Herland Essay Research Paper Charlotte Perkins Gilman free essay sample

Herland Essay, Research Paper Charlotte Perkins Gilman # 8217 ; s novel, Herland, written in 1915, is a Utopian, feminist, fantasy. It foremost appeared as a series in Gilman # 8217 ; s magazine, The Forerunner, and did non look as a book until 1979. Gilman was a precursor herself. Charlotte Perkins Gilman is considered by many to be one of the most of import female societal economic experts, womens rightists, and sociologists of her clip. Yet, her name is about unknown or instead, excluded from many historical and sociological histories. This is despite the fact that in the first two decennaries of the 20th century, her books went through legion editions and were translated into at least seven foreign linguistic communications. Gilman, was a strong truster in adult females # 8217 ; s economic independency and was a serious critic of history and society. She attempted to make a cohesive organic structure of idea that combined feminism and socialism, even in her fictional narratives. We will write a custom essay sample on Herland Essay Research Paper Charlotte Perkins Gilman or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Herland was one of several fictional histories written by Gilman utilizing the same subjects. She suggests the sort of universe that she herself would hold liked to hold seen. About one hundred old ages subsequently, her narratives still address the jobs that are relevant today ; they focus on kids and their demands, on maternity, and on redefining the functions of both work forces and adult females in society. Herland begins on the Eve of World War I, when three American male adventurers stumble onto an all-female society someplace in the distant corners of the Earth. The work forces, unable to believe their ain eyes, set out to happen the work forces of the society, convinced that, since # 8220 ; this is a civilised state, there must be work forces # 8221 ; ( Herland, p. 11 ) . However, as these work forces shortly find out, adult females have created a Utopia without work forces at all. Gilman writes a narrative where adult females are descended by parthenogeny from an Aboriginal virgin female parent, and are isolated from the remainder of the universe by unreliable drops. They build a civilisation reflecting the particular endowments of adult females free of male domination. In Herland, society is shaped by pregnancy, or maternity. Motherhood is viewed about as if it were a faith, it is considered a privilege to go a female parent. # 8220 ; They lost all involvement in divinities of war and loot, and bit by bit centered on their Mother Goddess wholly # 8221 ; ( Herland, p. 59 ) . They practiced # 8220 ; negative eugenics, # 8221 ; . As Van says, # 8220 ; we are normally willing to put down our lives for our state, but they had to predate maternity for their country- and it was exactly the hardest thing for them to make # 8221 ; ( Herland, p. 69 ) . In Herland, the adult females all live jointly, and the construct of a private place is foreign to them. The kids are reared communally, as in the modern Israeli Kibbutz. Indeed # 8220 ; the kids in this state are its one centre and concentrate # 8221 ; ( Herland, p. 60 ) . Everything is built collaboratively, the edifices, the gardens, the schools, are all perfect. As Vandyck observed, # 8220 ; everything was beauty, order, perfect cleanness, and the pleasantest sense of place all over it # 8221 ; ( Herland, p. 19 ) . What is most appealing about to me about Herland is the different construct of maternalism. As the character Van explains, # 8220 ; it is a maternalism which dominated society, which influenced every art and industry, which perfectly protected all childhood, and gave it the most perfect attention and preparation # 8221 ; ( Herland, p. 73 ) . From this construct of society, all are able to populate to their fullest potency. Without the restrictions that are put on adult females in Charlotte Perkins Gilman # 8217 ; s clip, every bit good as our ain, all of these adult females were encouraged to prosecute work that they were suited to. If a kid in Herland showed an aptitude for something, or enjoyed something, that accomplishment was nourished and developed. This to me, is genuinely a Utopian construct. As Ellador explains it, # 8220 ; here is a immature human being. The head is as natural a thing as the organic structure, a thing that grows, a thing to utilize and bask. We seek to nurture, to excite, to exert the head of a kid as we do the organic structure # 8221 ; ( Herland, p. 104 ) . I besides like Gilman # 8217 ; s usage of wit, peculiarly in the Character of # 8220 ; Terry # 8221 ; to chase away common myths about adult females # 8217 ; s functions, adult females # 8217 ; s features, and adult females # 8217 ; s stereotyped behaviour. Terry refuses to believe that a civilisation of adult females could be free of green-eyed monster, failing, free of feminine amour propre, free of submissiveness, and dull. Van says, # 8220 ; we had