Global Problems :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Global Problems and Non-Governmental Organizations Paper Women’s Issues The topic that I chose for this paper is women’s issues. Throughout history women have been struggling for equality and recognition. Today we have just about reached our goal. In order to maintain this equality, organizations were created to keep women and men involved in the issues that pertain to women today. In my essay I will discuss the actions of two large non-governmental organizations that deal with women’s issues. I will also add my opinion on certain issues and discuss how they are important in today’s society.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The first organization that I chose to research is called Face To Face. â€Å"The mission of Face To Face is to give voice to the millions of women who were denied basic human rights and freedoms.† The goal of Face To Face is to increase global awareness that women’s rights are infact human rights.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Some of the issues that Face To Face deals with are HIV/AIDS awareness, family planning, female genital mutilation (FGM), maternal health, and population. The organization gives people the opportunity to voice their problems and learn about the rights that are available to them. They are also given suggestions on how to take care of their problem or if the case, where to take care of their problems. For example, in Africa, millions of women a year undergo female genital mutilation against their will because of custom and tradition. The African government doesn’t even take a stand on FGM, but â€Å"Face To Face lets women know that the women in Africa do have the right to personal security including freedom from domestic and war violence and sexual coercion.† I feel that this is an extremely important aspect of the organization. Since To Face is an international organization, they have the power to reach all different types of women with all different types of issues and are able to assist them to understand the details of their situation.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Face To Face calls on celebrities to represent them so that women will recognize that even celebrities can relate to their issues. This is a good idea because many women, especially adolescents look up to some celebrities as role models. It helps the organization to become widely known and gives it the ability to inform more people on the issues currently affecting women all over the world.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Face To Face takes action by creating programs such as advertising campaigns, exhibitions, television documentaries and ballets.

Comic books Essay

Comic books established themselves as an independent media in which story abides its own rules; progression of story follows by specific use of frames sequences and their composition. Judging by the structure of comic books and graphic novels we can see many similarities with other medias, like movies adaptations of comic books and just movie itself. However, we cannot deny distinctive differences of these two medias. Films have their own perception and flow of time and so do graphic novels. Both make an impact by using their own way of storytelling. But what media is better for telling stories when it comes to movie adaptations of comic books? For me idea to bring comic book story to big screen has its drawbacks and benefits. Beside obvious part of movie – sound, some movies benefit from original visual style of their source material, movies like Sin City, 300 and Dick Tracy, which makes them striking due to the film’s â€Å"moving image† feature. Or other way around, for example, when film director like Tim Burton applied his own visual style while producing Batman, which was supported by bizarre and eccentric characters like Joker and The Penguin and by Gotham itself. Same with Guillermo Del Toro and his adaptation of Hellboy. But my position is that comic book movies are not that sophisticated in comparis on with their original material, but only if consider that original material were stand alone graphic novels like â€Å"Watchmen†, â€Å"V is for Vendetta†, â€Å"Sin City† e.t.c. But at the same time, films based on mainstream pledge of comics industry like â€Å"X-men†, â€Å"Spider-man†, â€Å"Batman† and so on, in some cases, don’t really fall that far behind from their comic book versions. To show that we can examine several movies that were filmed based upon graphic novels and break them down by categories of what make comics to be â€Å"comics† and then compare. â€Å"Comics†¦juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or to produce an aesthetic response i the viewer† (Scott McCloud, â€Å"Understanding of comics†) Starting from obvious – comic books are collections of static images, therefore the way how reader perceives information depends on the way how comic book artist manipulate these visuals. In Scott McCloud’s book â€Å"Understanding of Comics† author tells us about how comic books use our understanding of events by executing specific transition of â€Å"frames† like scene to scene, action to action or aspect to aspect. We cannot also overlook â€Å"the graphic style† of a certain comic book, which also plays a major role in storytelling. In addition, â€Å"composition† of these two particularly taken elements is what holds all imagery together to create a specific narrative, on each page separately and jointly. Sin City is a very visual example, both on comic pages and on screen. Creators of this movie, including author of original Sin City (Frank Miller), captured the strongest feature of comic book – black and white imagery with some coloured elements, grotesque characters and, in some parts, shots were borrowed from comic book panels. â€Å"Some of the stills from the film look so much like frames of the comic book as to make no difference. And there’s a narration that plays like the captions at the top of the frame, setting the stage and expressing a stark existent ial world view.