Response paper about an article called ''Cuba Revolutionary Essay

Response paper about an article called ''Cuba Revolutionary Projections - Essay Example its socio-political transformation that had witnessed changing social structure of Cuba along with changing international alliances with withdrawal of American influences, including Hollywood films and emergence of socialistic culture and its coalition with Soviet Union etc. Consequently, films became the major platform to showcase transforming picture Cuba and an important way to influence the taste and preferences of people of Cuba who had become addicted to Hollywood films. ICAIC had contributed to the creative evolution of Cuban cinema despite its limited resources. It had not only helped make permanent record of the Cuban revolution but also encouraged Cuban artists and filmmakers to experiment and exploit media. In 1962, Mobile cinema had reached communities who had previously no access to films and their undiluted enthusiasm was captured in Octavio Cortazar’s short film, Por Primera vez. Eminent filmmakers had made their mark in the decade with highly creative films that had showcased the theme of revolution in bourgeois setting. Thus, films like Death of a Bureaucrat (Garcia Espinoza), Memories of the Underdevelopent, 1968 (Tomas Gutierrez Alea), Lucla (Humberto Solaz), The First machete Charge (Octavio Gomez), NOW, Hanoi Tuesday 13th, Seventy Nine Springs etc. by Santiago Alvarez etc. had brought Cuban films into the center stage of International film arena. (words:

Hotel Arts Barcelona Placement Cultural Studies Essay

Hotel Arts Barcelona Placement Cultural Studies Essay I really wanted to go to a Spanish speaking country, because it is my second language at school but also because I really want to discover the Spanish culture. Especially Barcelona attracted me a lot because I heard a lot of good things about this city. I have been to Madrid a couple of times but my perception of Barcelona was way different. Barcelona has a couple of things which attract me very much: the architecture, the climate and the football club. The department I was working in was the Guest Service Department and sometimes in the FB (bartender). I had several duties, some of these responsibilities were welcoming the new guests, taking care of the luggage of the guests, parking the cars of our guests, calling taxis for the guests, explain the directions to the guests and giving recommendations to the guests about restaurants and clubs. The  Hotel Arts Barcelona  is a 44-story, 482 room luxury  hotel  on the seafront of  Barcelona, in  Spain. A lot of people believe the hotel was build to service the 1992 Summer Olympics but actually it wasnt. Although the construction of the hotel was part of the big changes underwent by the city to prepare the Games, the hotel wasnt made for the Olympics. Hotel Arts is one of the citys leading hotels. The construction of the hotel was fully finished in 1994. It was designed by  Skidmore, Owings Merrill  and is 154 meters tall. Its one of the few skyscrapers that Barcelona has. The hotel underwent a total renovation in 2006, they installed new technology and upgraded the guestrooms and the bathrooms into modern, luxurious spaces to the standards of a 5 star hotel. A vision is an almost impossible dream and a mission is a written statement of the purpose of a company or organization. The mission statement guides the actions of the organization, it sets its overall goal and it guides decision making for every level of management. Its the direction for the company for within at least five years. Their vision is to provide the finest personal service and facilities, for their guest who will always enjoy a warm relaxed yet refined ambience. If you see this sentence you can conclude that its almost impossible. Their mission is to instill the well-being and fulfill even the unexpressed wishes and needs of their guests. 2.2.3 Mission Statement in practice The mission statement is definitely reflected in my department. Every morning we had a briefing about all the things that happened with out guests, good and bad things. So for example when it was someones birthday, everyone of our department kept that in mind so when someone came across the guest he congratulated him and gave him a little present. That is an example of fulfilling the unexpressed wishes of the guests. Every morning we also had a value of the day. Which was one of the 11 service values. For example: I own and immediately resolve guest problems. 2.3 Market segments 2.3.1 What market segment(s) does your hotel focus on? Hotel Arts Barcelona can be put in the luxury segment. They aim for well fortuned guests who are willing to spend from 400 up to 10.0000 euro per night. They make use of demographic segmentation because when you divide the market on a demographic base you get groups like: age, gender, life-cycle, occupation, race, income, education, religion and nationality. Hotel Arts has a mix of business guests and leisure guests. In the summer time its mostly leisure but trough the whole year there are big conventions being held in the meeting rooms. 