Synthèse Places And Forms Of Power

FORMS AND PLACES OF POWER

I am going to talk about two different places where power was imposed on its inhabitants.

First of all, I would like to give a definition of the worlds :

. In this file, power refers to the military, political, social or economic force or influence that a state can have over all or some of its citizens. It also refers to the ability of those citizens to rebel against what is imposed by a state, violently or peacefully.

. Places could be important building or institutions that represent a certain form of power. A place can also be a country or a state.

In order to illustrate this notion, I have chosen two documents :

A group of three short texts about the division in Ireland (“A letter from a Catholic activist”, “The conflict was everywhere and “Moving on together”) and an article about the Soweto Riots, in South Africa.

These documents will help us answer the following question : Is violence necessary to break free ?

The first document deals with the the division in Ireland between Catholics, mostly living in the Republic of Ireland and the Protestants, mostly living in Northern Ireland.

Indeed, from the 20th century began a period of hatred and conflict between the two religions.

The text 1 untitled « A letter from a Catholic Activist » and writing in 1925 shows that the problem at that time, was that the Catholics in the Northern Ireland were discriminated against by the Protestant majority, which is not the case for the Protestants living in the Republic of Ireland. Thus, between 1923 and 1924, militia of Protestants people executed many catholics. An estimation is that more or less 600 Catholics died and approximately 10 000 Catholics losts their jobs, and twice that number, their homes.

The text 2 is about the history of Anne’s family which was linked with the conflict between the 2 religions. Anne’s brothers were arrested in 1971 when the Northern Ireland police force and Protestants soldiers arrested and interned 300 alleged Irish Republican Army members without a trial. What happened is that many Catholics who were not Irish Republican Army members enrolled in the Irish Republican Army after the event. The 1970 ’s and the 1980’s is a period when violence escalated was called the Troubles.

The text 3 deals with the bigotry and the sectarianism present in Ireland. The author, Rachel, is a Catholic teenager of 16 years old who tell that when she was at her early teens, sometimes religion made her life difficult, because she have a friend who is a Protestant and she couldn’t stay at her house. Finally, she tell that she feels lucky now thank’s to the Good Friday Agreement signed in 1998. She hopes that the young generation will be more tolerant and more peaceful.

These texts show that the violence appeared in this country because each of the two States, and especially the two religions wanted to exercise power over the other, which is led to a period of conflict and division in Ireland.

The 2nd document deals with the Soweto Riots, in the South Africa.

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