Green sustainable supply chain

Green sustainable supply chain Environmental changes across the world have generated a movement to identify the causes of global warming and develop solutions to end it before it is too late. In an effort to achive this, many countries are creating laws and regulations with the specific aim to reduce carbon emissions and greenhouse gas effect. The truth is that environmental change is upon us. Not only do we have climate problems but we are also dealing with a resource depletion issue. With economies like India and China growing at double digit rates, the population of the world continues to grow creating shortages of many resources that we use to take for granted. Many consumers, stakeholders and businesses are becoming more involved in the growing green movement. Influenced by customer loyalty shifting towards environmentally friendly products, businesses are trying more and more to make their supply chains greener by introducing sustainability strategies throughout their organizations and supplier relationships. The recent focus on sustainability has resulted in a growing need for integrating environmentally safe choices into supply chain management practices. The concept Green Sustainable Supply Chain Management GSCM can be defined as the process of using environmentally friendly inputs and transforming them through change agents into outputs that can be reclaimed and re-used at the end of their lifecycle therefore, creating a sustainable supply chain. The whole idea of a sustainable supply chain is to reduce costs while helping the environment. 2. Sustainability and Profitability A Green Sustainable Supply Chain integrates ecological factors and supply chain management principles to identify the environmental impact of an organizations supply chain processes. Businesses are becoming aware of the importance of this integration to enable a sustainable business strategy. Many are now seeking out solutions and guidance on how to implement a sustainable supply chain. A sustainable supply chain should not be only optimal for the organization, but also optimal in terms of a limited environmental impact. The sustainable supply chain is no longer exclusively about green issues, but also about generating efficiencies and cost containment. As organizations restructure to reduce their companys environmental footprint, supply chains have become a key area of focus. Many people think that being environmentally friendly increases costs. In the past, most of the companies were focused on reducing unit costs. Only later, many companies could do the change and look instead at total landed costs with the on-set of global trade. Some companies also started looking at the usage costs with a piece of equipment- total cost of ownership TCO.   Sustainability is a tremendous weapon for companies to reduce their costs. There are many facets of the supply chain that could be improved by looking at it from a sustainability point of view. The consulting firm A.T. Kearney released an analysis of businesses submitting information to the Carbon Disclosure Project that finds more than half of them along with 25 percent of their suppliers are generating cost savings as a result of adopting sustainable supply practices. It is a major action because they believed that at least half of the carbon emissions attributable to some global companies are generated in their supply chains. The Carbon Disclosure Project 2011 Supply Chain Report, which covers 57 global companies and more than a thousand of their supply chain partners, shows that 86 percent of those companies derived value out of addressing their supply chain processes as part of a corporate sustainability initiative. PepsiCo. Is a very good example of this, A.T. Kearney reports that the company saved more than $60 million in energy -16% reduction per-unit across its beverage plants as the result of managing the carbon associated to those activities. Walter Todd, the vice president of operations for PepsiCo UK and Ireland, where many of these savings took place, says: â€Å"With a robust strategy and proven benchmarks in place, PepsiCo set out to engage and educate suppliers about potential opportunities to innovate their own operations. By providing suppliers access to the same energy assessment tools we use in our own operations, weve seen a mutual return on investment.† Pepsi-Co also saved around $44 million by switching from corrugated to reusable plastic shipping containers for bottles. Other major companies have also reported significant savings thanks to a sustainable supply chain strategy: Dell is saving over $20 million annually as a result of packaging improvements. They achieved its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2008. One of Sherwin-Williams facilities reduced disposal costs from $95,000 to around $39,150 in less than two years through source reduction, refurbishment of metal containers, and recovery of fiber and steel. Texas Instruments is saving $8 million per year by reducing its transit packaging budget for semiconductor business by implementing source reduction, recycling and reusable packaging systems. Raymour Flanigan Furniture has saved more than 15 million pounds of waste after renovating a building to serve as a recycling center, now they have the capacity to prepare scrap polystyrene, plastic film, and cardboard for market. Commonwealth Edison generated $50 million in financial benefits from managing materials and equipment by taking a lifecycle management approach to production management. Dow Corning saved $2.3 million by using reconditioned steel drums in 1995 and conserved 7.8 million pounds of steel. It is interesting to notice how several companies have developed new revenue sources on the waste they used to throw out. If a sustainable supply chain can be developed, money can be saved by not having to dispose harmful by-products, reduce of obsolescence, decrease the spent on scrap and resources spent on complying its regulatory issues. Another key issue that sustainable companies are focusing on is the logistics and transportation of the product. A simple action such as filling the trucks as full as possible can represent significant savings; Dell has increased its average truck load and worked with UPS to optimize delivery strategies. Multinational company 3M has developed an innovative system to install adjustable decks in trucks.   