2.3.2 Characteristics As I explained in the previous sub-title, there are different characteristics of demographic segmentation; age, gender, race, life-cycle, occupation, income, education, nationality. Hotel Arts is focusing on the upper-income guests and business guests. If you compare the demographic characteristics with other types of segmentation you will get the following things. When you look at the psychographic segment you can find a relation with the demographic segment. In the psychographic segment they are focusing on the social class, lifestyle and personality. When we talk about the targeted social class for the hotel, its the upper-level. If you look at the products the hotel is offering like, like. With geographic segmentation, they focus on geographic variables like: countries nations, states, and cities. Ritz Carlton is a brand that is known all over the world, thats why its not necessary to adapt to geographic variables because it doesnt matter. The mission statement does reflect on the market segment where Hotel Arts focuses on because the guests want to be treated like a king because they are used to a certain luxury standard. They say in their mission statement that the genuine care and comfort of their guest is their highest mission and that they pledge to provide the finest personal service and facilities, and those things are exactly what the luxury guest wants. When I started with working they let me walk with a colleague who showed me everything in my department. The first day was just looking, I didnt do anything but observing my colleagues. In my department we didnt have SOPs because the department itself was new. We did have standard procedures of working but it wasnt written down on paper. When a guest arrived we had a certain operating procedure. The cab with the guests came driven to our main door. One of my colleagues opened the trunk and took the luggage out. He told me trough a little microphone the name that was on the tag of the luggage and I opened the door of the cab and greeted the guest with the name that was given to me trough my earpiece. We first asked how their trip was to Hotel Arts and after that we asked if the guest wanted us to take care of the luggage. If yes we gave the guest one half of an orange ticket with a number on it and the other half we put on the luggage. It was an amazing system and it gave the guest mo re than just a warm welcome. We exceeded the expectations of the guest from the beginning by saying their name when opening the door of the cab. My managers were kind and open-minded, one came from Brazil and the other one from Belgium. They were natural leaders because they never acted like they were the boss or the manager but you always knew that you didnt want to disappoint them. They had a lot of conversations with the employees. If they had the feeling that there was a problem they always invited you for conversation. They asked a lot about how things where going personally and that was really nice. Because its good that your manager supports you and cares about you. We always had a group meeting 10 minutes before starting the shift and we always had a evaluation about the day after the shift. They also give you the room to improve yourself by giving you several responsibilities. For example after the first month I got the responsibility of welcoming the and taking care of the luggage of the band Coldplay. It took me a lot of planning and off course a little stress but it was nice to know that my manager had trust in me . One thing that I very much appreciated was the fact that my supervisor had arranged a Spanish class for me and a couple of my other foreign colleagues. I dont have the feeling that there are a lot of thing to improve for my managers. They were very talented and as a matter of fact when I left the hotel they got a promotion as Rooms Division managers 3.1.4 Guest Satisfaction When guests checked out they were asked to fill in an questionnaire with a few question about every department. Sometimes people got a phone call after there stay. Every month we got a report back about the answers that were given by the guests; this is called: the Gallup Report. Customer feedback is obviously an important part of the improvement process. Simon Cooper, president and chief operating officer, states, When it comes to customers, feelings are facts. The Ritz-Carlton deploys multiple methods to capture the customer experience, such as comment cards and a follow-up survey call from Gallup to guests after their stay. In addition, the staff discreetly look, listen, and ask for feedback during transactions and moments of truth to build upon the Ritz-Carlton knowledge-management system. In addition, theres a follow-up survey conducted by Gallup, which provides third-party validation. Finally, mystery shoppers circulate though the various properties to critique the processes.  [5]   3.1.5 Problems, complaints and solutions We had to take care of that the luggage went into the right room, which was sometimes a lot of work because of the arrivals of big groups (100 people at the same time). We made a sheet with all of the guests names and room numbers and after that we tagged all the luggage and made sure it was brought up. We had to take care of the parking as well, sometimes it was a problem for us because we had to park guests their cars but at the same time other guests wanted us to retrieve their cars. What we did to make sure it wouldnt be to busy with the parking we always asked if the guests were using their car during their stay. If not, we put them down in the big garage, if yes, we parked the cars in front of the hotel. Barcelona has a big problem with pick pocketing, because we where the first employees to come across when guests came back to the hotel, we were the first to listen to the problem. We had to send the guests to the concierge because he dealt with these problems but we always had the responsibility to follow up on the guest if we would come across him/her. We didnt have a point of sales system in my department because were werent selling anything, we were just providing service. I know from the times that I helped as a bartender we had Micros which was linked to the Opera system of the whole hotel. On Opera you could find everything of the guests. You could see what their preferences are in terms of their coffee, their newspaper and so on. With this knowledge we created a thing which was called Mystique. This is accomplished by having the empathy to know what thrills guests and how the staff can make the visit memorable. This is accomplished in conversations with guests and by maintaining a knowledge-management system that records the preferences of every guest. These preferences were all saved on Opera and it is accessible for Ritz Carlton employees all around the world. Maybe its a favorite magazine or wine, or dessert, or