expected pettiness, and found a societal consciousness besides which our states looked like disputing kids. We had expected green-eyed monster and found a wide sisterlike fondness, a fair-minded intelligence, to which we could bring forth no parallel # 8221 ; ( Herland, p. 81 ) . Other things I peculiarly liked about the society are that it is free of offense, it is peaceable, and has a high sense of solidarity. Vandyck says it best, # 8220 ; you see, they had had no war. They had had no male monarchs, and no priests, no nobilities. They were sisters, and as they grew, they grew together- non by competition, but by united action # 8221 ; ( Herland, p. 60 ) . This would be my utopia every bit good. Another thing I like about this society is their construct of faith. There seem to be no regulations or formal ceremonials attached to spiritualty. Their faith was maternal, and their moralss were based on development. I truly liked that they had no theory of the indispensable resistance of good and evil, to them life was growing, their pleasance was in turning, and it was their responsibility besides. I besides like that for them its a cardinal theory, # 8220 ; their cleanliness, their wellness, their keen order, the rich, peaceable beauty of the whole land, the felicity of the kids, and above all the changeless advancement they made # 8211 ; all this was their faith # 8221 ; ( Herland, p. 115 ) . Something I truly liked was the fact they don # 8217 ; t believe in idolizing past faiths, or graven images, # 8220 ; every bit shortly as our faith grew to any tallness at all we left them out, of class # 8230 ; .They knew less than we do. If we are non beyond them, we are unworthy of them # 8212 ; and unworthy of the kids who must travel beyond us. # 8221 ; ( Herland, p. 111 ) . This belief is possibly the one thing that struck me as the greatest portion of their civilisation, it s so logical to me. What is losing for me in this Utopia is the sense of passion, and sense of escapade. Although I feel that all of these adult females are both strong and dare, they are so stray in their universe that it is instead dull. This would include the demand for, or even thought of, sex or romantic love in any context. Gilman makes no reference of either heterosexual or homosexual love. There is no fluctuation in love, there seems to be the one type of love for all. As Van says, # 8220 ; they loved one another with a practically cosmopolitan fondness, lifting to exquisite and unbroken friendly relationships, and broadening to a devotedness to their state and people # 8221 ; ( Herland, p. 94 ) . This for me, would be humdrum, it might be a romantic impression, but in my thought of a Utopian society, love and all that goes with it would be a necessity. If I were to take a womens rightist, Utopian society, I would take one really much like Herland. The lone things I would see altering would be the deficiency of love affair and romantic love. I think that every bit hard as love may be, it is critical to the human spirit. I besides don # 8217 ; t agree with the position that all adult females are female parents, that this is natural and right for every adult female. I don # 8217 ; t believe that it is. I think that in my Utopia this would be a free pick and maternity would non be viewed every bit extremely as it is here. I think that it s dull because they have no jobs to busy their clip. It is benign and inactive, and possibly that is something else that I would alter in my ain Utopian society. I wouldn # 8217 ; t want the jobs our society has, but some of the struggle that comes from deep, interpersonal committedness might do Herland a more interesting topographic point to populate. I besides would see doing my utopia unfastened to work forces every bit good as adult females. Although this contradicts the thought of a typical, feminist Utopia, if the point of Utopia is to make your highest, fullest sense of humanity, so to except person on the footing of gender would belie that intent. The Herlanders viewed work forces and adult females as people, non as their sex functions. We, as womens rightists must make the same to make that same degree of consciousness. Charlotte Perkins Gilman # 8217 ; s novel, Herland, written in 1915, is a Utopian, feminist, fantasy. It foremost appeared as a series in Gilman # 8217 ; s magazine, The Forerunner, and did non look as a book until 1979. Gilman was a precursor herself. Charlotte Perkins Gilman is considered by many to be one of the most of import female societal economic experts, womens rightists, and sociologists of her clip. Yet, her name is about unknown or instead, excluded from many historical and sociological histories. This is despite the fact that in the first two decennaries of the 20th century, her books went through legion editions and were translated into at least seven foreign linguistic communications. Gilman, was a strong truster in adult females # 8217 ; s economic independency and was a serious critic of history and society. She attempted to make a cohesive organic