British Punk Movement Causes

British Punk Movement Causes Was the Punk movement in Britain merely a working class response to the advent of Thatcherism and free-market ideas? Im in love with Margaret Thatcher; that is what the Notsensibles ironically sang, or let us say yelled, in 1979 (Im in love with Margaret Thatcher). Maggie, Maggie you cunt! added violently the Exploited in 1985 (Maggie, Horror Epics). The corpus of songs written on, or rather against, Margaret Thatcher is quite extensive, not only during the Punk years, which is not surprising since she was the only British Prime Minister in the 20th century to win three consecutive terms-May 1979, June 1983 and June 1987. At the time of her resignation in November 1990, she was Britains longest continuously serving Prime Minister since 1827. During the eleven years she spent at number 10, the change of style she imposed on British politics and economy was tremendous to the extent that to some commentators there was no turning back (Jones et al. 666) and it would be a euphemism to say that nobody remained unconcerned about Mrs Thatchers revolution. No wonder then, that between the Punks wearing their leather jackets, smoking sixty cigarettes a day and staying up all night on speed (Savage 133), and the dressed up to the nine woman from Grantham, who was an Oxford educated Conservative and a Methodist, the clash was inevitable. That is the reason why it is chiefly interesting to ask the following question: Was the Punk movement in Britain merely a working class response to the advent of Thatcherism and free-market ideas? In other words, is it possible to relate to a major shift in politics one of the most famous, aggressive, contradictory, and yet ephemeral phenomenon of British popular culture? If such a question might appear quite obvious given the contemporaneousness between the emergence of the Punk culture-or subculture-and Thatchers rise to power, it will nevertheless require a balanced answer. Indeed, one of the key elements of our analysis will be, first, to take a closer look at the sociopolitical context in order to break the stereotypes. We will then be led to wonder whether the message conveyed by the Punks was rather concerned with a certain type of society at large. Finally, we will observe that the artificiality of Punk music and its merchandising definitely challenges the so-called proletarian revolt against a new political and economic order. There is nothing easier but to systematically oppose Thatcherism and the British Punk movement since they approximately emerged at the same time. Margaret Thatcher had become leader of the Conservative Party in 1975 and had begun formulating her own brand of Tory policy while the following single from the Sex Pistols-probably the most famous and influential Punk band in Britain-was released in November 1976: Anarchy in the UK (Savage 563). Nevertheless, that would be forgetting that most of the social strain had been accumulated under the Callaghan-Labour-government: By July 1975, England was in recession. The unemployment figures for that month were the worst since the Second  World  War . . . . Not only had output shrunk, but public spending had risen to 45 per cent of the national income, and was threatening to unbalance the whole economy. (Savage  108) Dave Laing, in One Chord Wonders, analysed the subject-matter of the lyrics on the debut albums of the first five punk groups to achieve prominence in 1976-7 (27) and very interestingly concluded that the overwhelming number . . . of social and political comment lyrics came from the first Clash album [The Clash] (29). That proves that social (economic, political, etc.) preoccupations were already there before Margaret Thatchers first premiership, before a truly Thatcherite government was ever established. Therefore, the idea according to which the Punk movement would be a mere response to Thatcherism is being challenged quite importantly here. We have used the word Thatcherism several times already, but what does it really mean? An attempt to define what that could be might prove very useful to our analysis. According to Overbeck: Thatcherism is a reasonably coherent and comprehensive concept of control for the restoration of bourgeois rule and bourgeois hegemony in the new circumstances of the 1980s . . . The central elements in the Thatcherite concept are the reorientation of Britains foreign policy and the redefinition of its place in the world; its attack on the position of the trade unions and the Labour Party (Thatcher aims to eliminate socialism as a serious political force); the restructuration of the role of the state in the economy; and finally a reordering of the balance of power between