By placing pallets on two levels they were able to reduce the number of daily truckloads by 40% and save around $110 k per year. Sustainability can be profitable. Improvements in transportation efficiency, operations, raw material selection and packaging are all in the top of the list of green sustainable supply chain initiatives. 3. Sustainability as a competitive advantage Greener supply chain management practices represent a competitive advantage thanks to the increasing customer awareness and regulatory norms. Across industries, there is also a shift in the focus of GSCM programs from compliance to creating value for customers and shareholders. The implementation of Green Supply Chain initiatives has evolved from strictly a compliance issue into a means of generating value. The following table shows how to create value out of traditional cost compliance, including environmental, safety and health business contributions. More and more companies are using sustainability as a competitive advantage to grow market share within their industry. A green supply chain usually pushes the organization towards an improvement of their products, processes, quality and productivity. It can also be considered as an enabler for innovative decisions and brand differentiation improvement. GE now has an Ecomagination program focused on growing their revenue stream from environmentally friendly products to around 20 billion dollars by 2011. They recognized the opportunity associated with saving the environment.   Nowadays many companies are offering customers environmentally produced power and charging a premium for that offering. The green initiatives also help a company to maintain and enlarge their customer portfolio. Environmental concern and social responsibility are now considered as an important part of a succesful business strategy. All competitors are under same market force to change their direction and priority towards a more green initiative, therefore, efforts and investments on this area are becoming more and more important. In addition, more countries will enforce importers to import green products to their nations with tax incentives and this will trigger the chances to do global business. In the same direction, new product development should not be only the responsibility of product design and engineering department; it should also include the fully team-work among marketing, engineering, procurement, logistics and materials operations in order to find the best solutions, like how to ship the products effectively, how to ensure that processes will not generate hazardous wastes and emissions to the environment, what green components can be purchased, what is the optimal packaging size and re-cycle materials to pack each prodcut, etc. In brief, companies have to consider the new product development process as part of the green supply chain strategy. The development, implementation and commitment of green supply strategy are not only to fulfill the customer needs; but also to meet general publics expectations to improve and enhance the role in social responsibility and environmental concerns. In exchange, the company will gain sustainable competitive advantage in the industry. 4. Sustainability and Suppliers Management One of the bigger issues facing companies these days is the actions of suppliers. Companies today are being held accountable for environmental or social problems created by their suppliers. Corporate buying practices can impact suppliers ability to improve their business conduct. Pressure on cost and efficiency can force suppliers to contravene some of their own standards in order to meet their customers commercial requirements. But as the opposite effect, companies can use their purchasing power to help install best practices in small and medium-sized companies. In fact, the companies that engage their suppliers around these issues constitute one of the most important drivers for spreading corporate green and sustainable principles around the world. Collaboration is the key. Many companies are performing environmental audits or implementing rules of conduct to check the actions of their suppliers. The most successful green efforts in supply chains are based on the creation of value by sharing with suppliers and subcontractors the intelligence and know-how about environmental and emerging regulatory issues and emerging technologies. Suppliers and customers can strengthen each others performance, share cost of ownership and social license to operate and create a reciprocal value. Supply chain sustainability must be driven by the originating manufacturers that rely on deep tiers of suppliers and vendors for their products. The reported supplier human rights and environmental violations done by Apples suppliers, is an example of the challenges that suppliers face in managing or influencing these issues on the ground. Apple recently did the right thing by transparently releasing its Apple Supplier Responsibility 2011 Progress Report, which underscored just how challenging and difficult multi-tiered supply chain management can be. GE and other multi-national companies- including Wal-Mart, Honeywell, Citibank and SABIC Innovative Plastics- have partnered to create the EHS Academy in Guangdong Chinese province. The objective of this non-profit venture is to create a better trained and capable workforce of environmental, health and safety professionals