structure of idea that combined feminism and socialism, even in her fictional narratives. Herland was one of several fictional histories written by Gilman utilizing the same subjects. She suggests the sort of universe that she herself would hold liked to hold seen. About one hundred old ages subsequently, her narratives still address the jobs that are relevant today ; they focus on kids and their demands, on maternity, and on redefining the functions of both work forces and adult females in society. Herland begins on the Eve of World War I, when three American male adventurers stumble onto an all-female society someplace in the distant corners of the Earth. The work forces, unable to believe their ain eyes, set out to happen the work forces of the society, convinced that, since # 8220 ; this is a civilised state, there must be work forces # 8221 ; ( Herland, p. 11 ) . However, as these work forces shortly find out, adult females have created a Utopia without work forces at all. Gilman writes a narrative where adult females are descended by parthenogeny from an Aboriginal virgin female parent, and are isolated from the remainder of the universe by unreliable drops. They build a civilisation reflecting the particular endowments of adult females free of male domination. In Herland, society is shaped by pregnancy, or maternity. Motherhood is viewed about as if it were a faith, it is considered a privilege to go a female parent. # 8220 ; They lost all involvement in divinities of war and loot, and bit by bit centered on their Mother Goddess wholly # 8221 ; ( Herland, p. 59 ) . They practiced # 8220 ; negative eugenics, # 8221 ; . As Van says, # 8220 ; we are normally willing to put down our lives for our state, but they had to predate maternity for their country- and it was exactly the hardest thing for them to make # 8221 ; ( Herland, p. 69 ) . In Herland, the adult females all live jointly, and the construct of a private place is foreign to them. The kids are reared communally, as in the modern Israeli Kibbutz. Indeed # 8220 ; the kids in this state are its one centre and concentrate # 8221 ; ( Herland, p. 60 ) . Everything is built collaboratively, the edifices, the gardens, the schools, are all perfect. As Vandyck observed, # 8220 ; everything was beauty, order, perfect cleanness, and the pleasantest sense of place all over it # 8221 ; ( Herland, p. 19 ) . What is most appealing about to me about Herland is the different construct of maternalism. As the character Van explains, # 8220 ; it is a maternalism which dominated society, which influenced every art and industry, which perfectly protected all childhood, and gave it the most perfect attention and preparation # 8221 ; ( Herland, p. 73 ) . From this construct of society, all are able to populate to their fullest potency. Without the restrictions that are put on adult females in Charlotte Perkins Gilman # 8217 ; s clip, every bit good as our ain, all of these adult females were encouraged to prosecute work that they were suited to. If a kid in Herland showed an aptitude for something, or enjoyed something, that accomplishment was nourished and developed. This to me, is genuinely a Utopian construct. As Ellador explains it, # 8220 ; here is a immature human being. The head is as natural a thing as the organic structure, a thing that grows, a thing to utilize and bask. We seek to nurture, to excite, to exert the head of a kid as we do the organic structure # 8221 ; ( Herland, p. 104 ) . I besides like Gilman # 8217 ; s usage of wit, peculiarly in the Character of # 8220 ; Terry # 8221 ; to chase away common myths about adult females # 8217 ; s functions, adult females # 8217 ; s features, and adult females # 8217 ; s stereotyped behaviour. Terry refuses to believe that a civilisation of adult females could be free of green-eyed monster, failing, free of feminine amour propre, free of submissiveness, and dull. Van says, # 8220 ; we had expected pettiness, and found a societal consciousness besides which our states looked like disputing kids. We had expected green-eyed monster and found a wide sisterlike fondness, a fair-minded intelligence, to which we could bring forth no parallel # 8221 ; ( Herland, p. 81 ) . Other things I peculiarly liked about the society are that it is free of offense, it is peaceable, and has a high sense of solidarity. Vandyck says it best, # 8220 ; you see, they had had no war. They had had no male monarchs, and no priests, no nobilities. They were sisters, and as they grew, they grew together- non by competition, but by united action # 8221 ; ( Herland, p. 60 ) . This would be my utopia every bit good. Another thing I like about this society is their construct of faith. There seem to be no regulations or formal ceremonials attached to spiritualty. Their faith was maternal, and their moralss were based on development. I truly liked that they had no theory of the indispensable resistance of good and evil, to them life was growing, their pleasance was in turning, and it was their responsibility besides. I besides like that