† (Roger Ebert) One of examples of it is scene where Marv kills priest in confessional booth, it was transferred frame by frame from comic book page. This scene, in my opinion, is the closest in representing comic book way of narrative in movie. Because sequence of original frames are â€Å"action to action† has almost similar pacing with movie, despite difference in executing them, when in comic book it is shown on one page and in movie it is a movement of frames. Sin City is a good example of a very well transferred material from one media to another, but mostly because material is much more stylised than, for example, Watchmen where style is used more as a supporting tool: â€Å"The actors are mined for the archetypes they contain; characters are rotated into a hyperdimension. We get not so much their presence as their essence; the movie is not about what the characters say or what they do, but about who they are in our wildest dreams.† (Roger Ebert) Visually movie does not inferior to original work, even though comic images look much bolder and it supports character’s design and make scenes look much more organic, when in movie you still see that actors are just actors and that is where audience has to use their suspension of disbelief: â€Å"a willingness to suspend one’s critical faculties and believe the unbelievable; sacrifice of realism and logic for the sake of enjoyment† (Samuel Taylor Coleridge) But we cannot say that Sin City is completely original work, it obviously borrows a lot of elements from older comic books, such as â€Å"The Spirit† or â€Å"Dick Tracy† and from films of 30-40’s. Element such â€Å"crawling shadows† was used intensively in many frames and added a lot to every scene were characters casted shadows on their surroundings. This shows that comics are not that different from movies, in terms of what they are showing to viewer, but form of comics media is what makes it unique and substantive: â€Å"each successive frame of a movie is projected on exactly the same space – the – screen – while each frame of comics must occupy a different space†¦space does for comics what time does for film!† (Scott McCloud) That being said, from example of Sin City we can say that graphical features are not that hard to reproduce in movie where stylisation is a major feature, same with frames. However, composition of the whole page works completely differently from films and that is where adaptations fail at reproducing comic books’ form. Another example of graphic novel adaptation is Watchmen created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. When Sin City is much more stylised story, Watchmen is much more about context and themes. As graphic novel it uses every opportunity that is given to it as comics media. One of the most interesting is composition of frames throughout the novel, Movie adaptation of Watchmen does not show given themes in the same way like original version does, simply because it doesn’t have this ability like â€Å"page composition†, and even if tried to use it might have ruined the form of film media. As an example, running theme of Rorschach’s mask, which changes its pattern constantly. Dave Gibbons and Alan Moore created layouts that are symmetrical and in the middle of the book you can find this symmetry as well, and not just randomly placed, but used in the scene where Rorschach is being interviewd by psychiatrist with Rorschach test. In movie, though, we could not see this additional narrative, despite film director’s (Zack Snyder) attempts to recreate other visuals of Rorschach’s theme, like some silhouettes of symmetrical images, mostly in scenes where characters die. Speaking of Rorschach’s mask in terms of representation in both versions: in comic book mask was changing, but due to media of comics, we could only see specific patterns, which were deliberately drawn as something straightforward to emphasise what character was going through, or just like vague patterns as audiences’ personal test, especially when Rorschach was facing towards reader in close ups. This ingenious way of creators to establish once again comic book’s media and their understanding of it proves that comic books form will always take advantages to use its’ own limitations for creating something very unique for its media. In movie version constant moving of pattern doesn’t let concentrate on it long enough before it replaces by another pattern. Although there is one pattern that can tell what is Rorschach’s mood is at that moment – scene Rorschach’s ambush by police forces. His mask creates crosses on his eyes which is effective but less original than ideas from comic book.

Biography of William Walker, Yankee Imperialist

William Walker (May 8, 1824–September 12, 1860) was an American adventurer and soldier who served as president of Nicaragua from 1856 to 1857. He tried to gain control over most of Central America  but failed and was executed by firing squad in 1860 in Honduras. Fast Facts: William Walker Known For: Invading and taking over Latin American countries (known as filibustering)Also Known As: General Walker; the grey-eyed man of destinyBorn: May 8, 1824 in Nashville, TennesseeParents: James Walker, Mary NorvellDied: September 12, 1860 in Trujillo, HondurasEducation: University of Nashville, University of Edinburgh,  University of Heidelberg, University of PennsylvaniaPublished Works: The War in Nicaragua Early Life Born into a distinguished family in Nashville, Tennessee, on May 8, 1824, William Walker was a child genius. He graduated from the University of Nashville at the top of his class at the age of 14. By the time he was 25, he had a degree in medicine and another in law and was legally allowed to practice as both a doctor and lawyer. He also worked as a publisher and journalist. Walker was restless, taking a long trip to Europe and living in Pennsylvania, New Orleans, and San Francisco in his early years. Although he stood only 5-foot-2, Walker had a commanding presence and the charisma to spare. The Filibusters In 1850, Venezuelan-born Narciso Lopez led a group of mostly American mercenaries in an assault on Cuba. The goal was