cappuccino. Whatever the case, employees know how to surprise the guests, which leads to strengthening the relat ionships with them. I have to make sure that all the employees are good ambassadors of the hotel, we must give arriving guests a warm welcome and a fond farewell. We can either make or break a holiday from the start and at the end. For example if people leave the hotel and nobody can order a taxi for them or help them with the luggage they will leave with a bad feeling. My responsibility is also to give my employees, like you for example, a warm welcome as well and to help you with problems. Welcoming the guests is a really strong point. We use a special system for this. The cab with the guests comes driven to our main door. One of my employees opens the trunk and takes the luggage out. He tells the doorman trough a little microphone the name that is on the tag of the luggage and the doorman opens the door of the cab and greets the guest with the name that was given to him trough his earpiece. We first ask how their trip was to Hotel Arts and after that we ask if the guest wants us to take care of the luggage. It is an amazing system and it gives the guest more than just a warm welcome. Simon Cooper, president and chief operating officer, states, When it comes to customers, feelings are facts. The Ritz-Carlton deploys multiple methods to capture the customer experience, such as comment cards and a follow-up survey call from Gallup to guests after their stay. In addition, the staff discreetly look, listen, and ask for feedback during transactions and moments of truth to build upon the Ritz-Carlton knowledge-management system. In addition, theres a follow-up survey conducted by Gallup, which provides third-party validation. Finally, mystery shoppers circulate though the various properties to critique the processes.  [6]   I think these are good performance indicators because if they say that they got noticed and helped immediately when they arrived it says a lot about giving a warm welcome. When they say the time of waiting for a taxi it says a lot about how fast people were getting helped. If their named was used when they left you can say that they got a fond farewell. Because every department gives its own specific service, and ours is welcoming guests, anticipate on needs of guests and giving guest a farewell, its good to be judged on specific indicators about our own department. If we score high and fits with our mission statement of giving the finest service to our guests. Because the hotel was situated in a an area where a lot of restaurants and nightclubs are, there were always people around the hotel. We always had a line of taxis right next to the hotel who were especially for our guests. If people from a restaurant from nearby came to our entrance and asked for a taxi we werent allowed to help him. We had to deal with that a lot. One day I started at seven in the morning and 10 minutes after I started a young man came to me. He got pick pocketed by a criminal gang, he lost his mobile phone and his wallet. He asked me to let him call with the hotels phone at the entrance but he was not a guest. If you look at this trough the JUSTICE way I couldnt let him make use of the phone because he was not a guest. Above that, the young man looked like he had drank to much. But if you look at this trough the CARE way, even though the guy had drank some alcohol he was really calm and friendly. On the other hand he was also really desperate because he couldnt ca ll for help. I could see the sadness in his eyes and because he asked me this in such a friendly way I decided to help him and let him make one quick call with the phone of the hotel.

The Pastoral Letter :: essays research papers

Religion Paper In the pastoral letter, it declares that â€Å"basic justice demands the establishment of minimum levels of participation in the life of the human community for all persons.† This small excerpt criticizes the church as well as society though. This Catholic Framework for Economic Life represents a fundamental challenge to a "winner takes all, every person for oneself" economic ethic which leaves too many behind. It seeks to shape the national debate about how to balance our budget without further burdening the poor. It offers a different set of values. I have read the Bishops' pastoral letter, and I find myself feeling a little defensive and a little irritated at some of his principles. Some of his remarks criticize society and confuse me dearly. It is stated in the pastoral letter that when a person is marginalized or not allowed to participate in something, it is a violation of their justice. The Bishop tells us that the framework is not about political platforms or secular economic theories. Instead he says it's about the poor people who have to scrap and fight for any sort of economic freedom in this world. These are the poor people who basically have to do the dirty work in this world and are the people who are taken for granted by the more wealthy people. My question is; okay, what about them? Should we have to do absolutely everything ourselves so someone does not have to come in at night and clean up after us. Do working people have to take their own garbage out at night and vacuum their offices so someone does not have to clean up afterwards? This is in effect marginalizing the poor worker’s jobs and is violating their justice. It is a bold contradiction and one that confuses me. On the other hand, should we leave garbage everywhere so after hours people have lots of work and more jobs are then provided for people with limited skills and education? Should we pay higher wages and provide better benefits to the people who clean up after us? How much higher? Maybe they should make the same amount the normal working person makes. There are poor people who can get around this though. I remember a job a few years ago where a number of janitors at my summer job made more money than some of the actual teachers that were fairly new in the district.