different fractions of capital in Britain. (in  Jessop  et  al. 3) That long definition seems to establish Thatcherism as a political theory, an ideology, such as Marxism for instance. Nevertheless, most modern commentators share the . . . view that Thatcherism does not represent a coherent ideology (Evans 2). Indeed, as Peter Riddell reminds us: the [first] Thatcher administration has not followed a pure free-market or monetarist programme, though strands of both have clearly been important (6). He suggests another definition: Thatcherism is essentially an instinct, a series of moral values and an approach to leadership rather than an ideology (7). We have to leave there the definitional considerations for it would be too long to go through all of them-full books have been written on the matter-but it was interesting to point those out because since some specialists argue that there is no such thing as Thatcherism, we could have a hard time trying to prove that the Punk movement in Britain merely was (or was not) a working class response to it. As far as the working class is concerned, when one reads the lyrics of Maggie, a song by the Exploited we have already alluded to in our introduction, it is true that it clearly refers to its financial difficulties: Twenty five quid to live on, seven days a week to survive! Five and twenty pictures of the queen! You wont see the starvation in her eyes! Twenty five quid to dish out and youre already ten in debt, so with fifteen singles left over the landlord gets the rest! Maggie, Maggie you cunt! Maggie, Maggie you cunt! Maggie, Maggie you cunt! Maggie, Maggie, Maggie, Maggie you fucking cunt! Twenty five reasons for trouble! Three million mouths to feed! Theyre destroying your mind and body while they increase their own needs. Twenty five quid of insult! Two meals soon kills your health! They want to see you suffer! They want to see you dead! (Horror Epics) Indeed, despite the end of the recession in 1982, unemployment continued to rise [and] reached a peak of 3.2 millions in 1985 and the cost of unemployment benefit . . . on those in work continued to increase (Evans 29). One of the government counter-measures was to ma[ke] it less easy to qualify for unemployment benefits (op. cit.). But, nevertheless, if we take a look at the structure of the popular vote in the 1979 and 1983 general elections we observe that the working class-a shrinking category-vote swung from the left to the right. This is a phenomenon called dealignment, which Peter Dorey defines as such: the changing allegiance and electoral behaviour, particularly with regard to identification with, and regular support for, a political party (154). The reasons for dealignment are numerous and we cannot go through all of them here but let us just say that, among other things, the crisis had brought on a great uncertainty about the future and that Labour was not trusted anymore to solve social issues. Furthermore, Mrs Thatchers law and order policy was appealing to people living in poor and unsecure areas. As a result, Labour . . . witnessed its working-class support fall to 50 per cent in 1979 (and to 42 percent in 1983) (Dorey 155). Finally, British punk bands political orientation was ambiguous: La semaine oà ¹  «Ã‚  God Save the Queen  Ã‚ » sortit, les Sex Pistols furent simultanà ©ment accusà ©s dà ªtre communistes, anarchistes et mà ªme dappartenir au National Front (Chastagner 80). Thus, it was hard to see who they were fighting for-but themselves. Moreover, as Laing points out: Right to work by Chelsea was one of the best known of the early punk songs. Its title echoed the slogan of a left-wing campaign against the rising jobless totals of the mid-1970s. But though the song is a protest about standing around just waiting for a career, its diagnosis of the cause of unemployment was impeccably right-wing: the lyric blames the power of the trade unions. (31) Bearing in mind all those considerations, we should now wonder whether the Punk movement in Britain was a reaction against a certain type of society as a whole rather than just a working class response to Thatcherism and free-market ideas-for that view proved being too restricted and often even wrong. The Punks were born in a society which had left them very little hope for the future-in God Save the Queen (Never Mind the Bollocks, Heres the Sex Pistols) the terms Theres no future for you and No Future are repeated many times and were even taken as a leitmotif to describe the punk generation later on-and they reacted violently against a social system which had deprived them of their very essence. To exist, their only chance was then to incorporate the conventional symbols of that society and to throw them back