The man they called Mahatma Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The man they called Mahatma - Essay Example The class teacher seeing this asked Mohandas to copy from his neighbour's slate. Mohandas refused and was rebuked by the teacher for his attitude. Mohandas married Kasturbai at the young age of thirteen, a marriage that lasted for sixty-two years. Mohandas set sail for England from Bombay on September 4th 1888 and enrolled for studies in law at Inner Temple Inns of Court. He was called to the bar on June 10th 1890, and set sail for India on 12th of June. From a barrister-at-law to a Mahatma, a leader of millions of Indians was a transformation unparalleled in history. On return to India, Mohandas had an uneventful and mediocre practice that lasted two years. Fallout with a British Political Agent had made Mohandas view things differently. He wanted to leave India. Opportunity came to him in the form of a business firm in Porbandar that wanted him to represent them in South Africa. Gandhi's experience in South Africa transformed him and he came back a different man and went on to become the man they called Mahatma. After landing in Durban, Natal, the lawsuit required Mohandas Gandhi to travel to Pretoria. He was given a first class ticket for the travel. During the overnight journey at a place called Maritzburg, Gandhi was manhandled and removed from the train. South Africa was at that time under Apartheid. On that bitter night at Maritzburg the germ of social protest was born in Mohandas Gandhi1. It dawned on Gandhi that he as an individual should fight for his rights against adversities and that through his actions; others will follow and win freedom. In 1901 when Gandhi decided to return to India, the Indian community got together and honored him and his family with a party. The congregation showered Gandhi and his family with gold, silver and diamonds for their contribution to confront the white minority government on their behalf. Gandhi had earlier received gifts in 1896, but they were inconsequential and Gandhi took them out of kindness. This time around the gifts were very precious and this began to haunt Gandhi. He was torn between the yearning for financial freedom and worldly freedom2. He decided to do away with the worldly pleasures and gifted the precious metals for community service, and he followed the same principle when leading a simple life in India. The pledge at the Imperial Theatre in Johannesburg on September 11th 1906 was a critical date in Gandhi's life. This day, Gandhi pledged before God not to obey the proposed anti-Indian ordinance if it became law3 thus was born "Satyagraha", Satya for truth, and agraha for firmness or force. Gandhi followed this path in his disobedience movement act against the British later in India. The Satyagraha was "the vindication of truth not by infliction of suffering on the opponent but on one's self"4 The Salt Satyagraha, also known as the Dandi March on March 12th 1930, is an event that shook the entire British Empire. Gandhi and 78 volunteers walked from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi defying the orders of the British Government to pay tax on salt that was easily available from the sea. They walked 241 miles to reach Dandi to produce salt on their own. Analysis Though Gandhi was an unsuccessful lawyer, destiny had other things in store for him. A business firm offered to send Gandhi as their legal advisor to

No real title. it is all about the COP 15 Meeting in Copenhagen Essay

No real title. it is all about the COP 15 Meeting in Copenhagen - Essay Example For the US alone, the impact of climate change is $60 billion annually at 1990 prices from 1990 to 2025 in terms of effects on agriculture, forest, specie extinctions, sea-level rise, morbidity, loss of human lives, migration, hurricane, and pollution (Encyclopedia of Earth, 2008). Many of the US states are expected to have damages from climate change at US$ 1 billion each (Science Daily 2008). In Europe, the European Environment Agency (2004, p. 70) has determined that economic losses from weather disturbances increased from US$ 5 billion to US$11 yearly during 20 years prior to its 2004 report. The European Environment Agency estimate did not include several things but the report is highly indicative of the damage that climate change would make on Europe. The cost or impact to developing countries is anticipated to be higher as the changing climate raise sea levels and warm the globe. A two degrees centigrade of global warming can have a yearly cost of 3 percent of the world’s gross domestic product (Tol 2002, p. 47).1 The 15th Conference of Parties 15 or COP 15 is a conference of 187 countries in Copenhagen (Denmark) mandated to come up with binding agreements among countries on climate change mitigation and adaptation measures. The World Bank acknowledged that if mitigation measures are not adopted, global warming could be 5 degrees centigrade by the end of the century (World Bank 2010, p. 1). This paper assesses the COP 15 of Copenhagen and identifies the lessons with regard to the ability of international environmental conference processes to develop collectively beneficial agreements. Sampaio et al. (2009, p. 6-9) summarizes the results of the Conferences of Parties (COP) prior to COP 15 and is the main source of this paper on earlier COPs. COP 1 held 1995 in Berlin agreed that nations should take action to curb greenhouse emissions and