Ivory Trade in India

In 1989 the Convention on International Trade in Engaged Species, stated that the African elephant could reach extinction within the next fifteen years. This extinction was due to the horrific poaching problem and the worldwide demand for ivory. Thus, a moratorium was created that restricted the selling and trading of ivory. This caused the poaching of elephants to decrease, while also causing the ivory market prices to drop. Therefore, the first step into the trial to stop the poaching of these precious animals began. But, in 1997 there was a new law put into effect that made the selling and trading of ivory legal, if it was ‘regulated’. This in turn, caused the poaching of elephants to once again drastically increase in the late nineties. Before the nineties, there had already been approximately 75,000 elephants killed for their tusks. After this the round number of 20,000 was found to be the number of elephants who were killed annually. Some may have thought that the ban of ivory was not a financially good choice because the demand for ivory is so high. Because these elephant tusks are so hard to obtain, this makes it extremely valuable to many people around the world. The demand for ivory has increased from two hundred dollars per kilo in two thousand five, to more then seven hundred kilos this year. However, the elephants go though an extreme amount of pain and suffering from this process. To remove the tusks, the poacher either kills the animal first or they remove the tusk by digging into their face and using the entire tusk. Then they are then left to die, mainly from infection. Just this year alone around twenty to twenty-four tons of ivory was smuggled into African and Asian countries. The media attempts to cover up this outrage, but we would be naive to think that this situation does not exist. Some people choose to disregard the fact that so many elephants are being harmed in the process of obtaining ivory because there is a huge amount of money to be made along with the smuggling. Even though the poaching is regulated, it is hard to monitor groups of armed men in dense forests. It is technically illegal for the poachers to kill the elephant without using any of their “meat”, but this does not stop them from having massacre sites with piled up, dead elephants with their tusks removed and bleeding extensively. Because the ivory trade has its limits, the poachers have saved ivory in basements and storage rooms where they keep it and wait for the prices to rise. By the looks of things, the selling and trade of ivory does not look like it will completely end anytime in the near future. Besides the fact that ivory brings in large amounts of money, if the elephants have a chance of survival the trade will have to be completely prohibited. Some have even discovered that if the elephant population keeps decreasing they will be extinct in ten short years, by 2020. The controversy between whether the economy would be greatly affected in parts of Africa and Asia by the stopping of ivory trade can be debated with the fact that tens of thousands of elephants are dying each year.

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Famine in Ethiopia

Ethiopia has never been a place of wealth, which is due largely in part of the many unfavorable situations it has faced. During the nineteen seventies, Ethiopia experienced an immense famine, while later it was hit with a lengthy drought. It was caused due to the lack of spring rains that were absent in the past years, as well as disease that destroyed numerous crops. A couple of years after their recent agricultural loss, the country began to pay again for the previous climate problems. In the early nineteen eighties, lack of rainfall started to effect this part of Africa which then led to the decrease in the growing of crops. In this period of time nearly five hundred thousand farmers lost a large part of their income, which resulted in a collapse of state run commercial farms. Since agriculture was affected by the drought, Ethiopia was once again faced with deprivation. The conditions that the citizens were living in were devastating. Early in the year of nineteen eighty-four, citizens were warned that soon five million people would be at risk of starvation. The daily fears everyone was faced with included exhaustion, abnormally thin physiques, tragic and unclean living conditions, and scavenging for daily food. This focus of survival also suspended food production, which was no help to their current, dismal economy. Because the famine took such a massive toll on the citizens of Ethiopia, it was expected that the government would go through problems as well. More so, the Western government was resilient to become involved. Beside the fact that Ethiopia was going through a Civil War, they did not make the famine and the citizens affected by it a high enough priority. Instead, they continued to spend large amounts of money on the war. Even when the county was supposed to be receiving humanitarian aid, the civilian famine food was being delivered to feed the troops. The few steps that the government actually did help out with in the famine crisis were the decisions to transfer peasants who lived in effected areas to the southern part of the country. Between the years of nineteen eighty-five and nineteen eighty-six, approximately six hundred thousand people were moved into the less effected areas. These intentionally designed areas were to be centered close to water, schools, and medical services. Many people were convinced that relocation would improve their families’ lives but like the government had done before; they failed to provide these recourses for the citizens. Some peasants fled instead of having to be relocated. Later it was found that because of the resettlement, tens of thousands of peasants died. For the most part the Ethiopian citizens were left to fend for themselves. By nineteen eighty-six Ethiopia was at a better place within their agriculture and economy, but had still not reached complete stability. This event affected eight million people and the death toll was over one million lives. Even though drought and famine have been a reoccurring problem in Ethiopia, they have yet to experience conditions equally as troubling as this one was. Today the country has since doubled its population from what it was in nineteen eighty-four, and is now working as hard as possible to prevent it from ever happening again.