at people in the most absurd and incomprehensible manner-thus foreshadowing post-modernism: quelle que soit la rà ©ussite [des] diffà ©rentes sous-cultures à   exprimer le d à ©sarroi de groupes sociaux, gà ©nà ©rationnels ou ethniques et leur identità © collective, cest bien leur fonction de rà ©sistance symbolique qui est soulignà ©e (Le Guern 46). Otherwise, who could understand the significance of a safety-pin used as a jaw piercing for instance, or the blurred political messages conveyed by the successive punk bands-from Stalinism to Nazism? Of course, what we called a kind of society as a whole also includes music and we should not forget that the Punk movement was also a response to the rock establishment: Rocks neo-elite no longer spoke to this new generation . . . and rock superstars were overindulged rich men who lived in foreign countries to avoid paying taxes that helped to service the working class. As a form of protest against the rock establishment, punkers adopted the attitude of rebellion and dressed themselves in the leathers of the original teen rebels of the American fifties, a sharp commentary on the twisted values of establishment rock. (Eliot 188) As Chastagner pointed out: Le mouvement punk redonnait la musique aux sans-grade, aux malhabiles, aux frustes. Pas besoin dapprentissage, dinitiation, nimporte qui pouvait monter sur scà ¨ne et jouer (81). The One Chord generation was born and their music was vilified by many. Analysing how punk rock was described in the daily and weekly newspapers, Dave Laing noticed a great variety of words pertaining to the following semantic fields: mental illness, physical illness, unpleasant effects, and violence (100). One could think of such an opposition as being the main cause of the short-lived punk experience but it actually was reinvigorating; according to Philip H. Ennis: punk concentrates all the passion once carried by mature rock into an explicit repudiation of adult life (366). Therefore, punk rock could both be seen as a political, social, and artistic movement (independent and nurtured on new trends, such as International Situationism), and as the renaissance of rocknroll in its true form, i.e. before the latter became a product of the consumer society. Rock Roll was once loathed-Franck Sinatra declared: Rock n Roll is the most brutal, ugly, desperate, vicious form of expression it has been my misfortune to hear (in Burnett 29)-and produced by independent labels; it is this existence on the fringe of society that also gave to punk music its apparent authenticity: If BBC radio 1 had been willing to give immediate heavy rotation treatment to, say, the Sex Pistols God Save the Queen the day it was released, then the disc would probably never have been conceived. Popular culture, if it is to be progressive, must embody an element of opposition to the establishment, provocatively questioning the status quo. (Bennet 167) It is definitely not surprising then, that in the case of the Sex Pistols it was their arrival at commercial stardom [that] marked the end of their social relevance (Eliot 188). But we will look into that more extensively later on. For now, we would like to shed light on some of the Punk movements intrinsic contradictions. We have just alluded to independent labels in the previous paragraph. It is relevant to observe here, that many of the anti-Thatcher records were released on independent labels-arguably themselves models of Thatcherite entrepreneurial flair (Heard  BBC News). Moreover, we must remember that Mrs Thatcher asserted the primacy of the individual (Savage 110) and that she valued very much self-reliance, obviously derived from Samuel Smiles notion of self-help described in the late 19th century (Self-Help). We cannot help thinking that those values were not totally incompatible with the kind of selfish attitudes that had emerged during the events of 1968 and which extensively developed in the 1970s along with the Punk movement-one of the Sex Pistols first singles, released in 1976 along with Anarchy in the UK, was titled I Wanna Be Me (Savage 563). To Muggleton: subcultures are manifestations of self-expression, individual autonomy and cultural diversity (167). After those reflections on punk musics relationship with society and culture, we are now obviously led to question the credibility of the Punk movement. We have gathered some obvious clues so far, but what will put another nail in the coffin of Punk music is its artificiality. Indeed, it developed mainly under the influence of Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood, whose preoccupations were very often far from the working class: La naissance du mouvement punk doit beaucoup à   Malcolm McLaren,  «Ã‚  