THE GUNPOWDER PLOT

                    

            The Gunpowder Plot occupies an important place in British history. When James I became King of England in 1603, Catholics in England expected James to be more tolerant of them. However, he fined Catholics for not attending the Church of England services and ordered all Catholic priests to leave England. Therefore, Catholics wanted to kill King James and put his daughter Elizabeth on the throne. Robert Catesby and his fellow conspirators made a plan to blow up the Houses of Parliament on the day it opened. This plot would not only kill James, but also everyone who was sitting in the House of Parliament. They rented a house near the Parliament and started tunneling a cellar. They had 36 barrels to blow up Parliament.

            Guy Fawkes was a member of these Catholics and an explosive expert. He was given the job of lighting the fuse, but he was found with 36 barrels and arrested one day before the opening day of the House of Parliament. He was taken to the Tower of London and after four days,he confessed to the plot. When he was going to the block, he jumped from the gallows and broke his neck. The other conspirators had been hiding in a house in the Midlands. Catesby and two other crew members were shot and the remainder were also taken to the Tower of London and after the trial they were hanged.

            Every year on 5^th November, The Gunpowder Plot and Guy Fawkes is remembered. In every part of England, huge bonfires are lift, fireworks are set off and effigies of Guy Fawkes are burned. This is to celebrate the failure of the Gunpowder Plot, not a political issue. This kind of important historical event is also the subjectofseveral productions such as V for Vendetta, Sherlock Holmes, even BBC published an article about ‘’What if the Gunpowder Plot had succeeded?’’ in 2011.

THE BLACK DEATH

 The Black Death occurred in October 1347. It arrived by sea and killed more than 20 million people in Europe; almost one-third of the continent's population. 12 Genoese trading ships arrived at the Sicilian port of Messina after a long journey through the Black Sea. Most of the sailors aboard these ships were dead, and remainder were very ill. They were suffering from fever and were exhausted. The Sicilian authorities immediately ordered these ships out of the harbor, but it wasn't adequate to prevent deaths. The plague was terrifyingly efficient. When they caught the disease,healthy people could be dead in a few days. Today, scientists understand that the Black Death, is spread by a bacillus called Yersinia pestis. They know that the bacillus travels from person to person through the air or through the bite of infected fleas and rats. People who remained alive and didn't catch the plague did so many things not to get sick: doctors refused to see patients, shopkeepers closed stores, many people moved away from the cities, nevertheless none of these things could prevent catching the disease because the disease effected people and animals. The Black Death epidemic had run its course by the early 1350s.

The plague had large scale social and economic effects, many of them are mentioned in the introduction of the Decameron. People were isolated from the world and could not communicate with their family and friends. Funeral rites became cursory. Some believed that the wrath of God was descending upon man, and fought the plague with prayer. Some believed that they should obey the idiom, "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you may die."  Many of the religious dignitaries died and the remainder couldn’t prevent the plague; therefore, people's religious belief declined.

The plague also effected the economy and the  community experienced economic collapse, which caused extreme inflation. It was so difficult to produce goods and trade them; consequently, the prices of goods rose significantly. Workers became more important because of illness and death, accordingly their wages rose. Workers became scarce so the lords wanted to  keep them on their land, they made some changes in workers’ standard of living.

Upper class people spent money on clothing in order to emphasize their social standings. The Aristocracy attempted to resist the changes in the social community so peasants revolted. Besides the plague’s deadly effects, the social and economic structure was changed drastically.

WHAT IS VOODOO?

                                                                   

Voodoo has been portrayed in movies, television series and popular books as dark and evil, a cult of devil worship dominated by black magic, human and animal sacrifice, and pin-stuck dolls. Yet thousands of people adhere to its precepts because voodoo is not the evil thing that is portrayed in those movies and books.

