Merkel, a women in a men's world.

                                                                                           





SOME CONSIDER HER THE NEW GENERATION OF NAZI...

 (A new beginning)

                 ...BUT TRULY SHE IS...












                                                                                                                  




...THE BIGEST ECONOMIC INFLUENCE WORLDWIDE!

Planning the future project work

   First of all we want to congratulate our collegges, some more than others, for the amazing presentations regarding the 60, 70, 80 and 90´s decades.

    In our opinion, the best presentation of all was from Hugo Santos, Hugo Cardoso and Nuno Simões regarding the 80´s tv series "The Jeffersons". Their presentation was well structure and showed a lot of work; the power-point was very good, brief and simple although with some mistakes and they were very objective giving us the right amount of information; the ideia they presented was very creative and very out of the box and the video they showned was  very good and a very wise choice although they didn´t analyse it but we expect for them to do it in the future presentation. In what concerns the individual performance they were all very balanced and even Hugo Santos was less nervous then in other presentations. Now here we have the video they have shown "The Jeffersons" theme song.

   Before pointing out who the worst group in our opinion, was we want to congratulate Rodrigo Mendonça not because he had an amazing presentation, but because he did a presentaion that for the first time we could understand what he was saying.
  Now the worst group was..... Natália and Louise! They were in our opinion the worst group because all they did was to show us all things concerning the 70s with a lot of pictures about a lot of things. Yet, we could notice an imporvement in Louise's pronunciation. We hope for better next time!




   Now we leave you with a little taste of our presentations! Where it goes  "Always" by Bon Jovi!! We hope you enjoy!

   

Tribal economy

The Ibo tribe are subsistence by farming, but they also export.The main agricultural products include yams, cassava, and taro. Other important subsidiary crops include cocoyams, plantains, maize, melons, okra, pumpkins, peppers, gourds, and beans. Palm products are the main cash crops. The principal exports include palm oil and, to a lesser extent, palm kernels. Trading, local crafts, and wage labor are also important in the Igbo economy. High literacy rates among the Igbo have helped them obtain jobs as civil servants and business entrepreneurs since Nigeria gained independence in 1960.
Women dominate rural retail-market commerce. 

Trading is a major social and economic function of women in traditional Igbo society. Women engage in all sorts of economic activities to make money to purchase the essentials they need. They make mats and pottery and weave cloth. Women do most of the small trades, which is very active. The manufacture and trade of pottery are almost exclusively the domain of women. Igbo also process palm oil and palm kernels, which they market with the surplus crops from their farm stock, and generally monopolize the sale of cooked foods. Ibo mine and sell salt.

There is a sexual division of labor in the traditional setting. Men are mainly responsible for yam cultivation, and women for other crops. Usually, the men clear and prepare the land, plant their own yams, cut stakes and train the yam vines, build the yam barns, and tie the harvest. The women plant their own varieties of yam and "women's crops," which include cassava, cocoyams, pumpkins, and peppers. They also weed and harvest the yams from the farm. With regard to palm products, the men usually cut the palm fruit and tap and then sell the palm wine. 

It is Igbo custom that a wife must be allocated a piece of land to cultivate for feeding her household.

http://www.everyculture.com/Africa-Middle-East/Igbo-Economy.html

More Detailed information about Ibo Tribe

Location:	Southeastern Nigeria
Population:	8 million
Language:	Igbo (Kwa)
Neighboring Peoples:	Ibibio, Ijo, Ekoi, Igala, Idoma, Nupe
Types of Art:	Most Igbo do carve and use masks, but the function of these masks vary from village to village. They are famous for Mbari architecture.
History:	It is believed that the Igbo originated in an area about 100 miles north of their current location at the confluence of the Niger and Benue Rivers. They share linguistic ties with their neighbors the Bini, Igala, Yoruba, and Idoma, with the split between them probably occurring between five and six thousand years ago. The first Igbo in the region may have moved onto the Awka-Orlu plateau between four and five thousand years ago, before the emergence of sedentary agricultural practices. As this early group expanded, so too did the Igbo kingdom. The earliest surviving Igbo art forms are from the 10th century (Igbo Ukwu), and the fine quality of those copper alloy castings suggest that Igbo society had already achieved a level of technology rivaling contemporary Europeans.
Economy:	The majority of Igbo are farmers. Their major crop is yam, and its harvesting is a time for great celebration. They are able to produce yam efficiently enough to export it to their neighbors. With the assistance of migrant labor, they also harvest the fruit of the palm tree, which is processed into palm oil, and exported to Europe in large quantities, making it a fairly profitable cash crop.
Political Systems:	The Igbo are a politically fragmented group, with numerous divisions resulting from geographic differences. There are also various subgroups delineated in accordance with clan, lineage, and village affiliations. They have no centralized chieftaincy, hereditary aristocracy, or kingship customs, as can be found among their neighbors. Instead, the responsibility of leadership has traditionally been left to the village councils, which include the heads of lineages, elders, titled men, and men who have established themselves economically within the community. It is possible for an Igbo man, through personal success, to become the nominal leader of the council.
Religion:	These polytheistic people worship many gods. They believe that there are three levels of divine beings: the highest level is the supreme god, or “Chukwu.” Underneath Chukwu are lesser gods, called “Umuagbara”, and under these are the “Ndi Ichie,” the spirits of dead people. The Ibos also believe in reincarnation. They see death as a transient phase between life and the spirit world. When someone dies, he or she starts a new life in the spirit world. After a time in the spirit world, a dead person would be reborn as a new person and the cycle would continue on. Each village has priests and priestesses who help in all spiritual matters, conducting ceremonies and rituals. And since the Ibos believe that everything in life is controlled by higher powers, there are also diviners in a village that attempt to predict the future