crà ©ateur  Ã‚ » des Sex Pistols. Il ny a rien de spontanà ©, rien de la rà ©volte brute des opprimà ©s, aucune rà ©bellion des damnà ©s de la terre dans le travail de McLaren. Cest un intellectuel, ancien à ©tudiant des Beaux-Arts et nourri des à ©crits situationnistes. Fascinà © par mai 68, il essaya, avec sa compagne de là ©poque, Vivienne Westwood, de faire violence au corps social britannique en se servant de la mode. Ils ouvrirent une boutique de và ªtements sur Kings Road, à   Londres. . . . Le succà ¨s narrivant pas assez vite, McLaren eut lidà ©e de se servir dun groupe de rock comme vitrine pour ses và ªtements et porte-parole de ses thà ©ories. . . . On se rend bien vite compte que la naissance des Sex Pistols et le mouvement punk qui en a dà ©coulà © nest pas une rà ©action spontanà ©e aux conditions sociales de là ©poque. Il y a au dà ©part . . . une stratà ©gie bien à ©l oignà ©e de la rà ©volution prolà ©tarienne. . . . La rhà ©torique  «Ã‚  classe ouvrià ¨re  Ã‚ » est surtout un argument publicitaire. (Chastagner 77-78) The first Sex Pistols concerts took place in Art Schools, it was not a music born in the streets-unlike what is very often said-and it could then be seen as a form of art which message was primarily dedicated to an enlightened university educated elite, and delivered with a fake working class accent. Dave Laing stresses that Lydons pronunciation was very artificial, notably in the song Anarchy in the UK in which the unnatural rhyming of the last syllable of Anti-Christ with Anarchist shifts the attention away from the message to the rhyme-scheme and could momentarily set up an ambivalent signal about the sincerity of the whole enterprise (58). The artificiality was also found in the names. Johnny Lydon was rechristened Johnny Rotten-the legend says that it was because of his very bad dental hygiene-and John Simon Ritchies stage name was Sid Vicious. Moreover, McLarens will to sign his group with a major company is another proof of punk musics ambiguity: it seemingly struggled to fit in the very system it was claiming to reject, to destroy. We witnessed to a love-hate relationship with the music industry, particularly with the very famous EMI episode: The Pistols received a $100,000 advance upon signing, only to be released two days later after a wave of protests from shareholders.  .  .  . (Eliot 188). The band changed record companies several times before finally becoming one of Virgins best selling artists-even though the relationship with Virgin was very tense too. It is also interesting to point out that God Save the Queen was originally titled No Future but that the name was changed into a more commercially effective one to coincide with Elizabeth IIs jubilee and, according to Eliot, [the song] shot to number two, and the group disbanded. Success killed the message; a familiar rock scenario (189). As early as the summer of 1977, cracks started to appear within the punk movement; it looked like things were being made safe again, opposition was being channelled and recuperated, rebellion commodified (McKay 73). A new vanguard known as the post-punks denounced the business punk music had become, even giving a new lease of life to the formerly declining record companies while the punk message had always been-at least, politically speaking-to clearly dismantle the establishment. But as Laing observes: Whether or not punk rock was dead after 1978 [i.e. after the Pistols fragmentation], the punks themselves were not. . . . By 1981 the performances of bands such as The Exploited had all [the characteristics of punk music] (109). He continues, referring to Crass who attacked punk bands who had sold out' (113). Crass is very interesting to look into since they were seen by anarchist thinkers to be the only band carrying the political-musical line forward.  .  .  . (McKay 77) and b ecause one of their bà ªtes noires was, of course, Margaret Thatcher. Their opposition to the Iron Ladys Falklands war was very strong and gave birth to no less than two songs: Sheep Farming in the Falklands, which was one of the best-selling punk records of 1983. . . . (Laing 113), and How Does It Feel (To Be the Mother of a Thousand Dead)? (McKay 81). Crass found themselves largely alone on the punk scene in . . . criticizing the actions of the British government. . . . [Nevertheless, they still managed] to avoid recuperation [and] to maintain political and artistic autonomy in the music industry of all places. That is such an achievement. If punk was a discourse of authenticity, . . . Crass must be placed at the centre of [it]. (McKay 81-82) However, we do think that their do it yourself, DIY attitude-described by McKay as a strategy of bricolage (78)-seems