Exploring the use of ICT in Early Childhood Education in New Zealand Essay

In New Zealand, education styles have been like fashions that revive. Education system has changed a lot. The old system came back into use with some modifications to suit the current situation. In New Zealand, a school base curriculum development (SBCD) is one of the learning systems used in 1980s and 1990s. The system was dropped and later reused with the renewed interests implemented. According to Bolstad (2004), the system reflected the current situation integrating all the educational needs according to the researches done. SBCD was believed to give an opportunity for schools to use new technology and ideas amongst other things. Literature Review For over a decade now, there has been a lot of emphasis on introduction of information communication technology in schools. Introduction of technology in schools was thought of as a way of improving on teaching methods hence enhance the way of thinking and understanding of learners. To make it efficient, the curriculum had to be flexible to allow for changes in the future. ICT use in some schools has not been productive. The current situations calls for innovative people and knowledge based activities to restore New Zealand’s social and economic goals (Bolstad, 2004). According to Studies, New Zealand has registered an increase in the need for early childhood education. This calls for an increased number of trained teachers to provide the early childhood education. In addition the New Zealand government has implemented a strategy that runs for ten years to help promote early childhood education. The country has developed a culture that promotes early childhood education to children as the future of the nation (Arataki, 2002).   According to Arataki (2002), New Zealand will have realized their vision. All registered teachers in Early Childhood institutions will have undergone diploma training in Early Childhood Education. The quality of education that a child has depends on the teacher’s knowledge, skills and attitudes. The quality of education and personality of a teacher will affect the child much. At this age the teacher are encouraged to use cognitive teaching aids to incorporate the educational and care procedures to the children. With the implementation of Information Communication Technology in Early Childhood Education, the teachers should also have trained on information technology issues. Research in New Zealand the Early Childhood Education is home based. The home based institutions are under government control and hence get assessed frequently to ensure quality services to the children. There are places where learning has been enriched. Computers have been used in classes to demonstrate processes for the children. This builds on their way of thinking and they grow up in a different way of thinking. ICT enhance development of children from all perspectives. The in formation provided in school can be written in DVDs and used later at home. This will make both the parents and the teachers to have a shared responsibility in teaching the child (Ministry of Education, 2008). There is evidence that New Zealand Ministry of Education (2008) has adopted an ICT system to be used in Early Childhood Education. The main aim of developing the ICT system was to promote remote access, group work, network and resource sharing using a computer. This was meant to promote learning between young people in groups especially the early childhood children. The ICT system was to support any child applications to enhance the services given by their educators or teachers. The system had to be accessible through out the learning time to ensure all children and their teachers have reliable access to the required services.   There is a data management system used to filter traffic and this has been used to ensure all the mails received through the network are free from any threat. This has made the system appropriate for storing learning materials hence no need of buying or carrying them. Computer and internet access has served both the parents and teachers the cost of buying such learning materials to ensure quality services to the children. In addition it a stress free way of educating the children. These children gets to learn a lot making them get more prepared for the future (Ministry of Education, 2008). Studies show that there are computer based centers or libraries where children can be taken to get such services. In New Zealand, the home based early childhood centers have achieved this very easily. The programs have been made in to video tape or DVD players and watched in televisions at homes. This is encouraging to a child since they will find it as easy as watching the TV programs or playing games in their play stations. The programs encourage s both the learners and the trainers’ participation (Ministry of Education, 2008). Latest research show that early Childhood Education requires cognitive teaching aids. By using technology, the children will get access to many materials that can be used to help them relate what they have learnt to life experiences. It is also advantageous to the parents in that their children can easily access trainings form anywhere (Ministry of Education, 2008). With the computers and a reliable network access, these children can now access such services at home. This saves the parents from looking for good schools for their children. The children’s progress records can be accessed over the internet.   According to latest reports from Ministry of Education (2008), New Zealand ICT has formed the foundation of Early Childhood Education. This called for multimedia network service provider. The New Zealand government has introduced ICT use in their curriculum that has enhanced Early Childhood Education in this nation. Internet access use has enhanced communication between parents and the teachers. It has also engaged the parents in providing such services hence quality childhood care is assured amongst children in New Zealand. The web based learning materials is an added opportunity for the children.   