts have included several military actions by the United States armed forces and other allied nations and institutions like the UK and the United Nations. Presently, there are ongoing various military operations against this terrorist faction. This operation either targets the faction directly or the affiliates of this faction such as the Al Shabaab in Somalia. Many countries have joined the war against terrorism. For example, according to Fox News, the Iraqi Government has announced that it is offensive on AL Qaeda. Yemen is also said to be targeting top AL Qaeda leaders, as Stated by CNN reporters, Jamjoom and Smith, write.                   The United States government has greatly contributed the gradual fall that AL Qaeda is undergoing. Military action is seemingly the way to go since these terrorists seem not to the get the hang of diplomacy. Presently, â€Å"prompted in part by a recent video that showed Al Qaeda leaders in Yemen openly taunting the United States, the CIA launched lethal drone strikes†(Dilanian). According to ABC News, even after two years when the United States withdrew its troops from Iraq, the US is still aid the Iraqi government to fight off the AL Qaeda faction. References Al Qaeda. Answers, n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2014. AL Qaeda Attacks: A Chronology. National Geographic, n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2014. Battle of Wanat 2008. Terrorist Groups, 8 Apr. 2008. Web. 26 Apr. 2014 Fast facts: The embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. CNN, 6 Oct. 2013. Web. 26 Apr. 2014. Guantanamo prisoner al-Darbi admits MV Limburg Attack. BBC, 20 Feb. 2014. Web. 26 Apr. 2014. Jamjoom, Mohammed and Smith, Matt. Yemen Strikes May Target Top AL Qaeda Leaders. CNN, 21 Apr. 2014. Web. 26 Apr. 2014. US Assisting Iraq in Fight Against Al Qaeda 2 Years After Troops Withdraw. ABC NEWS, 23 Jan. 2014. Web. 26 Apr. 2014.Zalman, Amy. Al Qaeda: Profile of Al Qaeda. About, n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2014. Source document

The Golden Rule :: social issues

The Golden Rule ‘The Golden Rule and The Greatest Good’ what can they do? It was around 4 pm that Tosin Olumito and I got to the main campus of Ahmadu Bello University Samaru, Zaria after a long journey from Ilorin, Kwara State. Our mission was to process our admission having finished the Interim Joint Matriculation board Examination of which we obtained a very good result. In Ilorin, we had been directed to a friend who was a student in the school to put us through and to offer us accommodation for timeous processing and efficient follow up of the admission but alas! The school joined the 6 months strike called by ASUU. We knew they were on strike, the news we heard was that admission had started and that they would soon called it off to join some of their colleagues who had called their student to resume without a definite announcement by ASUU, which they eventually did after a week that we got to the university. We tried and searched every nook and cranny of the university to locate the friend we were directed to until somebody nimbled us that the stude nt we were looking for had traveled. All hope shattered, we looked at each other amazingly, we were now left to carry our cross and look for a panacea to this menace. We couldn’t go to a hotel neither do we have relatives within the vicinity. Tosin has a relative in Kaduna, which is 45 minutes drive from Zaria. I alluded that she should go to Kaduna to locate her relatives, that I would find a way of harboring myself. She wanted to disagree having thought of the risk, which I would be exposed to. She insisted on knowing where I would be so that she could check the following day to inform me whether I should come also to Kaduna or not . I told her that I would not be able to afford the transport implication which could adversely affect my pocket money because I was left with a token that could last for few days apart from my fare to Ilorin. She was convinced. As luck would have it, I met and told a Hausa student our plague who introduced us to his friend – Suleiman Nuhu Bala, a final year Economics student who was at the time writing his project. Suleiman didn’t hesitate to

Alice Walker’s “The Welcome Table” VS Nadine Gordimer’s “Country Lovers” Essay