to echo Thatchers thought in an uncanny fashion: recovery can only come through the work of individuals. . . . And the worst thing a Government can do is to try to smother it completely with a sort collective alternative (Speech to Conservative Rally in Cardiff). Some individualistic values were shared-we already observed that before with the Sex Pistols-both by the Punks and Margaret Thatcher, therefore it remains impossible to clearly oppose them. To conclude, we shall remember that we attempted to demonstrate that, for various reasons, the British Punk movement was not a mere working class response to Thatcherism and free-market ideas. Firstly, punk social protests started before the emergence of Thatcherism-if such a political doctrine can even be considered to exist at all. Plus, both the lack of clarity in the punk political message and the working class disillusionment for left-wing ideals led us to think that the issue was far more complex. That is the reason why we then tried to briefly analyse the implications of the Punks criticism of society, notably as a strong symbolic force, and as a vehement opposition to the establishment in general. However, we finally realized that the artificiality of the Punk movement, along with its intrinsic ambiguities pervading our analysis, prevented us to define it as being truly anti-Thatcherite, proletarian, or opposed to free-market economy.

Encounters with Death in The Masque of Red Death Essay examples -- Mas

Encounters with Death in The Masque of Red Death      Ã‚   After reading Edgar Allan Poe's "The Masque of Red Death" (317-22), the reader can only conclude that death is the theme once again in another thrilling horror tale. Other critics such as Patricia H. Wheat, view this tale as a battle between life and death (51-56). Yet, Leonard Cassuto brings an interesting theory to this tale--"According to the narrator's own account, no one survives the Red Death. The only one who(lives) is Death. The narrator must be death himself" (317-20). Reflecting back to the various critical analogies on tone, character, and allegory on "The Masque of Red Death" a certain aspect of this work has yet to be defined. The plague that devastated a whole countryside could only be described. Could it be that Poe uses this fiction to chronicle his own encounters with death in his own life? To better understand this viewpoint a short summary is incorporated:    " The Red Death had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and it's seal-the redness and the horror of blood. There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution. The scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon the face of the victim was the pest ban, which shut him out from the aid and from the sympathy of his fellow men. And the whole seizure, progress, and termination of the disease were the incidents of half an hour" (Poe 317-22).    In this passage Poe describes a plague that death uses to take its victims. The horrific manner in which the disease appears -- bleeding at the pores, sharp pains, and seizures--can be related back to episodes in... ...Tales of Mystery and Imagination Norwalk: Heritage P.,1969. 317-322. Starret, Vincent. "Tales of Mystery and Imagination." Norwalk: Heritage P., 1969. Intro. Wheat, Patricia H. " The Masque of Indifference in The Masque of Red Death". Stud Short Fiction, 19(1982), 51-56.    Works Consulted Alton, Laura. "Masque of Red Allegory." 30 Oct.,1999. <http://www.neo.Irun.com/12stark/12smith/Netpages/Masque/alton.htm>. Bell, H.H. " The Masque of Red Death An Interpretation." South Atlantic Bulletin. 38 (Nov. 1973) 101-105. Dudley, Leonard. " The Coy Reaper: Unmasque-ing the Red Death". Stud Short Fiction. 30 (1993), 169-73. Silk, Richard D. "Poe's The Masque of Red Death". Explicator, 47(1989) 24-26. Womack, Martha. "Edgar Allan Poe's The Masque of Red Death." 28 Oct. 1999. <http://www.poedecoder.com/essays/masque/>.    Encounters with Death in The Masque of Red Death Essay examples -- Mas Encounters with Death in The Masque of Red Death      Ã‚   After reading Edgar Allan Poe's "The Masque of Red Death" (317-22), the reader can only conclude that death is the theme once again in another thrilling horror tale. Other critics such as Patricia H. Wheat, view this tale as a battle between life and death (51-56). Yet, Leonard Cassuto brings an interesting theory to this tale--"According to the narrator's own account, no one survives the Red Death. The only one who(lives) is Death. The narrator must be death himself" (317-20). Reflecting back to the various critical analogies on tone, character, and allegory on "The Masque of Red Death" a certain aspect of this work has yet to be defined. The plague that