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World War II Introduces Kamikazes

Kamikaze. You may have heard this word used many times, but are not aware of the story behind it. Kamikaze attacks first began in World War II, in nineteen forty-four. Their purpose was to be used as a war tactic, mainly by the Japanese. Commander Takashiro Ohnishi came up with the idea as a new and effective way of war battle. Since the numbers of American fighter planes were increasing while outnumbering the Japanese, Japan had to come up with a different attack plan. Before this, there was no way to sink the American ships and if they wanted to get on top in the war, this was one way to succeed. Commander Takashiro thought that crashing his planes into allied ships would do more damage then simply firing machine guns from an aircraft. Each plane was laced with a multitude of explosives, in an attempt to cause the American ships to explode on contact. Since the Americans had the upper hand in technology during the forties, Kamikaze attacks were exactly what the Japanese needed to put them ahead of the game. Surprisingly, a large number of the Japanese army men were very curious and interested in flying the Kamikaze attacks. They had a tendency to choose the younger less experienced pilots to go on these lethal missions, since they needed the experienced pilots elsewhere. Before venturing out on the pilot’s last journey, he would often write letters to loved ones while also receiving a “thousand-stitch sash.” For these men, it was more of a spiritual mission because they believed they were fighting for the Emperor God. When the first mission was instructed to take off and destroy as much as possible, it proved to be very successful in destroying many enemy men. Immediately, the Japanese realized this type of attack could be extremely helpful, thus they sent out even more planes. The plan was set that each plane was used to take down one ship, and this mission was accomplished much of the time. If the ship was not completely immersed or sunken, it was at least badly damaged and killed many American soldiers. The Japanese believed this to be possibly a better war tactic, but it was questioned whether this caused more deaths for the Japanese, or if it helped them in war. Judging by the ratio of killed Japanese soldiers compared to Americans, you can see that Kamikazes were an extremely effective new form of attack. Kamikazes played a major role in the defense of the Japanese and without them, many men would have been lost, while Americans would have continued to push forwarding, winning the war. Overall you can see that the use of Kamikazes was extremely beneficial and helped the Japanese throughout war. We have also experienced a form of Kamikazes in modern day America. It might be considered an old act of war, but Kamikaze planes continue to take lives of civilian and military personnel alike. On September 11, 2001 terrorists used Kamikaze tactics to fly planes into the Pentagon in Washington D. C., and the Twin Towers, in New York City. This suicide attack was yet another trial of this long-lived war strategy. The men who took over the American planes were giving their lives up in exchange to kill many people, in honor of their country. This is the ultimate goal of Kamikazes. In the nineteen forties, Kamikazes were used in war, and today they have made their way over to terrorist attacks. In the end, Kamikazes have made a lasting impact on the strategies of war.

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The most memmorable man in Jazz history

One of the greatest Jazz singers of all time was not whom you would typically expect. Instead of your average African American performer you might be use to seeing back in the early nineteen hundreds, Al Jolson was much more than that. His interactions with the audience, joyful appearance on stage, and thrilling personality were more then enough for thousands to attend his performances. One thing that contributed to making Al Jolson so exciting to watch was that he was a Jewish man who used blackface makeup. His attire consisted of all black from head to toe, except for his white gloves and his mouth to be outlined in white. This helped the audience to look directly at the two most important attributes on stage, his hands and mouth. To some this might seem odd when you look up on the stage and see a white man with black paint all over his body, but for others he was a large part of introducing African American music to the white community. Some may have thought that Jolson was putting on this act to mimic the African Americans, but in all reality he helped with the fight against anti-black discrimination in the musical production. Even though going “black faced” in this time was somewhat common, Jolson used it as an entertainment factor to really help all of his audiences to be entertained and amused the whole time they were watching. Besides just his appearance, he drew in his guests by connecting with the audience and every time did what ever he could to get into the show. This meant he would force himself to do outrageous acts such as cry, dance wildly, and improvised with many different jokes to keep the audience wanting more at all times. Although Al Jolson was in the entertainment business strictly to encourage people to enjoy music and to lend a helping hand to the African American’s his hard work had soon paid off. His legendary performances were earning him one thousand dollars each week, which soon rose to twenty-five hundred in a single week.
Besides singing, Al Jolson was featured a many Broadway plays, and films along with writing over eighty songs in a twenty year period. Jolson Stared in the “Jazz Singer” which was a stepping stone in production by being one of the first motion pictures with dialogue and sound. Around nineteen twenty-seven Hollywood started to take off and with Jolson’s help it soon progressed. He was the star of all Broadway shows and was basically the real reason music and plays were brought together on to one stage. Since Jolson started performing in ninteen-eveven he had never taken a real break from the limelight. In nineteen forty-one he somewhat hung up his microphone. Nothing could keep Jolson away for long, he continued to entertain troop during world ward II just for the pure joy of lightning someone’s spirit. From introducing music to the new world to amusing and audiences around the world, Al Jolson is sought to be one of the greatest entertainers we have ever seen.


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