There was a time when racial and ethical issues were far more detrimental to one’s life than they are today. In the short stories â€Å"The Welcome Table† by Alice Walker and â€Å"Country Lovers† by Nadine Gordimer they tell of life during that time. Both authors were women born during a time of terrible racial and gender inequality. These two short stories share the similarities of theme, plot, some form, some of the content, and use of imagery and the differences of point-of-view, some form, some of the content such as characters and setting, and the style with uses of tone, irony, and symbolism. The Welcome Table was a story written about a black woman who was discriminated against by white people because of her race. She wondered into a white church and was thrown out by the white people. Country Lovers was a story written about a young black woman and a young white man who were together in a forbidden relationship because they were a different race. They would sneak and see each other when no one was paying attention. The theme of a story tells you what the story is about (Clugston, 2010). These two stories were written under the theme of race/ ethnicity. In the two stories it was very obvious what the theme was all about. They were written about racial inequality. The black African and African American races were both discriminated against by the white African and white American races. For whites and blacks to be together was like taking a bite of the forbidden fruit. The Welcome Table has a plot with conflict and crisis. Its plot is centered  on the conflict of racism. The elderly black woman, not realizing what she has done, wonders into the white church where she is not supposed to be. When she wondered into the white church, the white people were horrified. The only thing these white people could see when they looked at the old black lady was fear of the unknown. She symbolized the loss of control for them as well as the loss of privacy, which was a crisis, caused by the changes the federal government was making. In the reality of it all, it is quite a tragedy. In chapter 3.1 of Journey into Literature R.Wayne Clugston discusses this story. In paragraph 7 of the story the people in the church throw her out and tell her she is not welcome there. By the end of the story, the old lady is believed to have died to some, and to others she may have just went to visit family (Clugston, 2010). No one really knows. In Country Lovers the plot was also with conflict and crisis and was centered on racism. Paulus Eysendyck who was a young white boy and Thebedi a young black girl had fallen in love. While Paulus was away at school Thebedi had given birth to his child. Despite the fact that the baby was not his, Njabulo, Thebedi’s husband, took on the responsibility of taking care of Thebedi and the baby boy. When Paulus returned home from school he went to see the baby. It was such a horrible crisis when Paulus decided to murder the baby to keep anyone from finding out it was his. The Welcome Table was written in the form of a short story. It was ten paragraphs long. It was one that was somewhat of a tragedy. This story is filled with tragic moments. The elderly lady being thrown out of a church just because she was black was terrible. The biggest tragedy of all was that because of the racial issues of that time, nobody really knows or cares what happened to the old woman. It is sad to say that there was such times as these that people were so mean and cruel. Even though the biggest part of this story was tragic, it also had some positive moments. The elderly lady, despite all hers tragedies kept her eyes focused on Jesus. This enabled her to be happy and forget about all the bad things going on around her. This story was written to be enjoyed in an atmosphere of a single person reading it on their own. The story Country Lovers was also a short story. This story had approximately thirty two paragraphs. The formatting and wording made it somewhat longer in paragraph count. This story was also that of tragedy. There are many parts of the story filled with tragedy. The young children being pulled away from each other once they reached school age just because the color of their skin was different, was not right. The worst tragedy of all was that racial issues were so bad that one would kill their own child to hide what he had done because he and the girl were different races, and even worse, he actually got away with it. Despite the tragedy of racial inequality, the young girl and guy were in love. This was a happy moment. There was also some positivity when the other boy showed his love for the young girl by marrying her despite the child not being his. He loved her that much. Even though this was a short story written for the enjoyment of one reading alone, it could be converted into a play or possibly even a movie. In The Welcome Table, Alice Walker uses imagery to attempt to get the reader to paint a mental picture of different parts of the story. However, the most immediate forms of imagery are visual (Hill, 1995). In The Welcome Table, Alice Walker used imagery very well. When she described the elderly black lady she described her in great detail. She started by writing, â€Å"The old woman stood with eyes uplifted in her Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes: high shoes polished about the tops