and give them the management, implementation and technical knowledge to be able to proactively ensure that real performance is sustainable and integrated fully into the overall business strategy and operating system of a company. Chinese regulatory agencies are also invited to participate as well. The model that GE is using in China offers a positive example of collaborative innovation. One of the main difficulties is the enforcing of supplier sustainability, spceially in growing economies like China or India. Only a small percentage of suppliers meet the requirements in the codes of conduct- including worker compensation and environmental requirements- of major multinational companies. There are still major challenges related to wages, working hours, overtime compensation, lack of unions and social insurance. One factor contributing to the difficulties is the high presence and mobility of migrant workers. 5. Green SCOR model Green SCOR incorporated within the SCOR framework can provide immense help by offering information on best practices, waste disposal process and metrics to increase the success of Green SCOR initiatives. It also provides environmental metrics that can be included in the calculations for optimizing the supply chain. GreenSCOR focuses on the impacts of SCM in each stage of the product life cycle. GreenSCOR integrates best practices and metrics into the entire supply chain planning process. It also enables a systematic study of the supply chain to unearth opportunities for making the supply chain greener. Best practices include collaborating with partners on environmental issues, reducing fuel and energy consumption and minimizing and reusing packaging. It also includes the metrics to measure the effects of greening, including carbon and the environmental footprint, emission costs per unit, energy costs as a percent of production costs, waste produced as a percent of production and returned products disposed of versus remanufactured. Processes to address waste management, such as how to collect and manage waste produced during production and testing (including scrap and non-conforming product). It also enables more efficient use of resources and increases the visibility of financial and operations benefits of supply chain practices. Lastly, the metrics can be effectively used to monitor the progress an organization is making towards a green supply chain. By implementing this model a company increases the chance of success of any green initiative. 6. Challenges when implementing a GSC Contrary to what many people could think, making a business sustainability operational within a supply chain is becoming easier, not harder. There is more information available from procurement managers, environmental directors, design engineers, marketing, communication staff and operations managers- among others- and this deffinitely makes a difference when a supply chain decides to go green. But still big challenges like the lack of information about the green supply chain practices and the lack of tools to optimize the supply chain with environmental management makes the implementation less easy. With the trend of global sourcing tracking the carbon footprint of finished products can be difficult; however, new initiatives have emerged for adopting the practice of requesting a carbon footprint from suppliers. Barriers to global trade because of the increasing environmental regulations, more restrictions on hazardous substances, bigger emphasis on lean manufacturing and increased supplier auditing and verification are creating the critical road toward new supply chain management expectations. The seek for efficiencies in supply chain management and producing products while reducing waste is a vital imperative in a recovering economy. Shareholder value, company valuations and possible mergers and acquisitions are affected by supply chain sustainability. This impacts cash management and liquidity, for example, carbon-intensive sectors may see an increase in the cost of capital. The World Resources Institute is working on the new supply chain and product lifecycle greenhouse gas protocols that will frame the new expectations of value chain sustainability accounting and reporting. Increased attention will be paid on conflict minerals, fair labor and other social aspects of sustainability, management of hazardous substances in toys and other consumer products. It is acknowledged by all organizations that the needs of the community are as important as those of other traditional stakeholders. Larger companies are identifying the critical supply chain partners that have the greatest product impact and collaboratively address the environmental and social footprint of their products through the value chain. Consumers will play a leading role behind greater supply chain collaboration. Consumer awareness about sustainability demands a more CO2-friendly supply of products and services. Other main challenge is in monitoring sub-supplier sustainability, this has become a tough task for companies with complex global supply chains.It is the responsibility of the direct suppliers to ensure that their sub-suppliers acknowledge, understand and accept the companies sustainable requirements. However, when a supply chain is long and complex, ensuring compliance at many thousands of sub-suppliers represents a major challenge. The future of sustainability will inevitably include the sustainability of entire supply chains, not just direct suppliers One example of this recently has been Dells use of bamboo in its packaging. The company worked to secure Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification for its entire bamboo supply chain, from forest to manufacturing. The packaging is still a small percentage of Dells overall packaging needs, but it is a start. Another example could be IKEA, according to their sustainability annual report, the company is moving