Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
was the 16th president of the united states of America.
He was born in
the year 1809 in a small one-roomed log cabin.
As his family was
rather poor, he received very little formal school education as a
child.
But because the
boy was very interested in learning and books, he self taught himself
most of what he knew.
As a young man,
Abraham had a variety of different jobs, until he decided to run for
president. After he had won the election in the year 1860, he
achieved a number of things as the president of the united states of
America. Under his lead it came to the abolishment of slavery, he
strengthend the national government and he lead the country through
the civil war.
In the end,
Abraham was shot during a play at the theatre. As a matter of fact,
he was the first American president to be assassinated, but as we all
know, not the last.
Civil War
The conflict goes
back to the foundation of the United States of America, where the
southern states had less power than the northern part. The south
decided that they wanted to leave the USA and found their own
country. The northern states however, didn’t agree with this, as
they wanted to stay a unit. After the election of Abraham Lincoln as
president in the year 1860, the northern states could achieve the
abolishment of slavery. But because the south feared that this could
happen in their part aswell, here you should know that they needed
the cheap workers for their agriculture, it came to the civil war
between the northern and southern states in 1861. Overall the war
lasted 4 years and when it ended in 1865, over 600 000 people had
lost their lives.
Montgomery Bus
Boycott
The Montgomery
Bus boycott was started by a black lady called Rosa Parks. It was the
1 December of the year 1955, where segregation was still very common,
when Rosa was taking the bus home from work, in Montgomery, Alabama.
When a white person boarded the bus, the driver asked Rosa Parks to
stand up and give him her seat. After she refused, he called the
police and Rosa was arrested and had to pay a fine. This little act
of bravery lead to a whole movement under the lead of Martin Luther
King Jr., where 90 percent of the black population didn’t use
public buses for over a year. In the end this lead to the passing of
the civil rights act and it showed the black people, that peaceful
protest was successful.
Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks was a
black civil rights activist. She is most know for starting the
Montgomery Bus Boycott. It was the 1 of December, in the year 1955,
she was taking the bus home from work. When a white man boarded the
bus, the driver asked Rosa to stand up and make space for him. When
she refused, he called the police and Rosa was arrested and had to
pay a fine. This little act of bravery lead to a movement under the
lead of Martin Luther King Jr., where 90 percent of the black
population didn’t use public buses for over a year. In the end this
lead to the passing of the civil Rights Act and showed the black
people that peaceful protest was successful.
Civil Rights
Movement
Before the year
1955, racial discrimination and segregation was very common
especially in the southern states of America. There were separate
areas for black and white people in public transport, toilets,
restaurants and even schools. The black people felt that they had
less rights-which was true by the way- concerning education, politics
as well as pretty much everything else. So they decided to take a
stand and do something about their situation. One of the first events
in the civil rights Movement was the Montgomery Bus boycott, which
Rosa Parks had started on the 1 of December in the year 1955. Another
important name of this time is Martin Luther King Jr. He led the
Montgomery Bus Boycott movement, but the thing that he is most know
for is his famous speech “I have a dream”. The Civil Rights
Movement took over 100 years, but was a very important process,
because if it hadn’t happened, maybe we would still have
segregation today.
Martin Luther
King JR.
Martin Luther
King Jr. is one of the most well known names of the civil Rights
Movement. Before the year 1955, racial discrimination and segregation
were still very common epecially in the southern states of America.
On the 1 of December in the year 1955 Rosa Parks, a civil rights
activist, started the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Martin Luther King Jr.
was the official leader of this movement, and could persuade 90
percent of the black population, not to use public buses for over a
year. Eventually this lead to the passing of the civil rights act.
Martin Luther King Jr. also organized a number of marches ,protests
and sit ins and risked his life many times. The thing that Martin
Luther King Jr. is most known for, is his famous speech “I have a
dream”, where he calls out to the black population and tells them
to take a stand and join his form of peaceful protest. Martin Luther
King Jr. achieved many great things and because of this he is
considered a hero and has gone down in history.
Malcom X
Malcom X is a not
quite so well-known civil rights activist. As you properly know,
racial discrimination and segregation was still very common
especially in the southern states of America, before the year 1955,
in which Rosa Parks started the Motgomery Bus Boycott. But unlike
Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, who both thought that only
peaceful Protests like Marches, Sit ins and Boycotts could lead to
racial equality, Malcom X belived in Black nationalism. This means
that he thought that black people were worth more than whites and
that they should reverse the current situation. Malcom X held a
speech in which he calls out to his followers in the crowd, and tells
them that it is time to fight back against the white population. He
believed only weapons and war could bring the blacks the rights that
they deserved. In the end it wasn’t Malcom X who achieved the
passing of the Civil Rights act, no it was Martin Luther King Jr.
amongst other activists, who had achieved this only by peaceful forms
of protest.
Common Wealth
Today I am going
to talk about the topic Common Wealth. The Name Common Wealth of
Nations goes back to the year 1884 where a lot of the british
colonies became independent and formed the organization. Today there
are over 50 countries Member of the Common Wealth. In total that is
almost a third of the world population. The countries are united by
amongst other things their language, history, school education and
also their goals for the future. The member countries have regular
meetings to discuss economic cooperation, to encourage democracy in
other countries and to ensure that everbody is following the human
rights. The head of the association is Queen Elisabeth the second,
who is also the Queen of 16 countries of the Common Wealth. Every
four years there are the Commonwealth Games, which is a sporting
Event and the friedship between these countries is celebrated on the
second Monday of march every year.
A family Drama
The Text is about
a British Asian girl called Jamilia, who lives in London. Jamilias
father Anwar, has decided that it is time for his dauther to marry
and has therefore found in his eyes a perfect husband from India. But
Jamilia thinks that arranged- marriages are old-fashioned and she
refuses to marry the man. This is the part of the story where the
real conflict starts. Jamilia tells her cousin everything, he advises
her to run away. But this is not an option for the girl because she
knows that her father will take it all out on her mother with
physical violence. When she tries to have another conversation with
her father, to try and show him her point of view, she discovers that
he has put himself on a hunger strike and will not stop until his
daughter promises to marry the man of his choice. He already is
looking rather thin and unhealthy and Jamilia knows that if he
doesn’t eat something soon he will die. Her father puts her under
even more pressure to do as he asks by stating that if she doesn’t
agree on the engagement, he will continue to avoid food of any kind
and his death will be her fault. Jamilia is in an inner conflict with
herself and really doesn’t know what to do. With this cliff hanger
the reader is left to wonder about what actions Jamilia decides to
take. I guess if we wish to find out we will have to read the whole
story.
The sheep
This story is
about what the author remembers of the beginning of his career as a
teacher.
The main
character, Mr. McCourt is a young teacher from Ireland who is in his
first English class at a high school in New York. He wants to go
straight into his lesson, but the student seem to have other plans.
There is a boy called Joey, to which the author refers to as the
mouth, because he tries to distract the teacher by asking him all
sorts of questions. The rest of the class encourage by going along
and moaning about the spelling list that Mr.McCourt had planned. All
in all the student are very disrespectful and address the teacher in
their teenage slang. After having answered a numer of questions, Mr.
McCourt decides that he has had enough. When Joey asks him if he had
gone out with girls in ireland, he responds in an ironical way and
says “ no dammit, I went out with sheep”, the class thinks that
this is extremely funny. But the next day the principal sends for the
teacher and tells him that there have been complaints about him
having used bad words in class. Furthermore he is not pleased to hear
that Mr.McCourt has talked about sheep in his lesson instead of doing
his Job. This time he lets him of with a warning but in his view that
was just unacceptable.