and toes, a long rusty dress adorned with an old corsage, long withered, and the remnants of an ele ¬gant silk scarf as head rag stained with grease from the many oily pigtails underneath. Perhaps she had known suffering. There was a dazed and sleepy look in her aged blue-brown eyes† (as cited in Clugston, 2010, ch.3.1 Alice Walker’s The Welcome Table, para.1).This description is an example of how imagery works. It gives just enough detail so that you can see the woman in your mind. In Country Lovers, Nadine Gordimer also uses imagery in an attempt to get the reader to paint a mental picture of different parts of the story. When Nadine Gordimer describes a moment between Paulus and Thebedi at the river bed she wrote â€Å"One summer afternoon when there was water flowing there and it was very hot she waded in as they used to do when they were children, her  dress bunched modestly and tucked into the legs of her pants. The schoolgirls he went swimming with at dams or pools on neighboring farms wore bikinis but the sight of their dazzling bellies and thighs in the sunlight had never made him feel what he felt now when the girl came up the bank and sat beside him, the drops of water beading off her dark legs the only points of light in the earth-smelling deep shade.† This too is a great use of imagery. Being aware of the point-of-view is important for different reasons depending on the point-of-view (Smith, n.d.). Both stories have a point-of-view of third-person, but one is third-person omniscient while the other is third-person objective. The point-of-view in The Welcome Table is third-person omniscient. Third-person omniscient is when the narrator uses multiple perspectives. The narrator knows what all the characters in the story are thinking and feeling, not just what they are doing throughout the story (Hill, 1995). By writing the story this way it gives it a more meaningful point of view. It shows that the author can put herself in every characters position and know exactly how they feel. The point-of-view in Country Lovers is third-person objective. In third-person objective, the narrator is not a character in the story and reports on events and lets the reader supply the meaning (Hill, 1995). In this story Nadine Gordimer tells the story of a forbidden love. She does not assume any perspectives from the characters. The Welcome Table did not have many characters. The two main characters were the elderly black lady and Jesus. The other characters were the ladies in the church, the reverend, the young usher, the husbands, and the black families. There were a few silent characters that the old lady symbolized in the eyes of the white church people. They were cooks, chauffeurs, maids, mistresses, and children denied. This story used most of its focus on the elderly black lady and Jesus throughout it. The other characters played a very small role. In Country Lovers the two main characters were Paulus Eysendyck, a young  white boy and Thebedi, a young black girl. A third character who was of some importance was Njabulo, Thebedi’s husband. There were a few other characters as well. They were the farm children which consisted of the white and black children as a whole. Other characters were Paulus’ sister, father, and mother as well as Njabulo’s parents and Thebedi’s parents, and Paulus and Thebedi’s baby. The men and women who lived in the kraal, the police, judge, defense, and other court people were also characters in this story. Although there were many characters, most of them were silent characters. Thebedi and Paulus were the ones who had most of the dialogue. The Welcome Table was set in America in the south during the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement. Blacks and whites were segregated everywhere. They could not even share the same church. This was an issue that the federal government was working on changing. The white people did not like this idea at all. They felt it threatened their way of life. In the story Country Lovers it was set in South Africa on a farm during a time of apartheid when white and black Africans were forbidden to be together once they reached the school age. Apartheid was the socioeconomic system that oppressed the majority black population in South Africa (Clugston, 2010). It was a time when the black people were used liked slaves for the white people. They were only permitted in the white people’s homes when they were working. Other than that, it was forbidden. When writing a story one thing that is portrayed in the writing is the tone. Tone is the implied attitude towards the subject (Hill, 1995). It identifies the authors approach to the subject (Clugston, 2010). In the beginning of The Welcome Table there was a tone of solemn and somber. In other words it portrayed a dark, gloomy type of atmosphere. It started out saying the old black lady was walking down the road all alone. It described her as an old forgetful woman nearly blinded with age. It described her skin by its color being that of poor grey Georgia earth. The story says she stumbled into the white church unaware and forgetful that she was not supposed to be there. In the end of the story the tone, in the eyes of the old black lady changed somewhat. The old lady sees Jesus and things become brighter and happier.  