 http://www.uiowa.edu/~africart/toc/people/Igbo.html

Ibo Tribe

In this week post we will speak about the Ibo tribe, also called «Igbo», a Nigerian tribe where Buchi Emecheta was born, more precisely in Iboland.

Their type of clothing until they reach puberty is little or no one at all. When they grew up, men wear loose-fitting cotton shirts and a loincloth (which they call «npe»), hilst women wrap different pieces of cloth around themselves and around their head.

This tribe's language is derived from a group of languages commonly found in West Africa, the Kwa languages, which is based on proverbs, and who doesn't 

know them or doesn't use them, they are considered an «amateur» of language.

Ibos live in villages that might have from a hundred to a thousand people comprised on numerous extend families. 

Since the British invasion (in the beggining of the 16th century) things have changed drastically, and today women are considered second-class citizens and 

sometimes treated like slaves.

Song "I have a dream" by Common and Will.I.Am and the connection with Martin Luther "The King" Jr.

I am happy

Iam happy
I am I am happy

[Soundclip: I have a dream]

I got a dream

[One day]

We gonna work it out oh oh

We gonna work it out oh oh

We gonna work it out

[Soundclip: I have a dream]

I got a dream

We gonna work it out oh oh

we gonna work it out oh oh

we gonna work it out

[Soundclip: I have a dream]

I got a dream

[that one day]

that one day

all of the people and myself

are gonna find a better way

My dream is to be free   

my dream is to be

my dream my dream is to be

my dream is to be

my dream is to be free

A search for brighter days

I ride through the maze of the madness

struggle is my address

where pain and crack lives

gunshots coming from sounds of blackness

given this game with no time to practice

born on the blacklist

told I'm a little average

A life with no cabbage

that's no money if you're from where I'm from

funny,

I just want some of yours son

dark clouds seem to follow me

alcohol that my pops swallowed bottle me

no apology

I walk with a boulder on my shoulder

it's a cold war

I'm a colder shoulder

I fight the same fight that made 

Martin Luther the king

I ain't usin' it for the right thing

in-Between lean and the fiends

hustle and the schemes

I put together pieces of a dream

I still have one

I am happy

I am I am happy

[Soundclip: I have a dream]

I got a dream

[One day]

We gonna work it out oh oh

We gonna work it out oh oh

We gonna work it out

[Soundclip: I have a dream]

I got a dream

We gonna work it out oh oh

we gonna work it out oh oh

we gonna work it out

[Soundclip: I have a dream]

I got a dream

[that one day]

that one day

I'ma look deeper than myself

are gonna find a better way

My dream is to be free

my dream is to be

my dream my dream is to be

my dream is to be

my dream is to be free

The world see me lookin' in the mirror

images of me gettin' much clearer

dear self,

I wrote a letter just to better my soul

if I don't express it,

then forever I hold inside

I'm from a side where we outta control

rap music and the hood play a fatherly role

my story like yours, yo, gotta be told

tryin' to make it from a gangsta to a Godlier role

and Jewish people in cold caves

hate has no color or age

flip the page

now my rage became freedom right

write dreams in the dark

they far, but I can see em

I believe in heaven more than hell

blessings more than jail

In the ghetto, let love prevail

with a story to tell

my eyes see the glory of, well,

the world waitin' for me to yell

I have a dream

I am happy

I am I am happy

[Soundclip: I have a dream]

I got a dream

[One day]

We gonna work it out oh oh

We gonna work it out oh oh

We gonna work it out

[Soundclip: I have a dream]