devastated a whole countryside could only be described. Could it be that Poe uses this fiction to chronicle his own encounters with death in his own life? To better understand this viewpoint a short summary is incorporated:    " The Red Death had long devastated the country. No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and it's seal-the redness and the horror of blood. There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution. The scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon the face of the victim was the pest ban, which shut him out from the aid and from the sympathy of his fellow men. And the whole seizure, progress, and termination of the disease were the incidents of half an hour" (Poe 317-22).    In this passage Poe describes a plague that death uses to take its victims. The horrific manner in which the disease appears -- bleeding at the pores, sharp pains, and seizures--can be related back to episodes in... ...Tales of Mystery and Imagination Norwalk: Heritage P.,1969. 317-322. Starret, Vincent. "Tales of Mystery and Imagination." Norwalk: Heritage P., 1969. Intro. Wheat, Patricia H. " The Masque of Indifference in The Masque of Red Death". Stud Short Fiction, 19(1982), 51-56.    Works Consulted Alton, Laura. "Masque of Red Allegory." 30 Oct.,1999. <http://www.neo.Irun.com/12stark/12smith/Netpages/Masque/alton.htm>. Bell, H.H. " The Masque of Red Death An Interpretation." South Atlantic Bulletin. 38 (Nov. 1973) 101-105. Dudley, Leonard. " The Coy Reaper: Unmasque-ing the Red Death". Stud Short Fiction. 30 (1993), 169-73. Silk, Richard D. "Poe's The Masque of Red Death". Explicator, 47(1989) 24-26. Womack, Martha. "Edgar Allan Poe's The Masque of Red Death." 28 Oct. 1999. <http://www.poedecoder.com/essays/masque/>.   

Al-Qaeda/Terrorism

Terrorism can be defined as threatening use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons. It is the act of terrorizing or the state of being terrorized. Most acts of terrorism are committed by terrorist organizations. Terrorist organizations use terror to accomplish their mission or objective. One of the most infamous terrorist organizations is Al-Qaeda. Established in 1988 by militant Islamist, Osama Bin Laden, Al-Qaeda traces all the way back to the Soviet War in Afghanistan. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational and stateless army. It has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United Nations Security Council, NATO, the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, and various other countries. The overall mission of Al-Qaeda is to attempt to overthrow godless regimes and replace them with Islamic regimes. Furthermore, the terrorist organization desires to convert al-Qaeda into an ideology and set of operating principles that can be loosely franchised in other countries without requiring direct command and control. Al-Qaeda also states several other missions which include gathering information about the enemy, the land, the installations, and the neighbors, kidnapping enemy personnel documents, secrets, and arms, assassinating enemy personnel as well as foreign tourists, and freeing the brothers who are captured by the enemy. Other missions also include spreading rumors and writing statements that instigate people against the enemy, blasting and destroying the places of amusement, immorality, and sin; not a vital target, blasting and destroying the embassies and attacking vital economic centers, blasting and destroying bridges leading into and out of the cities. The headquarters of infamous terrorist organization are not known anymore. al-Qaeda has known contacts and activities in the following countries: Afghanistan, Algeria, Bosnia, Chechnya, Eritrea, Kosovo, the Philippines, Somalia, Tajikistan, and Yemen, and now Kosovo. Additionally, al-Qaida has been linked to conflicts and attacks in Africa, Asia, Europe, the former Soviet Republics, the Middle East, as well as North and South America. All in all, their threat is not limited to these geographical areas because of worldwide connections. The group has targeted American and other Western interests as well as Jewish targets and Muslim governments it sees as corrupt or impious-above all, the Saudi monarchy. Above all, its main target is the United States of America. In 2005, Al-Quds Al-Arabi published extracts from Saif al-Adel's document â€Å"Al Qaeda’s Strategy to the Year 2020† which is a plan for the downfall of U. S. economy by the year 2020. Over the years, al-Qaeda has been involved in many terrorist attacks. The terrorist group has undergone proper military training, and is capable of commanding insurgent forces in order to carry out its attack. Al-Qaeda linked attacks include: The attempted