for them its a cardinal theory, # 8220 ; their cleanliness, their wellness, their keen order, the rich, peaceable beauty of the whole land, the felicity of the kids, and above all the changeless advancement they made # 8211 ; all this was their faith # 8221 ; ( Herland, p. 115 ) . Something I truly liked was the fact they don # 8217 ; t believe in idolizing past faiths, or graven images, # 8220 ; every bit shortly as our faith grew to any tallness at all we left them out, of class # 8230 ; .They knew less than we do. If we are non beyond them, we are unworthy of them # 8212 ; and unworthy of the kids who must travel beyond us. # 8221 ; ( Herland, p. 111 ) . This belief is possibly the one thing that struck me as the greatest portion of their civilisation, its so logical to me. What is losing for me in this Utopia is the sense of passion, and sense of escapade. Although I feel that all of these adult females are both strong and dare, they are so stray in their universe that it is instead dull. This would include the demand for, or even thought of, sex or romantic love in any context. Gilman makes no reference of either heterosexual or homosexual love. There is no fluctuation in love, there seems to be the one type of love for all. As Van says, # 8220 ; they loved one another with a practically cosmopolitan fondness, lifting to exquisite and unbroken friendly relationships, and broadening to a devotedness to their state and people # 8221 ; ( Herland, p. 94 ) . This for me, would be humdrum, it might be a romantic impression, but in my thought of a Utopian society, love and all that goes with it would be a necessity. If I were to take a womens rightist, Utopian society, I would take one really much like Herland. The lone things I would see altering would be the deficiency of love affair and romantic love. I think that every bit hard as love may be, it is critical to the human spirit. I besides don # 8217 ; t agree with the position that all adult females are female parents, that this is natural and right for every adult female. I don # 8217 ; t believe that it is. I think that in my Utopia this would be a free pick and maternity would non be viewed every bit extremely as it is here. I think that its dull because they have no jobs to busy their clip. It is benign and inactive, and possibly that is something else that I would alter in my ain Utopian society. I wouldn # 8217 ; t want the jobs our society has, but some of the struggle that comes from deep, interpersonal committedness might do Herland a more interesting topographic point to populate. I besides would see doing my utopia unfastened to work forces every bit good as adult females. Although this contradicts the thought of a typical, feminist Utopia, if the point of Utopia is to make your highest, fullest sense of humanity, so to except person on the footing of gender would belie that intent. The Herlanders viewed work forces and adult females as people, non as their sex functions. We, as womens rightists must make the same to make that same degree of consciousness.

A Stranger Watching essays

A Stranger Watching essays A Stranger is Watching is a terrific book. I enjoyed reading this book very much. The non-stop action kept me reading for hours. One of the best features of the book is how it was written.The point of view changes every chapter.For example Chapter 1 is written in the point of view of the infamous Foxy character.Chapter 2 is written in the point if view of our protagonist, Steve; and so on.I also liked how the author built the relationship of the characters up,so you care about what happens to them and feel like you're going through what they are going through.For instance,the author tells us of Steve's wife's death.We find out that Steve's son, Neil was never the same after this tragedy.When a new women,Sharon comes into Steve's life,Neil rejects her.Neil thinks that if Sharon and his father get married ,his father will send him away.When Neil and Sharon are held hostage together, Neil's feelings for Sharon change;he begins to see her as a nice person and a motherlike figure.I felt the author built this relationship up well so that the story would have a happy ending.ly conflict with the antagonist.The protagonist,Steve is a successful man with a family and no problems;at least in the mind of the antagonist.The antagonist has problems with females,a career he feels is going nowhere,and a lack of good friends.throughout the story we find out that the antagonist is very jealous of the protagonist's life and that's why he indirectly targets him.This contrast was an addition to the already excitng plot of the story.. In my opinion the best part of "A Stranger is Watching"is the end,chapter 52.this chapter contains one of the greatest climaxes I ever read.The chapter begins at a frantic moment.All of the characters lives are at risk because Foxy's bomb is about to go off.After a fight with Foxy,Steve manages to release Sharon and Neil.At the same time Ronald Thompson(a juvenile convicted if murder)is about to be executed f...

