Places and forms of power

[cdupont]

Bonjour à tous! 

Je passe bientôt mon oral d'anglais et ce serait vraiment super si quelqu'un pouvait m'indiquer les fautes que j'ai pu faire!

Merci d'avance!

I’m going to talk about the notion « Places and forms of power ». Since a very long time, there is a social hierarchy. In the past or even today in some countries, rich people are the most empowered and the ones below them would be obligated to respect the highest people’s wishes and most of the time submissive to them. Also empowered people can really take advantage of their position and are not afraid to manipulate or exploit the powerless citizens. I studied a few documents with my school about this notion. The first one is « Stop stealing our land » from APF, the second one is an article about Wikileaks published in the Sydney Morning Herald and the last one is an interview about called « Empowered citizens »

            What are the different forms of power ?

            First of all we can talk about the most common form of power. In fact, most people want to go higher and higher in the social hierarchy. It is the same for every country especially in a world where the economy and the globalisation have such an important impact. For example we can talk about the document « Stop stealing our land ». Through this article we can see that big developped countries like the United States and Russia are now eyeing for Inuits’ ressources after displacing them during the Cold War. It is very interesting to see how these influencial countries  only care about their own sake without humanity. The Inuits themselves say that they want to be treated with respect. No one wants to see their land being exploited by people who have no rights to demand anything somewhere they don’t belong.

            We can almost call this bullying because these empowered people impose themselves without any problems.It is crucial for everyone to understand how hard it can be sometimes to be heard and understood. It happens everyday and not only in politics between countries but also between humans themselves. How many times has a child or even an adult felt pressured or forced to do or say something ?

            That’s why we can also talk about the freedom of speech which is to me, a very important form of power. Being able to say out loud what you think and what you feel is one of the most important thing in a person’s life. And today it is easier and easier to spread a message and a point of view to the rest of the world thanks to social medias for example. We can hear in the interview « Empowered citizens » that citizens can almost be considered as journalists. In fact even with the smallest or a very old mobile phone, it is possible for anyone to take a photo or a video of something that could be politically  used. We can all download a video on Youtube or a picture on Facebook that could go viral in just a few hours. But they are still some things that remain unknown from the public especially when it’s about the government or politics.

            Wikileaks is a publication that reveals things that the government keeps secretely away from the citizens. While developped countries like the USA claim that freedom of speech is crucial and a human right, Wikileaks is the proof that a lot of political events and affair are not all allowed to be on TV or in the newspapaer. It’s very interesting to see in the document, that one personn thinks Wikileaks is a goog thing where as the other one think that some things should kept as a secret for our own good. I personally think that both of them are right. For example just like Jessica, In my opinion, citizens should be aware of what the government is up-to and Wikileaks has made a really great contribution to free speech as for the human rights. While a lot of countries describe their nation as « free » but still abuse their trust and faith, Wikileaks, by revealing to the world the hidden news and documents, allows the citizens to build a real and reliable opinion on the current political situation. In fact, it is crucial to ensure an informed and empowered electorate.

            To sum up everything, we can say that various forms of power can be seen through a lot of situations. For example wealthy and empowered countries can pressurize some smaller countries. It is also very common that rich people take advantage of their position to make people from the lower class to obey and stay submissive to them.  Sometimes, even the government can keep political publications as secrets. Their power is basically controlling what the citizens are allowed to know.  However  the word « power » shouldn’t be strictly taken as a bad one. We can say that today, all of us have a certain type of power. Even if it can still be forbidden to express yourself in countries like North Korea, people from this generation can use social media to let other people see and realize what is happening outside of their everyday life.

  

[Jean B]

 

Hello,

Once again, sitting for an oral exam doesn't consist in reading a written text. Get ready to answer questions and debate them.

.

Le 31/05/2016 at 00:36, cdupont a dit :

Bonjour à tous! 

Je passe bientôt mon oral d'anglais et ce serait vraiment super si quelqu'un pouvait m'indiquer les fautes que j'ai pu faire!

Merci d'avance!

I’m going to talk about the notion « Places and forms of power ». Since For a very long time, there is has been a social hierarchy. In the past or even today in some countries, rich people are the most empowered and the ones below them would be obligated to respect the highest people’s wishes and most of the time submissive to them. Also empowered people can really take advantage of their position and are not afraid to manipulate or exploit the powerless citizens. I studied a few documents with my school class about this notion. The first one is « Stop stealing our land » from APF, the second one is an article about Wikileaks published in the Sydney Morning Herald and the last one is an interview about called « Empowered citizens »

            What are the different various forms of power?

            First of all we can talk about the most common form of power. In fact, most people want to go higher and higher in the social hierarchy. It is the same for every country especially in a world where the economy and the globalisation have such an important impact. For example we can talk about the document « Stop stealing our land ». Through this article we can see that big developed countries like the United States and Russia are now eyeing for Inuits’ ressources after displacing them during the Cold War. It is very interesting to see how these influencial countries  only care about their own sake without humanity. The Inuits themselves say that they want to be treated with respect. No one wants to see their land being exploited by people who have no rights to demand anything somewhere they don’t belong.

            We can almost call this bullying because these empowered people impose themselves without any problems. It is crucial for everyone to understand how hard it can be sometimes to be heard and understood. It happens everyday and not only in politics between countries but also between humans themselves. How many times has a child or even an adult felt pressured or forced to do or say something?

            That’s why we can also talk about the freedom of speech which is to me a very important form of power. Being able to say out loud what you think and what you feel is one of the most important thing in a person’s life. And today it is easier and easier to spread a message and a point of view to the rest of the world thanks to the social media for example. We can hear in the interview « Empowered citizens » that citizens can almost be considered as journalists. In fact even with the smallest or a very old mobile phone, it is possible for anyone to take a photo or a video of something that could be politically  used. We can all download a video on Youtube or a picture on Facebook that could go viral in just a few hours. But they are still some things that remain unknown from the public especially when it’s about the government or politics.

            Wikileaks is a publication that reveals things that the government keeps secretely away from the citizens. While developed countries like the USA claim that freedom of speech is crucial and a human right, Wikileaks is the proof that a lot of political events and affair are not all allowed to be on TV or in the newspaper. It’s very interesting to see in the document, that one person thinks Wikileaks is a good thing whereas the other one thinks that some things should be kept as a secret for our own good. I personally think that both of them are right. For example just like Jessica, In my opinion, citizens should be aware of what the government is up-to and Wikileaks has made a really great contribution to free speech as for the human rights. While a lot of countries describe their nation as a « free » one but still abuse their trust and faith, Wikileaks, by revealing to the world the hidden news and documents, allows the citizens to build a real and reliable opinion on the current political situation. In fact, it is crucial to ensure an informed and empowered electorate.

            To sum up everything, we can say that various forms of power can be seen through a lot of situations. For example wealthy and empowered countries can pressurize some smaller countries. It is also very common that rich people take advantage of their position to make people from the lower class to obey and stay submissive to them.  Sometimes, even the government can keep political publications as secrets. Their power is basically controlling what the citizens are allowed to know.  However  the word « power » shouldn’t be strictly taken as a bad one. We can say that today, all of us have a certain type of power. Even if it can still be forbidden to express yourself in countries like North Korea, people from this generation can use the social media to let other people see and realize what is happening outside of their everyday life.

  Congratulations on the overall good quality of your English! Be careful though not to use " the " before indeterminate nouns but rather use the " present perfect " tense with " for " or " since ". Good luck!