Critical Review of Nelson Mandelas Autobiography, A Long Walk to Essay

Critical Review of Nelson Mandelas Autobiography, A Long Walk to Freedom - Essay Example Along with his peers, Mandela was inculcated with a tremendous sense of responsibility to his family and community. This is evident from his statement, "at night, I shared my food and blanket with these same boys. I was no more than five when I became a herd-boy, looking after sheep and calves in the fields." The important element that contributed to the political consciousness of Mandela during his youth was his listening to the elders of his village discuss the history of their people. "It was from Chief Joyi that I began to discover that the history of the Bantu-speaking peoples began far to the north continent." He learned much about some of the atrocities experienced by his people under European colonial rule and this began to shape his consciousness. Mandela's desire to study law emanated from his observations of the paramount chief conducting court in his village and from his commitment to helping to end minority rule in South Africa. "My later notions of leadership were prof oundly influenced by observing the regent and his court. I watched and learned from the tribal meetings that were regularly held at the Great Place". Mandela's initiation into political activism began in 1940 while he was working on his degree at Fort Hare College in the Eastern Cape. He did well academically but he began to realize himself as 'the other'. "We were taught -- and believed -- that the best ideas were English ideas, the best government was English government, and the best men were Englishmen. " Such education persuaded him to forge an identity of his own. As a member of the Student's Representative Council, he was suspended from school for participating in a boycott to protest the reduction of the council's powers by authorities. After returning home briefly, he soon left for Johannesburg to avoid an arranged marriage and being trained for chieftainship. The events that occurred here are important as they shape Mandela's views about segregation. While working as a mine policeman, he observed, "the mining companies preferred such segregation because it prevented different ethnic groups from uniting around a common grievance and reinforced the power of the chiefs." During this period, the early 1940's, Mandela became politically aware and joined the African National Congress (ANC), a middle-class political movement founded in 1912. Chafing at the ANC's ineffectiveness in getting the government to recognize African rights, he helped launch its Youth League in 1944. Four years later, the Afrikaner-dominated National Party's rise to power began the apartheid era and made ANC activities more urgent. In the early 1950s he initiated the defiance campaign' against the discriminatory policies of the South African government, and argued for non-violent resistance to apartheid. However, following the Sharpeville massacre in 1960 his position changed, and he was forced underground to avoid the newly-imposed ban on the ANC. The horrors at Sharp eville hardened Mandela's resolve, and he began to advocate a different course of non-terrorist' action, aimed at the state but theoretically preventing civilian unrest. He was appointed the campaign's national volunteer-in-chief, which required that he travel throughout South Africa visiting the many black townships in order to explain and win mass support for the campaign.

Critical Thinking and Technology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Critical Thinking and Technology - Essay Example Critical thinking also enhances the communication and presentation skills of employees, students and even employers as the information presented is thoroughly thought over and researched. With critical thinking, our ability to express our ideas, opinions and beliefs to other people is enhanced and this promotes cooperation and productivity in organizations that are dependent on technology. Creativity is important in success of individuals, organizations and institutions across the globe in this technology age. According to Plato (Pinliucci, 2011), critical thinking increases the inventive ability of people and this enhances entrepreneurship and business growth. To think critically, an individual must be able to develop a strong purpose and develop a problem upon which different questions will be used to understand it. The position of critical thinking in modern day world has remained a major issue as a result of the emergence of technology and more so, the internet (Whitney, 2010). Information technology and especially the internet improve critical thinking ability of students and employees as it enhances judgment and decision making processes. With information technology, data processing is enhanced due to the massive sources that readers are subjected to and this enhances critical thinking. The development of critical thinking skills is essential in the development of students and employees as it enhances the process of gathering information and developing skills. As a result, the questioning information presented to an individual enhances their understanding of the area and improves their discussion skills. The global economy is currently reliant on technology, an aspect of development that is dynamic and influenced by the level of knowledge of an individual. As a result, the development of flexible skills is essential, a process that can only be achieved through developing strong analytics skills found among critical thinkers (Taylor, 2012). Technology