in the right direction. Although the company they fell short of its goal of having 30% of its solid wood sourced from verified responsibly managed forests, they are working actively to increase the number, especially in China and Russia. The company has a team of nine forestry specialists who are dedicated to the two countries and is working towards certifying forests which are closer to the production facilities of IKEAs suppliers. IKEA has the goal of having 35% of its solid wood sourced from certified forests by 2012. If companies are not able to manage product compliance such as regulatory norms, they can suffer business interruptions such as product redesigns, delayed market launches, product returns and recalls. Therefore, effective lifecycle management is a key differentiator for short-term as well as long-term to get an advantage and stable position in the market. Suuply chain network and logistics optimization is also key when implementing a GSC, inefficient transportation methods represent a significant part of the ecological problem. It has been illustrated by a recent report that found that as much as 75 per cent of a companys carbon footprint comes from transportation and logistics alone.Transportation management includes load consolidation and route planning to drive cost savings and reduction of environmental impact. Another important challenge is related to establish a reverse logistics network that supports life cycle design and demanufacturing processes. Producers are required to meet specific targets for material recycling and recovery, relative to the total amount of packaging that they have put into the marketplace. This helps to shift the responsibility for collecting packaging and end of life products from local government to producers. Reverse logistics manages the handling and disposition of returned goods, improving a companys ability to put returned goods back on the market. Companies implementing reverse logistics processes can dramatically reduce the waste going into landfills and increase opportunities to reintroduce products to market. Xerox implemented a reverse logistics solution and achieved huge financial benefits of equipment remanufactured and parts reuse amounting representing over $100 million and reduced the waste from landfills. Another important point is the ability to simulate the unpredictable events in the supply chain network flow and evaluate the supply network design frequently. Companies need to work esigning optimum supply chain networks for sustainability incorporating criteria like fuel usage and carbon emissions. Process optimization is another challenge; companies should improve the synchronization of production with customer demand and supplier capacity. The main areas of green manufacturing are reduction in energy, water consumption, waste and emissions that are part of manufacturing processes. And the last challenge I will include is the green reporting, measuring and reporting the environmental impact is the first step towards reducing them. There are direct benefits to organizations from measuring and reporting as because it gives a better understanding of the risks and exposure. Globally, sustainability and environmental reporting are becoming one of the most important management concerns due to increasing pressures of legislation as well as other initiatives. The challenge remains to quantify and report the emission and environmental footprints. It can be a time consuming and costly process that requires extraction of data from multiple systems and manipulating it to arrive at required reports. 7. Findings and conclusions Economic activity has an impact on the environment and the society; industries need to conmsider this into their business operations and costs. It is becoming critical to measure and manage the environmental and social impact of activities and procesess across the supply chain. Green practices and a sustainable supply chain have become a necessity due to both regulatory obligations and economic benefits, yes; a green supply chain can help a company to discover hidden sources of profitability. Increasingly the companies are giving more importance to sustainability to promote loyalty of customers, who are getting more aware about the socio-ecological implications of businesses. A green sustainable supply chain enables business to improve products, process and supply quality and productivity. It also pushes the company to make innovative decisions that respond to green economy requirements, by doing this, companies gain access to key markets through diverse certifications. By using a model such as GreenSCOR incorporated in SCOR version 9, the chances of success in any green initiatives increases. Some key success factors and reccomendations in the implementation of a green sustainable supply chain were identified: Stakeholders should be actively engaged in the sustainability strategies of the business. Green initiatives should be aligned with the strategic objectives of the company. GSCM Best Practices should be adopted when implementing a green supply chain. Technology and models such as SCOR should be used to enable the green initiatives. The company should boost its responsiveness to the expectations of the consumer. Green practices should be designed for minimal environmental impact, focussing the efforts to reduce packaging and in-transit damage when shipping. Planning and inventory management should pay special attention to reducing inventory and identifying optimal distribution solutions. Transportation solutions should be improved by collaboration. Procurement departments should perform lifecycle analysis for choosing products or solutions to minimize environmental impact. Suppliers relationship management should include the regular monitoring of suppliers and sub-suppliers sustainability. Benefits should be extended to the local community, as starting point.

