City of God Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

City of God - Essay Example Importance of education The youth gang involvement in urban crime is as a result of lack of education and lack of social and economic mobility. The Brazilians who engage in crime in the film are undoubtedly uneducated. Like other street occupants in the world cities, these youths in the city of God are held in low esteem. Their occupation is crime, begging and barrow-pushing among others (Bromley, 1982). The elite class refers to these people as ‘parasitic occupants’ with disguised unemployment (Bromley, 1982). These descriptions of the street occupants in most cities and especially the young youths are true, but they do not address the causes of these behavioral patterns in the city. In The City of God, the youth gang that develops engages in drug and crime acts. Most of these acts thrive because of poor planning of the government resources. Unequal distribution of resources, therefore, becomes a major cause of youth indulgence in crime (Bromley, 1982). This is because with unequal distribution of resources denies the poor basics such as education and hence lack of employment in the formal sector. Without education, youths spend most of their energetic years struggling for a daily bread and for them to survive, they engage in drug dealings and organized gang crime. For example, in the film, the viewers meet the impoverished thieves known as the ‘Tender trio’ consisted of Clipper, Goose and Shaggy. ... For example, younger boys led by Li’l Dice collide with them to rob occupants of a certain motel. In what can be seen as initiating Li’l into the crime gang, they leave him outside with a gun where he shoots motel inhabitants. At the scene, two members of the trio are killed. Lack of social and economic mobility Socio-economic mobility is the movement of people from one social class to another or one economic level to another. As discussed earlier, there is a strong correlation between education and one’s economic mobility. In The City of God, the young people are unable to secure jobs that would allow them to enhance their economic status (Bromley, 1982). The fact that the young people who form crime gangs in the movie are not employed is an indication that they are not educated. Their involvement in crime while young is a depiction of a sector of urban youths who are idling and surviving in hardships instead of being in school. This means even their parents are not well off or they are not there to support them. Therefore, lack of adequate planning by the government in educating its youths leads to them being denied the most effective and equal process that would enable them to improve their economic mobility. The results of such negligence are blatantly displayed in the movie as thriving of crime and drug business where youths are eliminating each other as a way of surviving. This is a long term effect in the society. Economic mobility starts with ones parents’ inability to take their children to school. Therefore, family background plays a great role in perpetual poverty in urban towns, and this exposes more youths to criminal acts and drug engagements. The evils

Frederick Douglas Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Frederick Douglas - Essay Example Largely, he did this through public speaking engagements and his writing. The first thing he published was the autobiographical Narrative of the Life of an American Slave in 1845. After which, he served as publisher of a newspaper, The North Star, before publishing his second novel, My Bondage and My Freedom, a decade later. While those works (which will be discussed later) were about his life, he later became a political activist in his pursuit to help people less advantaged than he. Surrounding the time that "Reconstruction" and "Appeal" were written, there was a lot of political activity, including the aforementioned Abolitionist Movement, which lasted from sometime in the 1830s, until about 1870. This movement should not be confused with the abolitionist movement started by feminists who wanted to end prostitution (arguing that prostitution was also a form of slavery). Instead, the Abolitionist Movement was fundamental in founding the Anti-Slave Society, which aimed at declaring that those enslaved should immediately become free. The Abolitionist Movement saw the end of slavery, but participants didn't consider its job complete. Once black people were free, they advocated for better education for them, so that men especially would get better jobs. If they could work, they'd be better able to support their families. The movement insisted on healthcare for freed slaves. It also offered assistance in helping family member locate other family members from whom they'd been separated during slavery. When the Fifteenth Amendment guaranteed African-American male suffrage, the Movement proper was over. In 1865, Congress had established the Freedman's Bureau. It helped with the tasks of education, healthcare, and jobs, and even the reunification of families. The Freedman's Bureau was especially helpful to refugees of the American Civil War. African-American women took up causes that affected black women at the time, and later, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was formed to aid all colored persons. All of this helped make Douglass the writer he became. When he wrote "Reconstruction," the Civil War had ended and the country was in a reconstructive state. The "Reconstruction" argument was that although the war had ended, there were still changes to be made. He wrote, "All that is necessary to be done is to make the government consistent with itself, and render the rights of the States compatible with the sacred rights of human nature" (para. 3). He was insisting that the government take a stand within each state, and remain consistent in supporting the rights of all people. He asked that citizens of the United States be able to move, interchangeably, throughout the states and have the same rights in each one. He finished his essay with the opinion that he was not the only person, nor were there only black people, who wanted equality for everyone. He wrote, "This great measure is sought as earnestly by loyal white men as by loyal blacks, and is needed alike by both. Let sound pol itical prescience but take the place of an unreasoning prejudice, and this will be done" (para. 10). In "An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage," Douglass' message was just as political, just as strong. His main focus was on the right to vote for African Americans. He asked Congress how they could have