to take over the government and later attempt to become part of the United States. The state of Texas, which had broken off from Mexico a few years before, was an example of a region of a sovereign nation that had been taken over by Americans before gaining statehood. The practice of invading small countries or states with the intention of causing independence was known as filibustering. Although the U.S. government was in full expansionist mode by 1850, it frowned on filibustering as a way to expand the nations borders. Assault on Baja California Inspired by the examples of Texas and Lopez, Walker set out to conquer the Mexican states of Sonora and Baja California, which at that time were sparsely populated. With only 45 men, Walker marched south and promptly captured La Paz, the  capital of Baja California. Walker renamed the state the Republic of Lower California, later to be replaced by the Republic of Sonora, declared himself president, and applied the laws of the State of Louisiana, which included legalized slavery. Back in the United States, word of his daring attack had spread. Most Americans thought Walkers project was a great idea. Men lined up to volunteer to join the expedition. Around this time, he got the nickname the gray-eyed man of destiny. Defeat in Mexico By early 1854, Walker had been reinforced by 200 Mexicans who believed in his vision and another 200 Americans from San Francisco who wanted to get in on the ground floor of the new republic. But they had few supplies, and discontent grew. The Mexican government, which could not send a large army to crush the invaders, nevertheless was able to muster up enough of a force to skirmish with Walker and his men a couple of times and keep them from getting too comfortable in La Paz. In addition, the ship that had carried him to Baja California sailed off against his orders, taking many of his supplies with it. In early 1854, Walker decided to roll the dice and march on the strategic city of Sonora. If he could capture it, more volunteers and investors would join the expedition. But many of his men deserted, and by May he had only 35 men left. He crossed the border and surrendered to American forces there, never having reached Sonora. On Trial Walker was tried in San Francisco in federal court on charges of violating United States neutrality laws and policies. Popular sentiment was still with him, however, and he was acquitted of all charges by a jury after only eight minutes of deliberating. He returned to his law practice, convinced that he would have succeeded with more men and supplies. Nicaragua Within a year, Walker was back in action. Nicaragua was a rich, green nation that had one great advantage: in the days before the  Panama Canal, most shipping went through Nicaragua along a route that led up the San Juan River from the Caribbean, across Lake Nicaragua and then overland to the port of Rivas. Nicaragua was in the throes of a civil war between the cities of Granada and Leon to determine which city would have more power. Walker was approached by the Leon faction—which was losing—and soon rushed to Nicaragua with some 60 well-armed men. Upon landing, he was reinforced with another 100 Americans and almost 200 Nicaraguans. His army marched on Granada and captured it in October 1855. Because he was already considered supreme general of the army, he had no trouble declaring himself president. In May 1856, U.S. President  Franklin Pierce  officially recognized Walkers government. Defeat in Nicaragua Walker had made many enemies in his conquest. Greatest among them was perhaps  Cornelius Vanderbilt, who controlled an international shipping empire. As president, Walker revoked Vanderbilts rights to ship through Nicaragua. Vanderbilt was enraged and sent soldiers to oust him. Vanderbilts men were joined by those of other Central American nations, chiefly Costa Rica, who feared that Walker would take over their countries. Walker had overturned Nicaraguas anti-slavery laws and made English the official language, which angered many Nicaraguans. In early 1857 the Costa Ricans invaded, supported by Guatemala,  Honduras, and El Salvador, as well as Vanderbilts money and men. Walkers army was defeated at the Second Battle of Rivas, and he was forced to return once again to the United States. Honduras Walker was greeted as a hero in the U.S., particularly in the South. He wrote a book about his adventures, resumed his law practice, and began making plans to try again to take Nicaragua, which he still believed to be his. After a few false starts, including one in which U.S. authorities captured him as he set sail, he landed near Trujillo, Honduras, where he was captured by the British Royal Navy. Death The British already had important colonies in Central American in British Honduras, now Belize, and the Mosquito Coast, in present-day Nicaragua, and they did not want Walker stirring up rebellions. They turned him over to Honduran authorities, who executed him by firing squad on Sept. 12, 1860. It is reported that in his final words he asked for clemency for his men, assuming the responsibility of the Honduras expedition himself. He was 36 years old. Legacy Walkers filibusters had a significant impact on southerners interested in maintaining slave-owning territory; even after his death, his example inspired the Confederacy. Central American countries, by contrast, saw their defeat of Walker and his armies as a source of pride. In Costa Rica, April 11 is celebrated as a national holiday to commemorate Walkers defeat at Rivas. Walker has also been the subject of several books and two movies. Sources The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. â€Å"William Walker.† Encyclopà ¦dia Britannica, 1 Mar. 2019.Levrier-Jones, George. â€Å"Man of Destiny: William Walker and the Conquest of Nicaragua.† History Is Now Magazine, 24 Apr. 2018.Norvell, John Edward, How Tennessee Adventurer William Walker became Dictator of Nicaragua in 1857: The Norvell Family origins of the Grey-Eyed Man of Destiny, The Middle Tennessee Journal of Genealogy and History, Vol XXV, No.4, Spring 2012