Separation of Church and State in Latin America Essay -- Religion Gove

Separation of Church and State in Latin America Throughout Latin American history, the Roman Catholic Church has played a tumultuous role, from passive "soul saving" to aggressive revolutionary actions. As the countries have turned toward democracy the Catholic Church has had to recognize that along with modernization comes the promotion of two democratic ideals: the separation of Church and State and the endorsement of secularization. While many countries are still working toward a separation of Church and State, Costa Rica, a long-time democratic country, has continued to recognize Roman Catholicism as the official religion of the country and to look to church and clergy for support. Though the Costa Rican Church is removed from the political spotlight, it has not backed down from its doctrine and goals, and the Church and State have created a unique relationship that seems to benefit all peoples. Although the Catholic Church has varied somewhat throughout different parts of the world, the fundamental doctrines regarding social and behavioral expectations have remained relatively untouched. The ideals of tradition and purity still resound within the walls of Catholic churches everywhere. Catholicism is a religion based on ritual with precise words that are to be recited at every mass, baptism, communion, confession, and marriage ceremony. The only ingredient a good Catholic needs in order to share in these traditions and gifts of God is faith. Fortunately, the Church has formulated a number of rules to guide its followers down the difficult path to true faith. Like most Christian religions, the Catholic faith centers its beliefs on the Bible and the teachings of the early Church fathers. Certain parables are extracted ... ... Harold D. ed. Costa Rica: A Country Study, United States Government Printing Office, Washington DC, 1983 Peeler, John A. Latin American Democracies, The University of North Carolina Press, 1985 Pope John Paul II. Opening Address at the Puebla Conference. January 28, 1979 Schall, James V. Liberation Theology, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 1982 Szulc, Tad. Pope John Paul II: The Biography, Scribner, New York, 1995 Tapscott, Stephen ed. Twentieth-Century Latin American Poetry, University of Texas Press, Austin, 1996 Wesson, Robert. Politics, Policies, and Economic Development in Latin America, Hoover Institution Press, Stanford, California, 1984 Winn, Peter. Americas: The Changing Face of Latin America and The Caribbean, Pathean Books, New York, 1992 The Merriam Webster Dictionary, Merriam Webster Incorporated, Springfield, Massachusetts, 1994

Comparison of Conrad’s and Achebe’s Presentation of Africans

Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, both take place in the heart of Africa and center around the idea of colonialism held by the European powers in 19th century. The differences between the two novels are ironically as apparent as â€Å"black† and â€Å"white†. As we begin to think about why Conrad and Achebe have used so different tones on such a similar subject, we feel like we are solving a mystery plot. While reading Heart of Darkness we feel as if we are led through a never ending, dark, damp, gloomy and stinky corridor and the novel ends in an atmosphere which is darker, gloomier and filled with hostile people or maybe creatures. After reading Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, immediately our minds revert to a nearby region in Africa, to Umuofia, and we begin to think whether Nigeria is on the same continent as Congo, and if these dark creatures staring at the boat from the riverbank, are really related to Obierika, or even to the never smiling Okonkwo, who are in our minds sharing palm-wine and breaking kola seeds. Conrad’s and Achebe’s different approach to the themes of â€Å"voice of Africans†, â€Å"presentation of colonizers† and the â€Å"effects of colonialism† distinguish the two works from each other. The voice and presence of Africans differ clearly in two works because Conrad is looking through the perspective of the colonizer and Achebe, from that of the colonized. As stated in the introduction, Conrad has been dreaming of seeing the â€Å"dark continent† since childhood and has managed to go to Congo with the ambition to explore it. Marlow, just like Conrad, has always had the interest in maps and he decides to go to this journey after seeing Congo’s map on a shop window. As Marlow says when he is telling his story, â€Å"It had ceased to be a blank space of delightful mystery- a white patch for a boy to dream gloriously over. It had become a place of darkness,† (p 22) we can realize that the mysterious land he was expecting to see didn’t end up being enjoyable and frightened him. We know that when Conrad first travelled to Congo, he was actually shocked with what he saw; but although he was surprised and horrified, he thought all the savage acts of white men as a part of reality and a necessity to keep this colony functioning. The way he refers to natives as â€Å"black things†, â€Å"criminals† or â€Å"unhappy savages† with no indication of pain in his feelings shows that, as a â€Å"civilized† European who is a stranger to this new land, he convinces himself very easily to the idea that the Africans should be treated as â€Å"savages†. When he sees a young African reclining against a tree with sunken eyes, waiting for his death, it is not his condition that strikes him the most but he is more interested in where he might have found the white thread tied around his neck. Also when he admits to himself that the accountant had â€Å"verily accomplished something difficult† (p 37) by teaching a native woman to do