Currently, the web has made the children get access to a well developed and managed learning process (Ministry of Education, 2008). This has expanded the child’s area of interest and has provided a new dimension to their learning capabilities. Teachers can take advantage of internet to provide a wide range of teaching resources or aids to the children hence an added opportunity to develop him/ her self professionally.   According to Ministry of Education (2008), a standard has been formed to ensure the ICT usage in Early Childhood Education is universally applicable in all communities. This ensures quality services that are accessible anywhere all over the world. The standards also assure the teachers if the easy maintainability requirements of the ICT systems.   Standardization will also make it easy for the trainers to be able to have the required qualifications to operate any such systems. The systems should be highly reliable to promote the learners and others users confidence. Studies have shown that the introduction of computers in schools has been cost effective. It has reduced the paper work involved in keeping records especially in the Early Childhood centers. With the little children it is a times very hard to help them take care of their property. By using computer systems, record keeping has been improved. Computers provide very convenient and secure data storages. Information collected and stored in the computers can be easily shared or transferred through the internet or using the portable data storage devices like CDs or flash disks (Ministry of Education, 2008). The ICT system is well protected physically. A firewall has been built and antivirus software installed to ensures data security. The system has been protected from any internal and external attacks. This makes it the best for the Early Childhood Education services (Ministry of Education, 2008). The student details will be safe, easily managed hence reduced workload for the teachers in maintaining orderliness. Latest studies show that data recovery systems have been used to help recover user data in case of any disaster. The auto-recovery system is good for the children (Ministry of Education, 2008). At their age they can easily tamper with the information in the computers hence to help track down their progress. At this age also, the children may tend to be very care less with their work or they just don’t feel interested in learning. This is an alternative way to engage all of them. Through using computers and every child’s work can be saves, this provides an easier way of monitoring the child’s work.   Teachers can make it to manage more than one or a big class remotely using networked computers. This an added advantage to both the teachers and the children. Every child will be able to receive the teacher’s attention or facilitate communication between the learner and the teacher (Ministry of Education, 2008). With the technology enhancements, the network is sound enabled with web cameras and UVC (USB Video Class) to allow for video chats sessions (Ministry of Education, 2008). This provides an easier way to teach the children. They will be listening and watching the actions and hence learn form them. Conclusion. From this study I would conclude that Information communication technology (ICT) has contributed a lot to the Early Childhood Education in the New Zealand (Ministry of education, 2008). Children have been introduced to computers at such a tender age and this will be a greater future for this nation. The children will be more creative and innovative to learn and use technology. This will enhance their productivity to the nation hence improve their economy. Technology use is cost effective, efficient and proves production quality. The New Zealand has invested much on their children as the future generation of the nation. In New Zealand all the teachers providing to Early Childhood Education are therefore expected to attend the right trains to ensure quality education to the children. The success of ICT system in ECE in New Zealand is as a result of these teachers. It is therefore appropriate for all teachers to be computer literate to benefit from introduction of technology use in our learning institutions. As a matter of fact, the children tend to emulate their teachers (Arataki, 2002) and so the teachers should be the first to understand well the technological advances. If the teachers are up to date with the technology applications then the children are assured of a continuous improvement on the quality of education they get from the teacher.   The New Zealand government should therefore ensure the teachers go for trainings occasionally to up date their experience or knowledge on technology applications. The New Zealand’s 2012 vision on Early Childhood Education is achievable. Reference: Arataki, N.H. 2002, Ministry of Education. Pathways to the future: A10 year strategic plan for early childhood education. Wellington: Learning Media. Bolstad, R. 2004. School-based curriculum development: principles, processes, and

Ethnic and Religious Conflict in Nigeria Essay

Basically, Nigeria is a plural society and heterogeneous in virtually all the facet of life. The custom and tradition of Nigerians is so diverse to the extent that Nigeria as a country is now confronted with the problem of religion and ethnicity towards their political stability. The origin and history of ethnic conflict (societal wars and violence) can be traced from eternal (internal) state rivalry to external (physical). And its root cause is not very far from power competition and decision making over economic resources and other important human factor, like position. The implementation process has always involved more than one or two persons. In general concept, the author of this work traces conflict back to the first and early Patriarchal of human history and ever since then, there has been an increase (in various dimensions) of Conflict in the face of human world. Some are personal (internal) conflict, family, community, and group, intellectual, state, national and international in nature, to mention but few. In conforming to this idea, Badawi (2006) in his statement titled â€Å"World Apart† stated thus, â€Å"indeed the greatest discord today is