Explaining my scheme Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Explaining my scheme - Essay Example In this chapter, an overview is given in Section 4.2. Then, Section 4.3 illustrates how the initial labels are allocated and how the different relationships are determined. Section 4.4 describes how insertions are handled and how different relationships are preserved. A validation of the relationships using algebra is shown in Section 4.5. Finally, in Section 4.6, the chapter ends with a general conclusion that leads to the following chapter which discusses the scheme from the point of view of implementation. The proposed scheme is based on the parent-child grouping to facilitate the identification of parent-child and sibling relationships faster, based on a simple comparison. Parent-child grouping was also selected due to the high number of xml documents that come with this type of relationship (Goldman & Widom, 1997). Again, parent-child and sibling grouping facilitate smother insertions of new nodes, given the fact that in this form of grouping only a simple tree structure will be dealt with rather than the whole tree (Cohen, Kaplan & Milo, 2002). The advantage of allowing smoother insertion builds on the prefix GroupID labelling scheme but does not determine a fixed number of nodes to be inserted. Gusfield (1997) also observed that when dealing with parent-child groupings, labelling can be thought of as being easier, faster and more accurate as it deals with a simple tree structure. The simple structure has to do with a root node and its direct children nodes. Another critical characteristic of the scheme is that it uses two labels for each node in order to facilitate the processing nodes within the same group that uses their simple local labels. This is in contrast with multiplication-based scheme where the global label is used to connect a group to the whole tree which helps in identifying relationships between nodes belong to different group (Milo & Suciu, 1999). Based on existing schemes such

Millennium Development Goals Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

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Analyses eu-ecowas historical relation

Analyses eu-ecowas historical relation 1.1 INTRODUCTION EU-ECOWAS relations did not commence until 1975 due to the fact that ECOWAS only came into existence on May 28th 1975 with the signing of Treaty of Lagos by its member states (ECOWAS, 2010). However, prior to ECOWAS formation in 1975, some of its member states, particularly the Francophone countries such as Benin, Cote dIvoire, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Togo had been foundation members of Associated African states and Madagascar (EAMA). This group of countries had been actively involved in the ‘regime of association as enshrined in the Treaty of Rome (1957) which arranged a relationship between the former French and Belgian colonies with the EC (ACP, 2010). The early relationship with these ex-colonies became a key aspect of the process of European integration and also established the basis and rationale for subsequent arrangements (Reisen, 2007; Holland, 2002). The Commonwealth countries within the ECOWAS grouping such as Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone did not participate in EC cooperation programme until the UK accession to the EC in 1973. With regards to ex-colonies activities in EC cooperation programme prior to 1973, it had been a case of domination of development agenda by France (Holland, 2002). So, the inclusion of the ECOWAS Commonwealth countries was necessitated because the UK was keen to put its special trading preferences for bananas and sugar under the EC umbrella and to extend its assistance to some former colonies beyond bilateral support (European Commission, 2010a). Since ECOWAS establishment in 1975, EU-ECOWAS relations have been framed by the trade policy understandings as well as other development cooperation arrangements as contained in the partnership agreements that the EU has entered into with developing countries in Africa, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACPs) countries (World Bank, 2007; Oyejide and Njinken, 2002). The ACPs currently comprises 79 countries (48 African, 16 Caribbean and 15 Pacific). The EUs relations with the ACPs are today governed by the ACP-EU Partnership Agreement signed in Cotonou, Benin in June 2000 which came into force in 2003 (ACP-EEC, 2005). However, it has since been revised and the revised Agreement entered into force in July 2008. In a sense, both ECOWAS and ACPs are closely linked but the paper focuses on EU-ECOWAS relations with a view to unravelling its specificity in historical perspectives. 1.2 BACKGROUND OF ECOWAS ECOWAS is a regional group of fifteen West African countries, founded on May 28, 1975, with the signing of the Treaty of Lagos. ECOWAS is one of the pillars of the African Economic Community and its mission is to promote economic cooperation and integration. The overall objective of ECOWAS is to promote co-operation and integration in order to create an economic and monetary union for encouraging economic growth and development in West Africa (ECOWAS, 2010a). The grouping contains a very wide diversity of economies in terms of size, development and resources (EBID, 2005). There were 16 nations in the group until very recently when Mauritania voluntarily withdrew its membership from ECOWAS. The countries include the 7 UEMOA countries of Benin, Burkina-Faso, Chad, Cote dIvoire, Mali, Niger, and Senegal. Other non-UEMOA member countries are Cape-Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone. The UEMOA is the French acronym of West African Economic and Monetary Union. It is an organization