Voodoo is an official religion that is derived from African spiritual practices and born in West Africa, then spread to the Americans and the Caribbean. Voodoo is culturally similar to Judaism or Christianity but doesn't have a sacred text, a church or hierarchical structure of leaders. In Voodoo, there is only one true God and practitioners communicate with him through thousands of different spirits. These spirits are the dead people of their community: voodooists believe that death is a transition from the visible, i.e. physical, world to the invisible, i.e. spiritual, world, so predecessors are still with them in spirit to intercede between God and man and help men's concerns through their counseling. Voodooists call spirits Loas who are comparable to Christian Saints. Most Loas are helpful, but some can be mischievous and tricky to deal with. Every believer of Voodoo has direct contact with the spiritual world through Loas, who can be anywhere at anytime, but, as in other religions, there are prominent and respected figures because of their strong connections with the spirits. Those figures are called Houngan or Mambo who are comparable to priests and priestesses. They are, also, expected to perform many social functions which can show great variation from place to place within Voodoo beliefs and practices because Voodoo is a community-centered religion. For example, in places where conditions are very desperate, Voodoo is often focused on survival, so generally Loas are called to heal the sick. On the other hand, sometimes men demand something from Loas, but  sometimes Loas demand something from men and when that happens, even for priests, it can be dangerous to disobey spirit's wishes. To exemplify, years ago, a Loa demanded that the daughter of a priest become a medium but the priest wanted her to get a modern education, so he disobeyed. Over years, she didn't understand what the teacher was saying in the class and she couldn't hear when the teacher spoke to her. Then the priest realized that the Loa was performing his plan, so, he let her become a medium to achieve her potential.

In spite of these harmless facts about Voodoo, there is so much misunderstanding about it because theWest created a scary image of it in movies and series for their own valid reasons. Voodoo is rooted in slavery and intricately connected to their political and social evolution. Its first practices were done by slaves of African descent who were not even considered fully human. So, their religion was seen as superstition; their priests were denigrated as witch doctors, and their God and spirits were denounced as evil because they were slaves. In addition to these disparaging attitudes towards them, there has been one successful slave revolution which provoked a great fear in European and American colonies, in modern history, in Haiti, where Voodoo was born. Slaves of African descent, many of them Voodooists fighting for freedom, overthrew European rulers and took control of the country. When all of these facts are considered, it is seen why the image and vocabulary of Voodoo  is associated with disturbing and horrifying images in our minds and created a mythology that we have taken as truth thanks to  Hollywood.

All in all, Voodoo is not how it is seen: it is a religion which is practiced by thousands of people. So, people should have a respectful attitude toward it; not a fearful one to stop this misunderstanding. Through education and getting to know the facts about it, people can overcome that fear.

DEMOCRACY VERSUS TOTALITARIANISM

Humanity has always needed tobe governed by a principle. Today, democracy is supposed to be the best political system in terms of providing freedom of speech, , lifestyle, and religion. On the other hand, totalitarianism is also thought to be necessary for making decisions speedily during an economic crisis ora military operation. However, unlimited power is very attractive for everyone and there might be possible and predictable bad results such as Nazi persecution of homosexuals and the Gypsies.Of course, democracy and totalitarianism are almost diametrically opposed forms of government but there is also a similarity concerning  authority. 

The main difference between the two systems  is the separation of powers. In democratic countries, the powers are divided into 3 groups: legislative, executive, and judicial.The representatives are responsible for fulfilling the desires of the citizens. The power is vested in the people. Thus, rights of minorities are protected. This is the main principle of democracy.  In contrast to democracy, the will of the leader is supreme in totalitarian systems. There is no right to rise against the leader. Nobody can guarantee that the citizens are pleased and they suppose their rights are protected by the government.

Secondly, in democracy, freedom of speech is  seen as a means of improvement and encouraged by governments in order to have  a country that all citizensare grateful and happy to live in whereas a totalitarian government silences the people through oppression. In addition, the secret police are a control method in totalitarian systems so the method is a way of spreading fear among the citizens.

On the other hand, there is also a similarity. Both forms of government have the potential to suppress. If a single party receives  majority support, it will be possible that the original system can be disrupted to stay in power. Under the name of democracy, dictatorship might emerge.

In conclusion, democracy and totalitarianism are accepted by different countries. Every citizen wishesto livein a developing and respectable country. However, the place where people don’t have any right to speak for their public and private life cannot be an ideal place to live . Governments and their citizens act together through democracy. Democracy is always better than totalitarianism until a better political system is  found. 

TOTALITARIANISM VERSUS DEMOCRACY

Almost every person in the world has heard the term government which is the system by which a nation, state or community is ruled. There are many types of government, such as communism, oligarcy, theocracy, totalitarianism and democracy.  Totalitarianism and democracy have many differences and some similarities.

