Keny Diverse And Multicultural Country - 1675 Words

Kenya is a diverse and multicultural country with over fifty different tribes each with their own distinct language. Kenya consists of three main ethnic groups; the Bantus, Nilotes and Cushites. These three groups all have different religious and cultural practices (â€Å"Cultures of The World, Kenya†). Although diverse, Kenya is mainly constituted of Bantus with the majority of them coming from the Kikuyu tribe. Other major groups include the Luo, Maasai and Kalenjin. Kenya is very lush and is mainly cool which attracted the interest of European explorers. Countries such as Britain steadily increased their influence in the area by introducing missionaries and sending explorers throughout the nation. By the late 19th century, Britain controlled Kenya and declared it a British colony (â€Å"Countries and Their Cultures†). The British attracted people from Europe by creating more economic and political opportunities for Europeans to move to Kenya. They would allocate large pieces of land to British citizens, which would displace the natives, or offer them political positions in the government. The British implemented segregation which led them to forcing Kenyans to work as â€Å"squatters† on the land of the British but in truth, they weren’t any different from slaves. Kenyans tried resisting British policies by protesting but this only angered the British. The British colonists reacted by killing twenty five people which came to be known as the Nairobi Massacre (â€Å"Countries and Their

Disinformation Definition

Disinformation is the deliberate and purposeful distribution of false information. The term is generally used to describe an organized campaign to deceptively distribute untrue material intended to influence public opinion. In recent years, the term has become especially associated with the spread of fake news on social media as a strategy of negative political campaigning. Key Takeaways: Disinformation The terms disinformation and misinformation are often used interchangeably, but they are not synonymous. Disinformation requires that the message be false, distributed purposefully, and with the goal of altering public opinion.The strategic use of disinformation can be traced back to the Soviet Union in the 1920s, where it was known as dezinformatsiya.In English, the term was first used in the 1950s, referring to Cold War disinformation campaigns.Social media has exacerbated the impact of disinformation campaigns. Definition of Disinformation A key component of the definition of disinformation is the intention of the person or entity creating the message. Disinformation is distributed with the specific purpose of misleading the public. The false information is meant to impact society by swaying the opinions of the members of the audience. The term disinformation is said to be derived from a Russian word, dezinformatsiya, with some accounts holding that Joseph Stalin coined it. It is generally accepted that the Soviet Union pioneered the deliberate use of false information as a weapon of influence in the 1920s. The word remained relatively obscure for decades and was used mainly by military or intelligence professionals, not the general public, until the 1950s. Disinformation vs. Misinformation An important distinction to make is that disinformation does not mean misinformation. Someone can spread misinformation innocently by saying or writing things that are untrue while believing them to be true. For example, a person sharing a news report on social media may commit an act of misinformation if the source turns out to unreliable and the information incorrect. The specific person who shared it acts as a result of misinformation if he or she believes it to be true. On the other hand, deliberately distributing false material with the purpose of generating outrage or chaos in society, essentially as a