The darkness and gloom go away for her. She knows everything is going to be alright. The choice of tone for this story was used to help the reader be able to feel what the story was all about. It enabled them to have more of an understanding of how the story was to be portrayed. In Country Lovers the tone was somewhat different. In the beginning of the story it had a tone of great emotion. It starts out light and playful talking about the farm children all playing together despite the fact they are of different race. Then it moves on later with a tone of excitement in a forbidden love. It was a love between a white boy and a black girl. They were young and in love. They had no negative feelings or fear toward one another. Country Lovers was written with a little bit of irony. Ironic tone is developed when a writer creates a discrepancy or contradiction between what is expected to happen in a story and what actually happens (Clugston, 2010). In the beginning when Paulus and Thebedi were so in love and would not allow the racial issues to stop them it appeared that they were going to fight for one another, but that is not how the story ended. It ended with a tone of sadness for the loss of the child’s life. Paulus took the life of his own child to hide the wrong he and Thebedi had committed by being together in a forbidden love. The tone choice for this story was chosen to help the reader put themselves into the story and feel the love that these children shared despite their difference in race. It also allowed the reader to see just how serious of a situation the story depicted. It kept them on the edge waiting for more. The Welcome table used a lot of symbolism. The title alone symbolized heaven. The old lady would be welcomed into Heaven without any issues. There was no racial or gender discrimination in Heaven. Jesus was another symbol. He represented equality, freedom, peace, and salvation. Through Jesus the elderly black lady escaped her pain caused by racial and gender discrimination. She stayed focused on Jesus so that she could keep the peace in her heart. He was her escape, her Salvation. The Welcome Table and Country Lovers were both great stories. They were both written about hard times in life caused by racial and gender inequalities. They were written by two amazing authors. Both authors, although they shared some of the same situations, were very different people. They come from two very different ways of life. Alice Walker was from America and the Nadine Gordimer was from South Africa. Alice Walker was born in Eatonton, Georgia in 1944. She was the daughter of a sharecropper. She was actively involved in many civil rights movements. She married a white civil rights lawyer named Melvyn Roseman Leventhal and moved to Jackson, Mississippi in 1967. They were the first interracial couple legally married in the town (Clark, n.d.). She completed her degree in 1965 from Sarah Lawrence College. She has taught gender studies courses at Wellesley College and began one of the first gender studies programs in the United States (Clugston, 2010). Racial and gender issues form the center of her literary work and her social activism, which included participation in civil rights demonstrations led by Martin Luther King Jr. (Clugston, 2010). Most of the stories written by Alice Walker are about poor oppressed black women in the 1900s (Rozakis, 1999). She writes stories dealing with the multitude of African American racial, and sexual discrimination, and poverty in America. Not only does she write short stories, but she also writes poems and novels as well. She is best known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel â€Å"The Color Purple† (Clugston, 2010). Nadine Gordimer was born in Springs, South Africa in 1923. Springs, South Africa was a gold-mining town east of Johannesburg. She was born of two Jewish immigrants. Her father was born in Lithuania and her mother was born in England. She saw her father as a racist and her mother as a woman who sought to do good for blacks in the nearby towns (Parekh & Jagne, 1998). From age eleven until age sixteen she was privately tutored at home and sheltered from her peers. Because of being confined to life with only her parents Gordimer became involved with reading and writing (Parekh & Jagne, 1998). She has been publishing stories since she was fifteen. She