I got a dream

We gonna work it out oh oh

we gonna work it out oh oh

we gonna work it out

[Soundclip: I have a dream]

I got a dream

[that one day]

that one day

all of the people and myself

are gonna find a better way

My dream is to be free

my dream is to be

my dream my dream is to be

my dream is to be

my dream is to be free 

By. http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/freedomwriters/dream.htm

   “A dream” written by Will.I.Am, who also does it´s chorus, and performed by the rapper Common. Originally written to be part of ”Freedom writers” soundtrack, (an hip hop film presented in 2007 regarding the history of African-Americans teenagers and the adversities that they face in their life’s) this song represents strongly Martin Luther “The King”, like they call him in the song, and his most known speech, the “I have a dream” speech. In this song we can see the fight against discrimination and that´s why the reference to Martin Luther King « I fight the same fight that made Martin Luther the king».

    When it comes to the music video, it contains scenes from ”Freedom  Writers” movie, mixed with partially animated sequences featuring will.i.am singing on a podium and Common rapping in hallways and rooms in front of stylized images of both the Holocaust and United States of America's black civil rights movement. Television footage of the "I Have a Dream" speech is displayed on monitors throughout the video. The images is intended to reinforce the song's messages of perseverance in the face of discrimination due to the non violent behavior of Martin Luther King, and hopes for a more racially tolerant world.

  Martin Luther King was the inspiration behind this beautiful song. A man that had a dream of millions: to be free and equal. A non-violent activist and an important leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world. In this song we can see a reference to his non-violent behaviour when they say « I fight the same fight that made Martin Luther the king/ I ain't usin' it for the right thing».

Now we have some interestings videos regarding the "I have a dream speech" and the film "Freedom Writers"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Writers





Beyond "A dream"

   Before we are able to understand beyond this song, we first need to understand what really an African-American is.

   An African-American (also referred to as Black Americans or Afro-Americans, and formerly as American Negroes) is a legal citizen living in United States that have ancestry in an African country. Most African Americans are of West African descent and are descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States.

   

   « I just want some of yours sun /dark clouds seem to follow me». Just this little part of the song show us the fight that African-American have to face every day just because they want to be part of a society that don´t accept them as equal because in our society black are always perceived as a bad thing, like we can see in this two sentences of the song « born on the blacklist» and « dark clouds seem to follow me». Although this fight for be a part of society, African American is the minority that, collectively, are more involved in the American political process than other minority groups in the United States and have also the highest level of Congressional representation of any minority group in the U.S.  The African American trend to vote for Democrats because in the 1930s during the Great Depression, after Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal program provided economic liberation to African Americans; Roosevelt's New Deal coalition turned the Democratic Party into an organization of the working class and their liberal associates, regardless of region. The African American vote became even more solidly Democratic when Democratic presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson pushed for civil rights legislation during the 1960s.

   When it comes to the African American education, we have in this song the reference of how hard is the achieved of education by this people because in American their isn´t equal opportunities to black American and that leads to more criminality, addictions, poverty, broken dreams and African Americans tends to form gangs « where pain and crack lives

gunshots coming from sounds of blackness» that why in the song they make a special request « I just want some of yours sun» as a hope that things get better and that black people could have the chance to be part of the society, that black people could have the chance to exist «My dream is to be». By the year of 2000, the rate of literacy in the African American society grown a lot but it still is below white and Asian Americans rates. African Americans attend college at about half the rate of whites, but at a greater rate than Americans of Hispanic origin. More African American women attend and complete college than men. 

  

   Due to this advances in education, African American started having a more important role in the American society. Until 2000 most of the African American population had illegal jobs and most lived a life of deep poverty « that's no money if you're from where I'm from»  because of the low rate of education but that changed, and now, the new generation of African-American have a proper job and a proper future like all the others Americans. This happened mostly because of the advances made during the Civil Rights era where the racial disparities regarding poverty decreased from 26.5% in 1998 to 24.7% in 2004 what leaded to the increase of black middle class. In 2004, African American workers had the second-highest median earnings of American minority groups after Asian Americans, and African Americans had the highest level of male-female income equality of all ethnic groups in the United States. Also, among American minority groups, only Asian Americans were more likely to hold white-collar occupations. Although this great jobs opportunities that African Americans had, when the companies where facing financial problems the first to be fired where black Americans what show us that discrimination still exist but is more often showed in times of need and depression.

   

   

   Concluding, Martin Luther King still represents a great voice in the search of equality and liberty to African-American and great things where maid in his name, like this song that represent all that he fought for and against.

Will.I.Am, the producer of this wonderful song.

Common, the main singer of this song.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Dream_(Common_song)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_American