of eight states of West Africa established in 1994 to promote economic integration among countries that share a common currency, the CFA franc. In terms of achievements, UEMOA member countries are working toward greater regional integration with unified external tariffs than ECOWAS. It is both a customs and monetary union and has initiated regional structural and sectoral policies which ECOWAS is adopting. Within ECOWAS also, there is a West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) which comprises a group of five countries (mainly English speaking) that plan to introduce a common currency, the Eco by the year 2015. The WAMZ was formed in 2000 to try and establish a strong stable currency to rival the CFA franc. Though, the desired goal is for the CFA franc and Eco to merge, with a view to giving all of West Africa countries a single stable currency (ECOWAS, 2010b). 1.3 OVERVIEW OF EU-ECOWAS RELATIONS ECOWAS shares a resemblance with the EU in its objective and modes of cooperation for regional integration among member states. Though, their history of establishment differs. Unlike the ECOWAS model, in which all countries came together at once (except Cape Verde which joined in 1976) to form an economic arrangement, only six countries initiated the current EU arrangement, while other European countries joined at different points through its enlargement and accession strategy (Alaba, 2006). It has often been argued that integration in the West African sub-region has largely been informed by the integration processes in Western Europe, primarily because of EUs ‘commitment to regional integration (Smith, 2008; Ogbeidi, 2010). A point of departure between the two groupings however, lies in their performances over the years. While their performances could be a reflection of the level of development of the member states that constitutes the membership of the sub-regional unions, the most important single factor is their level of commitment towards achieving their goals. Unlike the EU arrangement, commitment to various protocol meant to facilitate the achievement of the vision of ECOWAS has been very low and implementation targets have never been met. For example trade liberalisation within the ECOWAS region has been generally low and ineffective (UNCTAD, 2009). The same compliance failure applies to an ECOWAS protocol on free movements of persons, the right of residence and establishment which was agreed as far as back 1979 (World Bank, 2007). 1.4 TRADE AND ECONOMIC STRUCTURE OF ECOWAS WITH EU For virtually all ECOWAS countries, the EU is the main trading partner (Eurostat, 2008). This high dependence of the countries on the EU market is largely due to their historical links and the nature of their trade patterns which has often made them trade dependent (Fontagne, 2008; Greenidge, 1998). The economic structure of the West African sub-region is largely dominated by agriculture which is closely followed by mining. Agriculture contributed about 25.17%, to sub-regional GDP as at 2006, up from 24.19% in 1995, while mining accounted for 22.13% slightly higher than 21.45 in 1995. Trade contributed about 14.64% of the Groups GDP, down from 15.39% in 1995 (Ecostat, 2010). Most of the ECOWAS countries tend to be highly specialised in a few key products such as petroleum and a few unprocessed agricultural commodities such as coffee and cotton. ECOWAS is the largest trading partner of all the EUs sub regional groupings/cooperation. It accounts for about 40% of total trade with the EU by regions (Eurostat, 2008). Out of the fifteen ECOWAS countries, thirteen of these countries are ranked as Least Developed Countries (LDCs) while three are non-LDC (HDR, 2009). The non-LDC countries in the region are Nigeria, Ghana and Cote dIvoire. These 3 non-LDC countries and Senegal to some extent account for the bulk of trade relations with the EU. In 2008 EUs rankings of African countries in terms of value of goods traded, Nigeria and Cote dIvoire ranked the 4th and 10th for all EU imports while Nigeria, Senegal and Ghana were ranked 5th, 9th and 10th respectively for all EUs exports (Eurostat, 2009). West Africas main exports are oil from Nigeria (50% of West African exports) and agricultural tropical products (cocoa, bananas, pineapples, wood) mostly from Cà ´te dIvoire and Ghana (European Commission, 2009) while Senegal is noted for groundnut (Bergtold et al, 2005). For nearly all the countries the leading import items are heavy equipments, chemical and chemical products and textiles, rubber and metal products. 1.5 EU-ECOWAS EPA NEGOTIATIONS As mentioned earlier, EU-ECOWAS relations are governed by the agreements between EU and ACP group of States. In order to achieve their objectives, the relations between the two bodies have historically been framed by a series of conventions. For EU-ECOWAS relations, the most operative conventions are Lomà © Conventions (1975-2000) and Cotonou Agreement (2000-2020). The Lomà © Conventions (1975-2000) consist of four regimes of conventions from Lomà © I which was first signed in February 1975 in Lomà ©, Togo to Lomà © IV which ended in 2000. The Lomà © Conventions are a trade and aid agreement between the European Community (EC) and the ACP group of states. The first Lomà © Convention was designed to provide a new framework of cooperation between the then European Community (EC) and developing ACP countries. The Lome Conventions most important attribute is its non-reciprocity, which allows ACP exports duty free access to the European market while enabling the ACP states to maintain tariff barriers against European goods. It introduced the STABEX and SYSMIN system which were designed to compensate ACP countries for the shortfall in agricultural export