political dirty trick, would rightfully be referred to as spreading disinformation. Following the same example, the agent who created the false information in the unreliable source is guilty of creating and spreading disinformation. The intention is to cause a reaction in the public opinion based on the false information that he or she created. What Is a Disinformation Campaign? Disinformation is often part of a larger effort, such as a campaign, plan, or agenda. It may take advantage of well-established facts while tweaking details, omitting context, blending falsehoods, or distorting circumstances. The goal is to make the disinformation believable in order to reach the target audience. Multiple acts of disinformation may be carried out simultaneously in different outlets to achieve a goal. For example, different articles intended to discredit a political candidate may circulate at the same time, with each version tailored to the readership. A younger reader may see an article about the candidate treating a young person poorly, while an elderly reader may see the same article but the victim may be an elderly person. Targeting of this sort is especially prominent in social media sites. In the modern era, the 2016 efforts waged by Russians targeting the U.S. elections is perhaps the best-known example of a disinformation campaign. In this case, the perpetrators used Facebook and Twitter to disseminate fake news, as was revealed by the hearings on Capitol Hill which examined and exposed the scheme. In May 2018, members of Congress ultimately revealed more than 3,000 Facebook ads which had been purchased by Russian agents during the 2016 election. The ads were full of deliberate falsehoods designed to stir outrage. The placement of the ads had been fairly sophisticated, targeting and reaching millions of Americans at very little cost. On February 16, 2018, the Office of the Special Counsel, led by Robert Mueller, indicted the Russian government troll farm, the Internet Research Agency, along with 13 individuals and three companies. The highly detailed 37-page indictment described a sophisticated disinformation campaign designed to create discord and influence the 2016 election. Russian Disinformation Disinformation campaigns had been a standard tool during the Cold War and mentions of Russian disinformation would occasionally appear in the American press. In 1982, TV Guide, one of the most popular magazines in America at the time, even published a cover story warning about Russian disinformation. Recent research has indicated that the Soviet Union spread disinformation about America and the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s. A conspiracy theory that AIDS had been created in an American germ warfare lab was spread by the Soviet KGB, according to a 2018 NPR report. The use of information as a potential weapon in the modern era was documented in a deeply reported article in the New York Times Magazine in June 2015. Writer Adrian Chen recounted remarkable stories of how Russian trolls, operating from an office building in St. Petersburg, Russia, had posted untrue information to wreak havoc in America. The Russian troll farm described in the article, the Internet Research Agency, was the same organization that would be indicted by Robert Muellers office in February 2018. Sources: Manning, Martin J. Disinformation.  Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence and Security, edited by K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, vol. 1, Gale, 2004, pp. 331-335.  Gale Virtual Reference Library.Chen, Adrian. The Agency. New York Times Sunday Magazine, 7 June 2015. p. 57.Barnes, Julian E. Cyber Command Operation Took Down Russian Troll Farm for Midterm Elections. New York Times, 26 February 2019. p. A9.disinformation. Oxford Dictionary of English. Ed. Stevenson, Angus. Oxford University Press, January 01, 2010. Oxford Reference.