December 2009 bombing of a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines flight and an October 2007 suicide bombing that narrowly missed killing former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Two months later, another bomber succeeds in killing the former prime minister; Pakistani officials blame Baitullah Mahsud, a top Pakistani Taliban commander with close ties to al-Qaeda. Other attacks include: the February 2006 attack on the Abqaiq petroleum processing facility, the largest such facility in the world, in Saudi Arabia, the July 2005 bombings of the London public transportation system, and the March 2004 bomb attacks on Madrid commuter trains, which killed nearly 200 people and left more than 1,800 injured. On September 11, 2001, Al-Qaeda was involved in one of the most devastating attacks on the United States, hijacking four U. S. airplanes, two of which crashed into the World Trade Center, and a third of which crashed into the Pentagon. 9/11 resulted in over 3,000 deaths and $95 billion worth of damage, lost of taxes, and clean-up costs to the city of New York. In the aftermath of 9/11, Bin Laden issued several messages praising the attacks, but denying Al-Qaeda’s involvement. This was just one example of the terrorist group’s usage of the media. Al-Qaeda has become extremely reliant on media. It uses media to further its cause by garnering publicity towards its cause. The media is used to publicize its corrupt Islamic institutions, organizations, and ideas. All things considered, Al-Qaeda is shrinking. The leadership ranks of the main al-Qaeda terrorist network have been reduced to just two figures whose demise would mean the group’s defeat. Although the terrorist group is shrinking, it is important that the American people stay on alert. There will probably always be a fear of the terrorist group’s reemergence, but as long as we stay a step ahead and do not underestimate the group, the American people will be a-okay.

Essay about The Urbanization of Poverty - 2440 Words

The majority of poor people are those who experience chronic -- and even multigenerational -- poverty (Iceland, 2003). In the United States many of the chronically poor live in urban environments. These environments, characterized by high concentrations of poor high concentrations of people of color and concentrated disadvantage, have been characterized as areas of moral as well as economic failure. In this paper, I will contend that conditions in these regions serve to hold individuals in poverty and to perpetuate multigenerational poverty through diminished human capital and reduced social capital. Human capital is defined as the skills and abilities that enable an individual to behave in a manner that is successful in his or her†¦show more content†¦Massey counters that the limited mobility of African-Americans placed them at a significant disadvantage with respect to the effects of living in areas of concentrated disadvantage (Massey, Condran and Denton, 1987; Massey, 1996). Because of a history of housing discrimination, blacks are the most racially segregated group in the United States. As a result, when poverty rates rose during the 1970’s and 1980’s, due to structural changes in the economy, the brunt of that poverty was born in predominantly black neighborhoods. Second, because of increasing class segregation, the brunt of all unemployment was felt in neighborhoods that were both predominantly black and predominantly poor (Massey, 1996). The effects of concentrated poverty are magnified in minority children. Black and Latinos are more likely to live in predominantly poor areas. As a result, 30% of all Latino and 40% of all Black children attend schools that are between 70% and 100% poor while 6% of white children attend schools that are more than 70% poor (Center for Cities and Schools). The effects of being educated in schools that are both racially and economically segregated are overwhelmingly negative. Children in racially and segregated schools tend to have worse educational outcomes than other students and are more likely to be suspended or expelled or to drop out before graduation. Failure to complete school contributes to a lifelong lack of humanShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of The Book Humans Of The Streets 1553 Words   |  7 PagesRecently, urbanization has become the newest form of progress. However, it seems that urbanization has created some unforeseen problems. Bocquier suggests â€Å"economic uncertainties that prevail in most urban settings lead to a deterioration of living conditions†¦this deterioration particularly affects the urban poor† (pg. 1). As society began to change and progress at such a quick pace, many people have been left behind and have had to adapt to survive to their new environments. 