won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1991. Two of the biggest influences in Nadine Gordimer’s life and her writing were the apartheid and her affiliation with the multiracialism of Sophiatown of the 1950s (Parekh & Jagne, 1998). She was actively involved with black writers, artists, and critics. She was also involved with Drum magazine. She witnessed many historical tragedies in the 1950s and 1960s. Some of them were the Sharpeville massacre, the 1960 treason trial, and the incarceration of Nelson Mandela. In the mid-sixties, Gordimer, in support of her black colleagues, published her study of black South African writing, â€Å"The Black Interpreters† (Parekh & Jagne, 1998). She has been writing for roughly fifty years. The life that she grew up in was an inspiration to most all of her writings. Both The Welcome Table and Country Lovers were very moving short stories. They shared a theme as well as similarities with plot, part of the form, some of the content, and use imagery. They had differences with part of the form, some of the content, characters, setting, point-of-view, and style using tone, irony, and symbolism. Both Alice Walker and Nadine Gordimer were great authors born in a time of racial inequality. Alice Walker was born an African American woman in the south of America and grew up during the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement. Nadine Gordimer was a white woman born in South Africa and grew up during the apartheid. Their struggles and hardships in life molded them into the great writers they became. Their lives inspired their works. References Clugston, R.W., 2010, Journey into literature, Bridgepoint Education, Inc. San Diego, CA. Retrieved from: https://content.ashford.edu/books/AUSENG125.10.2/sections16.2 Hill, M., 1995, Literary Analysis: using elements of literature, Roane State Community College. Retrieved from: http://www.roanestate.edu/owl/elementslit.html Rozakis, L.E., 1999, The complete idiot’s guide to American literature, Alpha Books, Indianapolis, IN. Retrieved from: http://site.ebrary.com.proxy-library.ashford.edu/lib/ashford/doc Smith, D., Fiction lectures, Odessa College, Odessa, TX. Retrieved from: http://www.odessa.edu/dept/english/dsmith/fiction_lectures.htm Parekh, P.N., Jagne, S.F., 1998, Postcolonial african writers, Greenwood Press. Westport, CT. Retrieved from: http://site.ebrary.com.proxy-library.ashford.edu/lib/ashford/doc Clark, T., Alice walker, University of North Carolina Pembroke. Pembroke, NC. Retrieved from: http://www.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/canam/walker.htm

Can Crickets Really Tell You the Temperature Outside

True or false: Crickets chirp faster when its warm and slower when its cold, so much so, that crickets can be used as natures thermometers? As wild as it sounds, this is one piece of weather folklore thats actually true! How a Crickets Chirp is Related to Temperature Like all other insects, crickets are cold-blooded, meaning they take on the temperature of their surroundings. As temperature rises, it becomes easier for them to chirp, whereas when temperature falls, reaction rates slow, causing a crickets chirp to also diminish. Male crickets chirp for multiple reasons including warning off predators and attracting female mates. But the sound of the actual chirp is due to a hard rigid structure on one of the wings. When rubbed together with the other wing, this is the distinctive chirp you hear at night. Dolbears Law This correlation between air temperature and the rate at which crickets chirp was first studied by Amos Dolbear, a 19th century American physicist, professor, and inventor. Dr. Dolbear systematically studied various species of crickets to determine their chirp rate based on temperatures. Based upon his research, he published an article in 1897 in which he developed the following simple formula (now known as Dolbears Law): T 50 ((N - 40) / 4) where T is temperature in degrees Fahrenheit, and N is the number of chirps per minute. How to Estimate Temperature from Chirps Anyone outside at night listening to crickets â€Å"sing† can put Dolbears Law to the test with this shortcut method: Pick out the chirping sound of a single cricket.Count the number of chirps the cricket makes in 15 seconds. Write down or remember this number.Add 40 to the number of chirps you counted. This sum gives you a rough estimate of the temperature in Fahrenheit. (To estimate the temperature in degrees Celcius, count the number of cricket chirps heard in 25 seconds, divide by 3, then add 4.) Note: Dolbears law is best at estimating temperature when tree cricket chirps are used, when the temperature is between 55 and 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and on summer evenings when crickets are best heard. See Also: Animals Creatures that Predict the Weather Edited by Tiffany Means