the station tasks, we once again understand that he doesn’t see them as of his equal and in some sense regard them as primitive beings with no intellect. Even if Conrad, as a writer who has become a citizen of Great Britain, one of the leader countries of colonialism, regards all the atrocities in Congo as dark memories, he does not help the African voice to be heard and does not provide any chance for an African to express himself properly, except a native’s words, â€Å"Mistah Kurtz, he dead! † (p 112) On the other hand, Achebe is no stranger to this land. He is in fact one of the dark mysterious figures, watching Marlow's boat, sailing up the river. Naturally he has a very different story to tell. In Heart of Darkness, we are given a surreal view about the Africans. On the contrary, Achebe's success, is presenting them as human beings, with names, no different in characters and in feelings than other people living in any part of the world. Although their customs might sometimes seem inexplicable to us, such as the oracle ordering Ikemefuna to be killed for no reason and villagers following his order, they still carry the same feelings any person would. After Ikemefuna’s death, Okonkwo who has loved him like his own child, cannot taste anything for two days because of his sorrow. Similarly, after Okonkwo is exiled from the clan, Okonkwo’s friends destroy Okonkwo’s barn and hut as part of a tradition with no hatred in their hearts. But later on Obierika, Okonkwo’s best friend who was among those people, questions his friend’s punishment. Even though the Africans presented in Things Fall Apart identify themselves with their culture and have to follow the rules set by their ancestors, they always show the reactions expected from any person. These people share the same concerns, affections and flaws as every â€Å"human being† whereas Conrad, chooses to present them as primitive creatures or rather dark threats. As the boat sails on the river in Heart of Darkness, we are reminded of Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth where in similar dark surroundings, the scientists encounter extinct creatures whereas in Things Fall Apart, we get a chance to observe the richness of the Ibo culture and look at Africans from an objective point of view. The comparison of how the colonizers are presented in two novels portrays clearly the recurring opposition between â€Å"civilization and wilderness†. This time, Conrad, openly displays the sinister intentions of the colonizers, their greed more openly than Achebe. When the reader is told about how experienced agent Kurtz is in collecting ivory, how cruelly the Africans are used as labor force and are forced to work until they become exhausted, wear out and starve to death, it is seen that the so-called â€Å"civilizing† mission of the colonizers is actually destroying the Africans. We understand clearly that the colonizers are after wealth, which in fact does not belong to them. Moreover, in both works, there is the irony about the colonizers, who are supposed to be representing â€Å"civilization† but instead acting way more primitively than the colonized Africans who are considered as â€Å"savages†. In Heart of Darkness, Mr. Kurtz who is admired and even worshipped by the Europeans, is collecting the heads of the natives and performing very brutal actions to acquire his ivory. Company Doctor’s comment stating that any change the men undergo in Congo is internal (p 27), is a foreshadowing to the transition Kurtz goes through in the jungle. â€Å"Wilderness† has changed him; he is no longer a member of a civilized society having lived together with the natives in wilderness. Also, when the Manager claims that Kurtz’s â€Å"methods are unsound† (p 101), we start questioning the accuracy of the Manager’s own methods. The company responsible for extracting ivory is operating under a hierarchy, with many business principles so since Kurtz is a part of this chain, it can be argued that the methods of the colonizers are also as â€Å"unsound† as Kurtz’s. When Marlow agrees with the Manager and says that he sees no method at all in Kurtz’s actions, we can understand how Kurtz, as a colonizer has separated himself from civilized methods. Therefore, there is the contrast in between his reputation as a remarkable agent among colonizers, and his denial to play the game by the rules of a civilized society. On the other hand, the colonizers in Achebe's Things Fall Apart, are given a more humane approach. They, like the natives are described as ordinary people whom you can meet on the street, in your everyday life. Their most apparent feature are their arrogance and in fact their lack of knowledge and understanding. Achebe also emphasizes the irony about Africans turning out to be more civilized than the colonizers in many ways. When there is a confrontation between missionaries and Africans caused by Mr.  