among the descendants of Abraham. These are the people of the book, the followers of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, who had in fact shared a common beginning in the religion of Abraham†. In shedding more light in the above statement, Badawi statement goes far beyond religion, rather, he was tracing one of the earliest source of conflict which Badawi mentioned the off-springs of the said Abraham. Even before Abraham, there had been conflict, so it is as old as human history down to the Abrahamic period, to ancient kingdoms, Dukes, and Kings. In about 88 B. C. , King Mithriadates VI of Pontus invaded Roman territory in Asian Minor. He advised Asian debtors to kill their Roman creditors. Happy to reduce their credit card bills, the Asians massacred 80,000 Romans. Ethno-political conflicts have greatly shaped our present world and of course have its structural phenomenon, (William Easterly, 2001). For instances, the conflict we now call Israeli and Palestinian war, has been an ever-lengthening sort. The Assyrian, Babylonian war, by King Nebuchadnezzar of the hanging Garden in history, the Persia war, Alexander the Great (the Macedonian mad man in history), the German war of Adolf’s. Hitler, the Roman wars, narrowing all these down, we came to the horn of African continent which seem to be an epidemic field of conflicts of diverse kinds till date. The giant-lion of African continent, just like the origin of conflict is said to have stated very old in human history, even so in the case of Nigeria, which can be traced to the colonial period of history. Conflict takes different sizes and shapes with diverse reasons and purposes. Majority of the conflicts takes time before their escalation and at such, could have been transformed right at their respective early stages. The history of ethnicity and ethnic conflicts in Nigeria is also traced back to the colonial transgressions that forced the ethnic groups of the northern and southern provinces to become an entity called Nigeria in 1914. In the case of Nigeria situation, disturbing history of colonialism, this generated hatred and conflict among different ethnic groups. The task of addressing this seed of conflict planted by the British has been a complex one. After weakening the former diverse kingdoms, Emperors, etc now called Nigeria and reordering the groups’ politics, the colonial powers failed in nation building and providing for the people’s basic needs. Hence, unemployment, poverty increase, and due to these, conflict over scarce resources ensue. The Southern and Northern protectorates were also being amalgamated into a nation. Thereafter, the merging of different colonies into one country called Nigeria was forcefully done without the people’s consent. This was a major seed of conflict that is still troubling Nigeria today. This article is focused on the historical incidents of ethnic conflicts in within Nigeria societies, the cause of the conflicts and perhaps, the government actions towards ethnic conflict in the country. In conclusion, this paper will explore into decision-making (by the elites and those in authority) process has contributed immensely in generating the syndromes of conflict in the said state. The Nigerian political situation has witnessed more breaking of heads, than counting them. In fact, even when it has been convenient for heads to be counted, the outcome has always been the breaking of heads instead. Conflict in Nigeria is so intense because of lack of democratic behaviour. The head of the individual in the democratic context signifies citizenship. So when heads are broken in the Nigerian political community, the issue in respect of broken heads is citizenship. If conflict in Nigeria means the absence of democratic behaviour, it follows, therefore, that conflict in Nigeria is interwoven with the absence of democratic governance. Gurr (2000): has also shown that the incidence of conflicts at the global level declined in recent years with the deepening of democratisation. Nation-states where conflicts persist are those where what obtains is the democratisation of disempowerment (Ake 1996). Beyond the veneer of elections, the state remains ambushed, privatised, repressive and unpopular. The people who were tantalised by the prospect of a democratic revolution that would terminate decades of alienation and pauperisation have been short changed and given a ‘choice less democracy’ (Mkandawire 1999). The ‘credibility gap’ which fostered the De-linkage of the people from the state, and ignited social forces to struggle for democracy, is not being bridged (Rothchild 1995: 58). African peoples out of clear rational calculations sans atavistic attachments have turned their backs on the state ‘and given their loyalty to sub-national social formations such as the community, the sub nationality or ethnic groups’ (Ake 2000: 114). It is against this backdrop that the proliferation and exacerbation of violent ethno-religious conflicts in Nigeria in the post-transition period can be appreciated. This article adopts an analytical framework that holds that The interface between ethnicity and democratisation is found in absence of effective citizenship and good governance in post-transition societies. In the circumstance that democracy does not go beyond the conduct of multiparty elections to include improvement in the quality of life of the people, there is frustration, and people who already feel alienated from the state are vulnerable and likely to be mobilised around counter-elites who exploit extant popular alienation from the state by whipping up sectarian sentiments. This has been the case in Nigeria and several multi-ethnic states of Africa (Osaghae 1994). Although the foregoing theoretical discussion has focused on ethnicity, the term ethno-religious is adopted because some of the recent violent conflicts to be examined were triggered by religious issues. The relevance of religion is also underlined by the fact that in Nigeria ethnic boundaries tend to coincide with religion, with the exception of the Yoruba ethnic group (Ibrahim 1999). The Nigeria state was amalgamated in the year 1914 by lord lugard. The various geographical areas