earnings and mining industry activities respectively due to fluctuation in the prices or supply of commodities (ACP-EEC, 1995; 1975). The Lomà © Convention was a commitment to an equal partnership between Europe and ACPs (Holland, 2002). A critical review of the trade agreement/convention however, shows a perpetuation of unequal power relations between both parties. For example, the reciprocity clause has always been geared towards meeting export interests of European firms (Orbie, 2008) and the negotiation for the Lomà © convention itself was a reflection of Third World commodity power, which the EU was keen to preserve through its privileged access to these commodities via its ex-colonial links (Gibb, 2000). Nevertheless, Lomà © conventions have been considered as the hallmark of the EUs policy with the Third world and the most institutionalised of all EUs group-to-group dialogues. It marked a distinctive progression from a regime of association to what could be called a forum of partnership and cooperation (Hurt, 2003; Holland, 2002). It has also been argued by Crawford (2007) that Lomà © Convention is the most significant agreement for Sub-Saharan Africa. The Cotonou Agreement (2000-2020) is the most recent agreement in the history of ACP-EU Development Cooperation. It is based on four main principles: partnership, participation, dialogue and mutual obligations, and differentiation as well as regionalization (ACP-EEC, 2000). One of the radical changes and fundamental elements of the Cotonou Agreement concerns trade cooperation between EU-ACP states. This is not surprising given the fact that EU has exclusive trade competencies and trade policy instrument has been a key strategy of its external policy (Lightfoot, 2010; Orbie, 2008; Bretherton and Vogler, 1999). The most striking feature of the new trade cooperation is the fact that the non-reciprocal trade preferences have been replaced with a new scheme of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs). The EPAs are schemes aimed at creating a Free Trade Area (FTA) between the EU and ACP countries (ACP-EEC, 2000). The EPAs are a response to continuing criticism that the non-reciprocal and discriminating preferential trade agreements offered by the EU are incompatible with WTO rules. Apart from the issue of WTO compatibility, it was also argued that generous trade preferences were not enough for economic take off (European Commission, 1995). It was therefore seen as having achieved limited success in terms of promoting accelerated development in ACP countries. So, what does the EPA signify for EU-ECOWAS relations? The negotiations on an EPA between ECOWAS and the EU were launched in Brussels in 2002 (ECA, 2007). However, the negotiations have so far been inconclusive due to some concerns that the EPAs will lead to large trade imbalances in West African economies, as well as substitution of local and regional production by European imports (Perez and Karingi, 2007). The decline in import duties due to the preferential tariff elimination has also been a major concern for West African countries (Busse and Grobmann, 2004). In particular, the reciprocity condition implicit in the agreement, implied that at some time before 2020, the ECOWAS countries must have to open up their economies to imports from the EU countries. This may invariably lead to trade diversion, trade creation, loss of trade revenues and deindustrialisation (World Bank, 2007; Adenikinju and Alaba, 2005). In a study on the impacts of the EU-ECOWAS EPAs, Lang (2006) found that Ghana and especially Guinea-Bissau could lose up to 20% of their Government budget revenues in case of a full liberalisation of EU imports. Although tariff revenue falls were considered highest in Nigeria in absolute dollar terms, those two countries will be the most affected. In a similar study on the impacts of the EU-ACP EPAs in six ACP regions, Fontagne et al (2008:6-7), ACP exports to the EU are forecast to be 10 percent higher with the EPAs than under the GSP/EBA option. On average ACP countries are forecast to lose 70 percent of tariff revenues on EU imports in the long run. The most affected region is ECOWAS. The implication of a loss of tariff income would translate into public budget constraints and could therefore pose great developmental challenges for ECOWAS countries. Nevertheless, both Cote dIvoire and Ghana agreed and endorsed interim EPAs with the EU in December 2007 (European Commission, 2009). These agreements were principally put in place because full regional EPAs could not be agreed upon. Of these three largest trading partners with the EU, Nigeria opted out of an interim EPA. For now, the country can only benefit from the regular EU Generalised System of Preferences (GSP). This is far less advantageous than the nonreciprocal Lomà © preferences because the GSP covers fewer products and has stricter rules of origin (Hurt, 2003). Though the Nigerian Government has twice applied to be placed on the GSP+ status, the EU has rejected the applications purely for political reasons (Nwoke, 2009). The rest of the West African region is largely made up of Least Developed Countries (European Commission, 2009). They have an option not to negotiate since they have duty free access to the EU under the ‘Everything But Arms (EBA) scheme (Orbie, 2008; Bilal, 2007). The EBA is the differentiation component of Cotonuo Agreement made in the treatment of least developed countries (LDCs) and non-LDCs. For these thirteen countries, the EPA may not carry additional benefits over the EBA except for the technical and financial support that the former may carry (Adenikinju and Alaba, 2005). So, their level of commitment to signing full EPA is marginal. It needs pointing out that