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Read MoreRural Urban Migration Is An Inevitable Component Of The Development Process1548 Words   |  7 Pagesphenomenon of rapid urbanization in less developed countries and in the absence of extensive industrialization, led to the emergence of illegal settlements and shanty towns, discuss the relationship between urbanization, poverty and development; and use a case study to illustrate the effects of rapid urbanization in LDC’s. Rural-urban migration occurs at varying rates in every country. This paper focuses on the process of rural-urban migration and its influence on urbanization in developing countriesRead MoreUrbanization1143 Words   |  5 PagesBenefits and challenges of Urbanization SCI/275 University Of Phoenix In this paper I will be explaining the four factors that produce a change in the population as well as urbanization. Urbanization is moving from a rural area to a big city in hopes of better opportunity or employment along with many other benefits. Urbanization may seem like a good idea to those trying to better themselves but it has challenges in the city peopleRead MoreThe Construction Of The British Indian Urban Scene1448 Words   |  6 Pagesvillages were self- sufficient at that times. So the rate of migration was very low. But due to degradation in village agrarian system, old chains began to break and process of migration to cities started in search of livelihoods. The nature of urbanization process changed with the arrival of the British East India Company. The major contributions of the British to the Indian urban scene were: the Establishment of three metropolitan port cities of Mumbai (Bombay), Kolkata (Calcutta) and Chennai (Madras)Read More Urbanization in Africa Essays1090 Words   |  5 PagesUrbanization is the movement from a rural society to an urban society, and involves a growth in the number of people in urban areas. Urban growth is increasing in both the developed but mostly in the developing countries. Urbanization is associated with the problems of unemployment, poverty, bad health, poor cleanliness, urban slums environmental deprivation. This causes a very big problem for these developing countries and who are some of poorest countries. Africa urbanization is not as big asRead MoreEffects Of Urbanization On Food Supply And Human Security885 Words   |  4 Pageseffect of urbanization, arguing that major cities homogenize the physical environment in their attempt to meet the narrow needs of human beings without regard for indigenous species.McKinney identifies key challenges such as huma n disconnection from the natural environment which is a disadvantage of urbanization. The strength of this source lies in its relevance as it will provide sufficient information for the research topic with regard to the effects and disadvantages of urbanization. This bookRead MoreEconomic Development Of Japan During World War II994 Words   |  4 Pagesvarious problems associated with urbanization. Japan has also been facing declining birthrate, aging population, poverty, and overcoming deflation. Urbanization has enabled economic growth but it has contributed to climate change, pollution, congestion, and the growth of slums. Also Social and Economic development cannot be achieved without addressing global warming and other environmental issues. Due to these problems, Japan has passed several laws to implement urbanization policies and city growth managementRead MoreEssay about urbanization in third world countries1309 Words   |  6 Pages Urbanization and its effect on third world living conditions Urbanization is the spreading of cities into less populated agricultural areas. Most people would not think that this is necessarily a problem. They would say that it is good that the â€Å"developing countries† were becoming more developed. With urbanization comes factories and more jobs, so the people can make more money and be happier. Right? The problem is that these people must sacrifice their traditional lifestyles, for this new â€Å"Urbanism†(theRead MoreUrbanization And Housing : The Impact Of Urbanization On Housing934 Words   |  4 PagesThe Impact of Urbanization on Housing Continued urbanization over the last 50 years has resulted in a situation whereby close to half of the worlds population (47.1 percent) now lives in urban areas (Barney Cohen, 2006). However, urban populations, particularly the poor, also share some important vulnerability. It is estimated that over 900 million people, one-third of the global urban population, and more than 70 percent of urban developing country populations, now live in slum like conditions