Smith, the new intolerant leader of the church, Ajofia’s words, â€Å"We cannot leave the matter in his hands because he does not understand our customs, just as we do not understand his. We say he is foolish because he does not know our ways, and perhaps he says we are foolish because we do not know his,† (p191) show that in fact the villagers are wiser, more mature and more â€Å"civilized† in way of thinking than the colonizers. Africans can accept to be wrong in certain points, whereas the colonizers disregard anything outside their own agenda. Even if Heart of Darkness gives us a better opinion about the cruel and uncivilized characters of the colonizers, Achebe also portrays the destruction of African villages so dramatically that in general, we can say that both works demonstrate the corrupted souls of the colonizers effectively. The destructive effects of colonialism are presented both by Achebe and Conrad, but Conrad does not bring up the criticism of colonizing a country, whereas Achebe underlines its tragic results clearly. At the time Heart of Darkness was published, there were many people in the world who thought that there was nothing wrong with colonialism and in fact it was the right move to take for a powerful country. It was believed by many that the natives were nothing but savages. Therefore, what Conrad says about colonialism, is well ahead of his time, but still the argument of whether he had to go along with the idea of seeing natives as â€Å"dark savages† , is of course questionable. From the beginning of the novel, Conrad shows the suffering caused by colonization through Marlow’s observations. We see natives each having an iron collar on their neck, all connected together by chains, empty paths that were used to belong to villages in which the population had cleared out. All these unpleasant images show the devastating results of colonialism but since Marlow, who experiences these brutalities with his own eyes, does not reach to the conclusion that all these are a result of human greed, it is not possible to say that Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is a direct critique of colonialism. However Achebe, having lived in a colonized country, knows what it feels like to have lived under the command of others. He intentionally emphasizes the presence of a government, besides the church and shows that the white man, does not only want to convert the natives to Christianity or take away their ivory and gold but also wants to rule them. Achebe does not hesitate to show how Okonkwo’s own people, although they might not be from his own clan, have joined the colonizers and are serving them as their messengers. When the messengers tell the villagers that they should pay a fine of two hundred and fifty cowries to release the several arrested men from the clan including Okonkwo, they plan to keep the fifty cowries for themselves and give the rest to the district commissioner who had initially decided on the fine as two hundred cowries. As it is seen, colonialism has not only caused the suffering of many Africans but also it created such a corruption that the people of the same land ended up betraying and fighting against each other. Even if both writers have based their story on the terrible outcomes of colonization, Achebe, as a representative of the African voice emphasizes the moral tragedy that leads to the formation of a chain of never-ending treasons between Africans. Colonization may work for the benefits of the colonizers, but for those who are being colonized, it gives only suffering, death, loss of identities, in short destruction and humiliation. The general attitude displayed by the colonizers, in justifying their actions, is their claims of bringing civilization to savages, faith and order to cannibals, technology or health care to the poor or ignorant. The fact that Heart of Darkness, begins on the river Thames, right in the heart of London, the river described as calm and beautiful, and moves into Congo river, its waters rough, full of dangers, dark, threatening, offering nothing but unexpected and unknown menaces, shows us the exact mentality of the colonizers, as they view Europe and Africa. It is a clear account of how they believe that, their civilization is superior, giving them the right to expand their interests to wherever they see fit. A boat trip on the Congo River, according to them, is a measuring device which will reveal how primitive the Africans are. The further you travel, the degree of primitivism rises. Just as Thames River is the antithesis of Congo River or Africa, with Conrad, Achebe's characters show that the Africans are not subhuman or part of a different species, but are members of the human race with their flaws and virtues. Achebe's last words in Things Fall Apart are â€Å"The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger†, the name of the commissioner’s book, is the very cliche colonial powers live by. It is in fact the most tragic ending to these sad stories of shattered lives, erased cultures and a whole continent torn apart, by colonialism.

My Life At The Art - 1347 Words

As long as I can remember there has always been a need for me to make things, which as I grew older became a coping mechanism for me. I’ve grown up in a household that celebrates the arts, but I was mostly self taught as my family members don’t consider themselves artists. Because of them, I have had the opportunity to travel to different countries and see many different styles of art. I grew up in a household that was centered around a Greek way of life, so being embedded in that while living in the United States was a way for me to be involved in different cultures close to home. My father exposed me to different types of music, and helped me develop an appreciation for the arts. When I was little, he would take me to museums and let me go in almost every church we came across in Greece to look at the paintings and murals. My mom helped me develop a strong work ethic, and a desire to work hard and accomplish things, and both became equally important. Even though my pa rents don’t consider themselves artists, they made a conscious effort to raise me in a setting that would help to cultivate creativity. Since creating things has been such an integral part of my life from an early age, I want that to transcend into a career as well. At 15, I haven’t mapped out what I want to do with my life, but I know that it must involve art. I am passionate about a wide variety of topics and in an ideal world they could all meet so I could be involved in all of them. By exploring myShow MoreRelatedMy Life, The Arts, And World Events1200 Words   |  5 Pagesphysical health, and it wasn t IQ: It was grit.