Lorca’s play on tragic love Free Essays

Lorca’s play on tragic love, The House of Bernarda Alba, is his last complete play. It is interpreted as a metaphor of repression with its theme focused on frustration, honour and death. The play contains both the passion and the torment in the intense struggle of a group of women held in check even from the thought of love by a tyrannical mother, Bernarda. We will write a custom essay sample on Lorca’s play on tragic love or any similar topic only for you Order Now The play investigates and provides a response, but not a solution, to the problems of oppression, transgression, sexuality and being a victim. Bernarda’s strict rule is as powerful as the wilful nature of the youngest woman who betrays the family. Her ability to satisfy her sexual desire symbolically shatters the order of extreme repression and absolute control. Her rebellion and death mark the reasons and effects of the repressed atmosphere. Ultimate protest, despair, and madness emphasize the even more extreme control, unhealthy fear, mindlessness, and especially silence that befall the women who remain in the house. However more scrutinizing approach to the issue of victim in the play reveals that not only Bernarda’s daughters appear as victims but Bernarda herself being a victimizer is a victim. Bernarda Alba is the mother, a dramatic personality, whose words carry the authority of the supreme ruler and whose life shows little emotion. In this austerity she rules her household, never sparing from her wrath anyone who attempts to revoke the stifling atmosphere she has superimposed on herself and her daughters. As a result, all – Bernarda, the daughters, the servants – exist in darkness and depression ultimately leading to sterility of emotions and finally to suicide. Bernarda is a selfish and tyrannical matron who eventually forces her daughters into the despair. They lose every vestige of hope; this loss leads directly to the moral death of each daughter and to the physical death of the youngest. Slowly, but unequivocally, Bernarda drains the minds and hearts of her daughters until they become as white and barren as the walls of their physical prison the metaphor of which is conveyed by the visual nature of the house with its thick walls and a few windows and doors leading to the outside world. However, this significant visual image exceeds its literal meaning and, above all, represents a sociocultural institution keeping all the main characters of the play in subordination to social dogmas and rules. Within the confines of its walls Bernarda and her family repeat the old traditions, like many generations of women that preceded them. This repetitive and collective act obliterates the uniqueness of the individual for the sake of preserving patriarchal hegemony. When reading The House of Bernarda Alba it becomes obvious that the play’s most powerful strength is in its dialogues, while the characters are limited in their movement and space within a closed location. By dint of auditory means, Lorca reaches the explication of the contrast between girls and their mother. This contrast is emphasized by the other devices like contras of black and white, and these two colours are highlighted throughout the play: the black dresses of the women in mourning, in contrast to the very white walls of the house. Moreover, Bernarda’s authoritarian voice stands out as she commands, â€Å"Silence! † [p. 161] at the opening, throughout, and end of the play, closely related in each case to the death of one member of the family and the spiritual death of those living. Despite Bernarda’s call for silence, other sounds succeed in penetrating the thick walls and contribute to define the nature of their society and the dichotomy between life inside and outside the house. Bernarda’s house is a household without men. This is by fate as well as by author’s intention to establish controversial circumstances. Upon the death of her husband, she must assume the patriarchal role of protecting her daughters’ honour and forbids the presence of men within the confines of the house, thus limiting the world her daughters are allowed to know. Her house is clearly governed by patriarchal forces. Pepe el Romano, the male character we do not see but hear about, is the strongest motivating force in the play. Bernarda’s authoritarian discourse stubbornly reproduces what she learned from her father and her grandfather. This concept associates property with social class, as Bernarda is well aware. When one of her daughters has the opportunity of marrying, she does not allow it: â€Å"BERNARDA, loudly. – I’d do it a thousand times over! My blood won’t mingle with the Humanas’ while I live! His father was a shepherd. † (p. 191). The situation within the walls of her house would have been quite different had Bernarda found enough men of her social condition to marry her daughters. Lorca indicts society, and the reader might be inclined to condemn Bernarda as well. Although she is not aware of it, Bernarda is a victim turned victimizer. In the same way that her daughter, Adela, is symbolically suffocated by her mother’s oppression, as she commits suicide by hanging, Bernarda’s maternal feelings have been suffocated by society. As a widow, she uses her newly found powers to perpetuate those values that benefit men. She becomes their accomplice. Her husband was a womanizer, and she claims that men should enjoy the freedom of the streets. Women should be confined in the house, against their natural instincts. Bernarda is, at best, an imperfect man, as exemplified in her failed attempt to use the gun —a phallic symbol. BERNARDA: The gun! Where’s the gun? She rushes out. La Poncia runs ahead of her. Amelia enters and looks on frightened, leaning her head against the wall. Behind her comes Martirio. ADELA: No one can hold me back! She tries to go out. [†¦] A shot is heard. BERNARDA, entering: Just try looking for him now! MARTIRIO, entering: That does away with Pepe el Romano. ADELA: Pepe! My God! Pepe! She runs out. PONCIA: Did you kill him? MARTIRIO: No. He raced away on his mare! BERNARDA: It was my fault. A woman can’t aim (p. 210) Within the play another mother figure, Maria Josefa, vehemently distances herself from Bernarda and approaches Adela, thus leaving Bernarda without support and helpless. She sings a lullaby while holding a â€Å"baby† (a lamb) in her arms, an act that Bernarda – devoid of maternal instincts – seems incapable of performing. Bernarda as a mother figure becomes dehumanized and therefore closer to the dimensions of a grotesque caricature. At the beginning of the play the maid La Poncia threatens Bernarda’s public image with her gossip. At the end of the play, and despite Bernarda’s call for silence, we know that the neighbours have awakened. The thick walls have been rendered useless and the tyrannical figure of Bernarda fall a prey to societal judgement. Bibliography LORCA, Federico Garcia Three Tragedies: Blood Wedding, Yerma, Bernarda Alba. Translated by J. G. Lujan and R. L. O’Connell. New York, New Directions Publishing, 1955. How to cite Lorca’s play on tragic love, Papers