or territory which was amalgamated to form Nigeria by the colonialist comprises of various cleavages, clans, towns even there were kingdoms and chiefdoms with diverse culture, language, religion, norms values, customs and political structures etc. The focus of the research monogram is to examine the role of religion and ethnicity in Nigeria nascent democracy. In Nigeria especially, religion plays a very vital and influential role in the society that has manifested itself as a potent force in the political development of the Nigerian state from pre-independence to post-independence. Hardly can the Nigerian state be talked about without reference to religion (Kukah, 1994; Falola, 1990; Kenny, 2006; International IDEA, 2000; Suberu, 2009). However, religion in Nigeria, at different levels, is mostly mentioned in negative terms. Or rather, historical events linked to religion tilts more towards its negative than its positive contribution to the Nigerian state. The Jihad, the civil war propaganda, the Sharia law controversy, the tensions provoked by the Nigerian accession to the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) and the incessant religious crises that have engulfed the Northern part mainly indicate that religion cannot be ignored or wished away in the Nigerian political development. Several religious crises have occurred in Nigeria. They have been documented as academic dissertations for some of them. This piece of work does not intend to start the discourse on religious violence anew but only recognizes the fact that as a recurrent phenomenon it is worth being explored further. Thus â€Å"Boko Haram† menace which gained global recognition and even press support ranging from July 2009 till date is a the central focus of this study together with other riots which has engulfed the Nigeria state from 1999 till date which most Nigeria educated elite believed that religion and ethnicity were the basic causes. The educated elite have conducted series of research on what the causes of this violent riots maybe. Most have concluded that it can be traced and linked to the failure of governance in Nigeria. 1. 2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEMS The mistake of 1914 has polarised the Nigeria society together with its citizens in which loyalty to the State is a mirage instead people pay loyalty to their various families and ethnic groups the effect of this can be traced to 1967 civil-war which disintegrate the country or in the political system which almost lead to secession of the country with the easterner believed to be the aggrieved ethnic in the war. Similarly Nigeria has a long history of religious crisis which has affected the political instability of Nigeria. The maintasine riot of 1980 can be said to be the first major religious riot in Nigerian history, claiming about 800 lives. The Boko Haram insurgence in the northern part of the country which has been directed mainly against the Christians, they have suffered a lot both physically, psychologically, economically, spiritually and even politically in the far North which has led political writers and pundits to affirm that Boko Haram conflict has its roots in Religion. The thrust of this work will be to examine the underlying reasons behind political instability in Nigeria using religion and ethnicity as a paradigm. 1. 3 SCOPE OF THE STUDY. The study will cover the impacts of religion and ethnicity towards the stabilization or in- stabilization of the Nigeria political system it will cover how religion and ethnicity have impacted on the political stability of Nigeria. Furthermore the study will emphasize more on the role the government is playing in stabilizing the un-stabilized country. 1. 4OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY The following can be regarded as the aims and objective of the study 1. To know the meaning of religion, ethnicity, political stability, and political instability 2. To know how religion and ethnicity have negatively impacted on Nigerian political development 3. To develop possible solutions and panaceas to the problems of religions and ethnicity to Nigerian political in-stability 1. 5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 1 What meaning does religion, ethnicity and political instability carries 2 How has religion and ethnicity impacted on the political stability of Nigeria 3 what are the possible solutions to the problem of religion and ethnicity in Nigeria political system 1. 6 JUSTIFICATION OF STUDY Many a developing countries of the world are currently experiencing the problems which ethnicity and religion have caused. The ethnic problem which led to the apartheid era in South Africa is also the same ethnicity and religion problem which has almost disintegrated the Nigerian State. Recalling back to what happen during the civil war in the late sixties and early seventies which led to the introduction of the national youth service corp. by the then military president General Yakubu Gowon which aim at integrating back the almost disintegrated country. Books, Journals, Magazines, Pamphlets, and lot of researches have been written and carried out respectively on the issue of ethnicity and religion, and its impact on the Nigeria political stability. This research work will serve as an additional material to the issue on ethnicity and religion to political instability in Nigeria, this work will focus more on ethnicity and religion and its impact on Nigerian politics 1. 7RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The research methodology will be based on secondary data collections ranging from books, Journals Newspapers, News Magazines, Pamphlets and even the Internet. In conducting any research basically there are two methodologies employed by researchers which are the primary and the secondary methods. This research work will be basically conducted using the secondary methodology as earlier mentioned. 1. 