In the first place, totalitarianism is a political system where the state holds total authority over a society and seeks to control all aspects of public and private life. For example, Nazi Germany was a totalitarian government. Unlike totalitarianism,democracy is the government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation  usually involving periodically held free elections. For example, USA has been ruled by democracy. Moreover, democracy institutionalizes the political ideas of equal rights and civil control. However, totalitarianism enshrines the idea that the power of the state must be total;  the will of the leader is law and supreme. Therefore, in totalitarianism one person has all the power and if someone says or does something that is not approved, he will punish them, so other people cannot disobey that person, argue or say something he does not like. Because of these reasons, people are not equal, do not have any rights and cannot be free or speak freely. On the other hand, In democracy, all citizens are equal, they can express any opinion to the government or disagreewith them because the power to govern comes from citizens.

On the other side of the coin, they have similarities too. Both forms of government have the potential to oppress the  people while a democracy typically does not follow this pattern. It is possible that a majority of people could empower a single party that would oppress the minority. Another similarity is the irrational voter can be a stepping stone towards a totalitarian type of democracy. Under certain conditions voters might select a candidate that would improve their lives at the cost of others.When given too much power, the party elected may abuse it and eventually come to control the entire state.

Ultimately, since we can talk, walk or do and say something freely, democracy provides us with security,cares about our thoughts, gives us power and makes everyone equal, itis  the best type of government for all people in the world.

SHADOW EDUCATION

Changing circumstances and developing technology bring competition to every field of our lives and also to education. Apart from public schools, there is a new phenomenon: shadow education establishments. Thanks to their increasing success rate, they have a growing customer base. Many believe that shadow education establishments contribute to both the economy and pupils. However, others believe that shadow education establishments should be banned.

Supporters of the idea that the shadow education system should not be banned maintain that pupils need shadow education by virtue of the poor quality of public education. Public school teachers lack the creativity and commitment to help students achieve success. However, these problems may be resolved at shadow education establishments. Not every private institution can provide good and quality education. New graduates  or inexperienced teachers can be employed in these places. As a result of this, students do not get an adequate education.

According to most advocates, more money means more quality education. Therefore, affluent people want their children to go to  the most expensive institutions because they believe that their children deserve much more personal attention which increases their success rate. However, education should be based on an individual's hard work and not on a family’s bank account. If we look at  countries such as Finland and Norway which have more than 95% of their students in public schools , we see that citizens in these countries are some of the best educated people in the world. It seems that they do not have to go to school twice.

 All in all, shadow education establishments should be banned because they increase inequality between people. Instead of these establishments, public schools must give a high quality education. This is the only thing we need for a bright future.

AUTOCRATIC VERSUS DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP

Leadership is defined as the power of an individual to influence others in belief or action.For a company or government to succeed, good leadership is crucial. All employees work under the direction of their managers. Therefore, to increase the productivity of a company some significant decisions should be made by the director. In this case, the kind of leaders may determine the fate of a company. There are two major types of leadership according to their management styles.

One type of the leadership is autocratic. Autocratic leaders take most decisions without consulting others and are the main source of power of the institution. They also tend to be punitive, controlling, power-oriented and coercive because they are only concerned for productivity. Autocratic leaders, also called directive leaders,don’t trust the ability of the followers and thus supervise and control them. The employees of the company managed by an autocratic leader get less responsibility and face less challenge. As a result, they cannot be satisfied with their jobs.Moreover, autocratic leadership has some advantages such as quick decision making, absolute control, focused targets, close supervision and maintaining order and discipline. Briefly, autocratic leaders have the power to control or supervise a company or the government and don’t consider thethoughts of others.

Another type of leadership is democratic. Democratic leaders involve people in discussions and the final decision-making. They tend to be considerate, consultative, participative, employee-centered and supportive because they are concerned for employees. They encourage questioning; open ideas to criticism and treat subordinates’ mistakes as learning opportunities. When subordinates work well, the leaders celebrate accomplishments and hence subordinates are encouraged.  Furthermore, democratic leadership, also called participative leadership, includes subordinates in the decision making process by encouraging employees to be creative, innovative and engaged at a higher level of productivity. In brief, democratic leaders don’t ignore subordinates ideas, thoughts and attitudes and hence boost them.

To sum up, thetype of leader is more important for companies or governments to survive for a long time. Democratic leaders regard employees’ motivation and improvementas crucial. On the other hand, autocratic leaders gather all the power to themselves. Autocratic leaders provide quick decision-making, while the democratic leaders focus on the subject comprehensively.