the small gains which might result from the EBA initiative are expected to fade away as a consequence of the EU negotiations on EPAs (Kohnert, 2008). Besides, the contentious nature of EBA scheme due to its unilateral introduction makes it less attractive (Bilal, 2002). As Flint (2008:60) argues the EU has highlig hted further problems facing policymakers by the split into separate blocs of LDC and non-LDC. This is very illustrative of EU-ECOWAS relations. From the foregoing, it is discernible that in effect, the EPA will play a significant role in terminating the ECOWAS group as the main development partner of the EU. Prior to the EPA negotiations, ECOWAS countries have not had great success at significantly enlarging trade amongst member states. Intraregional trade as a proportion of total trade remains much lower in African regional integration (UNCTAD, 2009). And, with the new EPAs strategy that seeks for unilateral negotiation in practice, trade improvement amongst member states is further undermined (Borrmann et al, 2005). Concisely, the EPA is detrimental to the cause of regional integration. For EU-ECOWAS, the two principles of reciprocity and deeper regional integration are likely to pull in different directions (Lang, 2006). 1.6 AID FOR TRADE AND DEMOCRACY PROMOTION IN EU-ECOWAS RELATIONS The Aid for Trade initiative emerged within the Doha Round out of the need to help all countries to benefit from trade i.e. to maximise the gains from trade. Yet, demand for, and capacity to absorb, aid for trade still exceeds available resources (World Bank, 2005). The EU Aid for Trade strategy adopted in October 2007 confirms the European commitment to provide EUR2 billion per year in Trade Related Assistance by 2010 and to increase spending for the wider Aid for Trade agenda (ECDPM, 2009). A review of Aid for Trade however shows that donors have achieved their pledges simply by applying the modified WTO-OECD monitoring rules, without initiating any new projects (Brà ¼ntrup and Voionmaa, 2010). So, for ECOWAS countries whose capacity building and supply-side constraints have been a major factor in the lack of competitiveness and the relatively poor trade and growth performance (AU, 2006), Aid for Trade can only be meaningful if it is translated into genuine fresh aid for utilisati on. Also, the issue of democracy promotion in EU-ECOWAS relations is more of rhetoric than accomplishment. Crawford (2005) argument that the EUs interests in Africa focus less on democracy promotion and more on the perceived burdens and security threats to Europe arising from political instability and conflict seems more instructive and matter of fact. 1.7 CONCLUSION The EPA negotiations to establish a Free Trade Zone between EU and ECOWAS in line with Cotonuo agreement for a period of 12 years have significant implications on the economies of ECOWAS countries. Given the structure and trade patterns of ECOWAS countries in which manufactures account for about 75% of the EUs export to ECOWAS, full liberalisation of their economies will result in loss of revenue, deindustrialisation and will make the countries to be more vulnerable in the global economy. It is less to be seen if the IEPAs/EPAs negotiations would engender trade that will result in development and poverty reduction for the West Africa sub region. The trade cooperation upon which EPAs is founded symbolises regional integration in principles but its strategy of interim EPAs among individual countries of the region and EBA for least developed countries encourages unilateralism in practice. 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Omnipotence And St. Thomas Aquinas :: essays research papers

Omnipotence and St. Thomas Aquinas Omnipotence literally means the ability to do all things, or to have absolute power. This quality seems to be generally accepted as an intrinsic characteristic of the Judaeo-Christian god, as it says in Luke I. 37, "...there is nothing that God cannot do.". Certain objections can be raised to attributing this characteristic to god however, in-so-far as this characteristic seems to conflict with other accepted attributes of god. In The Summa Theologica St. Thomas Aquinas addresses some of these objections, the most telling of which can be restated as: (I) To sin is an action, however god is unable to sin. Therefore god cannot be omnipotent. (ii) The greatest act possible of god is his practice of "sparing and having mercy". There are actions judged to be much greater however, such as creating a world. Therefore god is not omnipotent. (iii) If god is omnipotent, then everything is possible and nothing is impossible. If this is true however, things which are necessary (things which cannot possibly not exist) are no longer so. This is impossible - therefore god cannot be omnipotent. Aquinas begins his rebuttals by defining what is encompassed by the characteristic of divine omnipotence. He explains that god is able to all things which are "possible absolutely", which he defines as all things which can be logically expressed without the predicate being in conflict with the subject - i.e. god is capable of all things which do not involve a contradiction in terms. This does not imply any defect in the power of god, Aquinas goes on to say, because impossible things by definition have "no aspect of possibility", moreover, it is absurd to expect divine omnipotence to encompass the logically impossible. (I) Aquinas answers the first objection as follows. He explains that "...to sin is to fall short of perfect action; hence to be able to sin is to be able to fall short in action..." which he attests is contrary to the meaning of divine omnipotence. (ii) In answering the second objection Aquinas points out, "It is not