8DEFINITION OF TERMS Ethnicity: According to the oxford advance learners dictionary ethnicity can simply mean â€Å"the fact of belonging to a particular race† from the dictionary meaning we can deduced the fact that Humans believed in race and they have passion for race which leads to humans ethnocentrism i. e. highly ethnocentric in nature. Ethnicity has a strategic interaction of persons and other actors, who have different beliefs, attitude’s, values and goals as they decide particular conflict the distribution of resource’s and general issues of political rules within a context of norms, expectations and institutions. Any of the rule, expectation and institutions may be reversed, maintained or inverted by the individual who win the right to control them, in the course of those political negotiations that are sometimes called cooperation, and sometimes called war, and are usually somewhere between the two. In another sense, ethnic identity are political resources just like money or vote. Instrumentalist like Micheal Banton and Micheal Hecthtar, argue that ethnic identity are not inherent in group or socio-formation of people. They see ethnic identity as socio-capital brought to bear on the political negotiation table by different groups and at different times. Hutchinson and Smith also argue that ethnic identity are an important resource that political Elite employ in securing the support of the masses as a strategy for gaining a desired good. These goods and or goals are â€Å"measured in terms of wealth, power, and status and†¦ joining or national communities helps to secure these ends either by influencing the state, or in certain situations, through secession. Religion: religion on its own part can be regarded as the belief in the existence of God or gods and the activity that are connected in the worship of them. Religion can also be stress further by meaning one of the system of faith that are based on the belief in the existence of a particular God or gods. For example the Jewish religion, Christianity Islam and other world religion. Furthermore in the classical and ancient ages religion has achieved a lot in their politics for example the doctrine of Islam was used in many Arab nations has their constitution even up till the present age. The Ancient Romans, also, during the time of Constantine accepted Christianity as a religion and a mode of life which also affected their political terrain. Religion in the 21 century is now used narrowly towards Christianity and Islam even though other religion still exist but the former two religion have elevated to prominence that other religion are now beneath them. For instance about Political stability: can depict the mean of a system of politics in which the government of that State is experiencing a stable government and peaceful existence in the State or in otherworld’s a legitimately accepted government by the people. Democratically governed States are believed to be stable. In the global sense every political entity must be ruled democratically without internal oppression or external aggression. Any country of the world that is free from the aforementioned point are regarded as stable political system in other words internal oppression has cause a lot of havoc to many democracies of the world which has infringed on their stability as noted by Ojo 2002. Descent Rule: These covers a larger set of cases that we commonly understand to be ethnic than the rules that ethnic groups must have a myth of common ancestry or common origin. But it excludes several cases in which individuals routinely consider themselves, and are considered as members, of a group that we classify as ethnic even when their parents were not coded as members of this group. Take for example the category â€Å"Yoruba† when it was invented in Nigeria in the nineteenth century. At this time period, the parents of those who were classified as Yoruba were not themselves classified as Yoruba for the reason that this category did not exist during their lifetimes. According to Descent Rule, then, the category Yoruba in the nineteenth century would not be coded as ethnic. But the category Yoruba is universally coded as an ethnic category by all comparative political scientists, without making a distinction between time periods. As another example, consider the category â€Å"Backward Caste† in India, which included as members individuals who possessed a given set of last names and/or ancestral occupations. The category was introduced by the Indian Central Government in 1990. Within a few years, 52% of the Indian population classified itself and was classified as backward. Yet the parents of those who termed themselves â€Å"Backward Caste† were not coded by themselves or by others as â€Å"Backward Caste† because, as in the case of the first generation of Yoruba’s, this category did not exist during their lifetimes Democracy: According to Abraham Lincoln he defines democracy as the government of the people by the people and for the people. In this wise democracy connotes a system of government in which all the people in a country will have the outright say on the government of their country although in a representative manner meaning that they will elect representatives that will represent their interest in the government. Advanced countries if the world where democracy is practiced completely they have national identity as opposed to the developing world where they have ethnic identity. Advanced democracies always believe in secularism in which every religion is accepted and embraced not a system in which part will have cognisance to a religion and the other will believe in other religion causing serious tension in such states like Nigeria. Federalism : Elasar (cited in Akande, 1996:1)† the formation of European union (EU) which simply begun as a trading partnership for coal and steel is now moving towards a more integrated political union founded upon federal principle of governance†. The African union (AU) which is the federation of African counties where a central government intended to be created with sharing or division of power among the federating unit, even the world highest organization body united Nation have in some little degree, evolved the principle of federalism. Federalism is a system of government which embraces unity in diversity. Federalism as a system of government is one in which there will be central and regional governments each one autonomous of each other.