† Grit, in my words, is the capability of failing or persevering through difficulties and still being able to succeed in the end. Whether you are or not familiar with grit, it has the potential to change lives, and examples of this trait are shown in my personal life, the arts, and world events. To begin with, the topic of grit can be connected to my life as I have been examining past moments of my life where I have had this trait. The most striking one wasRead MoreMy Life At The Whitney Museum Of American Art1524 Words   |  7 Pages’ He grunted in response and took the next right onto Park avenue leading out of the upper east side. Sydney had recently moved into her one bedroom apartment on 74th street, to be closer to her newly acquired job at the Whitney Museum of American Art, in midtown Manhattan. 27 years of age, and Sydney still did not have a stable job, was running her bank account dry every month in order to pay her costly rent, and was still without a significant other. Sydney sat now, in the back of a cab smellingRead MoreMy Life When Literature Became An Express Self Empowering Art1641 Words   |  7 Pagesrecall a specific moment in my life when literature became such an express full self-empowering art form. Nor can I remember a passage that could have struck a match that would light a fire in my soul, in which would then resonate a deep passion for the art of writing. All I know, is that one day, for some reason, I just wanted people to know how and feel what I felt. I wanted them to view my writings, starting from my name in the heading, to the very last punctuation mark of my conclusion paragraph, andRead MoreArt And The Pursuit Of Art1329 Words   |  6 Pages Art has had a profound significance to me throughout my life. As a child, art was my retreat from the mundane of the world. I found a way of communicating the things I was feeling with others around me! It gave me different perspectives and ways of looking at events, emotions, and p eople. All of these perspectives helped shape me, made me contemplate the individual I wanted to be and how the world behaves. Art answered as many questions as it posed. It made life worth living. From that moment onRead MoreFinding Oneself1248 Words   |  5 Pagesï » ¿Finding my muse, finding myself It is through art, and through art only, that we can realize our perfection ---Oscar Wilde When I was a small child, I was extremely shy. I had to be coaxed to raise my voice in the presence of others. The only time I felt confident was when I was by myself with a handful of crayons in my hand, bent over a piece of paper. While all children love to create art, for me art was more than a way to pass the time. It was a form of self-expression. When I was happy, IRead MoreWhat Creates Happiness And Good Health1223 Words   |  5 Pages In life there are ways we come to a deeper meaning of what creates happiness and good health. To achieve the deeper meaning we exhaust the ideas of playing sports, creating art, or making things to better the lives of people around us. We all understand art is a part of our daily life, and how we choose to use or create the art affects our personal self. Throughout the semester there are aspects of the teaching which have changed the way I notice and create my art in my life. I focus heavily onRead MoreMy Experience At The Art Department1221 Words   |  5 Pages Everyone has a passion in life - mine is art. Not going to galleries and looking at paintings by artists from the 1800s but using paint and pencils to show me and my life. The saying A picture shows a thousand words which is very true but in my case a painting shows a thousand emotions. I ve never hated school but I ve always loved being in the art department. All the different possibilities, the different sizes of paper. It is somewhere that I feel as if I am me and nothing will ever changeRead MoreSt. Louis Art Museum736 Words   |  3 PagesSt. Louis Art Museum As Edgar Degas once said, â€Å" Art is not what you see, but what others make you see†. The St. Louis Art Museum is a place for artist to display their art and give spectators the option to see art from a new perspective. This was the case for me. As we walked up to the beautifully structured building that stood so tall and wide, my expectations were extremely high. At first glance I notice the bronze statue of King Louis IX of France riding high on his horse. From this statue aloneRead MoreArt : Art As A Major1692 Words   |  7 PagesUNI-201 November 10, 2014 Art as a Major Staring at a person across the room, you find yourself wondering who they really are. What do they do? And perhaps, where are they going in life? Truth is you can tell very little about a person from just their appearance, as it is with me. But after time it is hard to not to notice how much art is a part of my life, and what it means to me. Throughout this paper I will focus on why studio art is my major (and why others such as art education are not), thenRead MoreArt Interaction : Frida Kahlo s Thorn Necklace And Hummingbird1148 Words   |  5 PagesMirian De Jesus ESE88-08 Timothy Glenn August 1, 2015 Art Interaction: Frida Kahlo’s Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird Art is the essence of emotions, expressed through the canvas to fulfill an artist’s ego and reflect their inner self. Frida Kahlo one of the many women who revolutionized art, was a great example of the strength of women, and their expression of daily life through art. Frida lived from 1907-1954; at the age of 18 she had an accident that left her paralyzed, she began to paint more frequently