discussions

Student’s Name
Instructor’s Name
Course
Date
Discussions
3.04 The World’s Biggest Secret
Since the scramble and partition of Africa in the colonial era, many African countries have constantly been at war, most of which are civil. Lebanon, Somalia, Angola Algeria, Burundi, Rwanda, Nigeria, Sudan, Uganda, Congo, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Zimbabwe are examples of such countries where civil conflicts have been rampant since 2000. Compared to conflicts in other African countries, conflicts in Nigeria have had the highest toll on civilians. The Islamist insurgent group known as Boko Haram kills people day in day out. In 2014 alone, nearly 7,000 civilians died in Nigeria due to civil violence perpetrated by the Boko Haram. In 2015, over 7000 more people perished in Nigeria on the same account. The trend continues to-date. Lebanon has been at war, but compared to the current state in Nigeria, Lebanon and Europe are considerably peaceful today.
According to Shah, over 5 million people have lost their lives to civil conflicts in Africa since 2000 (Shah n.p.). However, the international media platforms have been reluctant to report these cases ((Shah n.p.). The big question, therefore, borders on why major media outlets, such as CNN, FOX, ABC, and NBC often ignore pressing concerns in Africa. One of the reasons is that most African countries are viewed as failed states or third-world countries, whose activities do not attract the attention many world populace. Another reason is that most western and Asian countries, directly and indirectly, influence the world with their issues, so most international media outlets accord prominence to their issues by presenting them more broadly than issues in Africa.

4.01 Political Activism
In political activism, communicating with the citizens for support is a paramount strategy. Some of the ways through which grassroots activists communicate with people for support include billboards, newspapers, radio, and television Ads. Personally, I have been contacted by a grassroots activists group advocating for equal treatment of people regardless of races. I joined the group since their main aim was to shun racism in the region.
In my community, I would like to change the state of racism for the benefit of every member. I have seen some cases where people take activism for egocentric reasons and I, personally, oppose such forms of activism because they are ineffective. The most effective activist activities are those that are cross-sectoral and involve people from diverse backgrounds since we live in a pluralistic world where every perspective counts.
4.02 Political Blogging
The war in Iraq. Iraq is a Western Asian country, bordered by Syria to the west, Iran to the east, Turkey to the north, Jordan to the southwest, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Kuwait to the southeast. Today, Iraq is ranked as one of the most war-torn countries in the world today. The war in Iraq started in 2003 a United States-led group ousted the government of Saddam Hussein. Since then, the war in Iraq has never shown any sign of coming to an end. There has been the constant emergence of insurgent groups opposing the incoming governments.
4.03 Political Discourse and Music
There are several songs with political messages. Bob Dylan’s ‘Political World’ is a good example. The song’s recurrent theme is the impact of politics on daily lives of people. Based on its time of release, 1989, the song was relevant and impactful. The song highlighted the fact that politics, in the modern world, has taken away the peace, mercy, wisdom, courage, accountability that humanity used to enjoy initially, and instead, promoted crimes and instilled fear among the people.
The ‘Redemption’ by Bob Marley is also another powerful political song. The song was released in 1980 when racism and slavery were at their peaks in America. Therefore, as a recurrent theme, song urges listeners to liberate themselves from slavery because people are different in terms of values, culture, and skin color. Hence, the need for respect to all races.
In addition to ‘Political World’ and ‘Redemption,’ ‘Together as One’ by Luck Dube is also a renowned political song. The song was released in 1990 to urge listeners to embrace peace and unity. The most recurrent themes in the song include unity, apartheid, and revolution. 1990 was a tumultuous period wrecked with socio-political divisions and enmity, and this is what Lucky Dube detested.

Work Cited
Shah, Anup. “Conflicts in Africa-Introduction.” Global Issues, 12 May 2012, www.globalissues.org/article/84/conflicts-in-africa-introduction.

Appendix
Links to Lyrics;
‘Political World’ by Bob Dylan https://www.google.com/search?q=bob+dylan+political+world+lyrics&oq=Bob+Dylan+poli&aqs=chrome.2.0j69i57j0l4.12065j0j9&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8‘Redemption’ by Bob Marley
https://www.google.com/search?q=redemption+song+bob+marley+lyrics&oq=Redemption+Song+%7C+Bob+Marley&aqs=chrome.2.69i57j0l5.4394j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8‘Together as One’ by Lucky Dube https://www.jah-lyrics.com/song/lucky-dube-together-as-one