The Great Leap Forward launched by Mao in 1958 Essay Example for Free

The Great Leap Forward launched by Mao in 1958 Essay When the Communist party came to power in 1949 after a brutal war against the Nationalists, China was in a devastated state. War against Japan had resulted in the destruction of many of its cities including Beijing. Chinas people were left scared with the horrific memories of the Japanese armys horrendous acts. Rescuing China from the gutter was to prove to be a difficult task for Mao Zedong and his communist comrades. In order to understand the fundamental problems with the Great Leap Forward, previous reforms must be considered in order to fully assess the reasons for the its failures. One of Chinas most notorious problems was land ownership. Most of Chinas land was owned by cruel landlords. Peasants were being exploited and were forced to work long hours for poor pay and terrible living conditions. Mao used this in order to take a fundamental step in assuring that he had total control over the people. He introduced the policy of land reform. Mao re-distributed 40% of Chinas land and gave it to the peasants. This proved to be a truly brilliant political decision as he swept the hearts of the peasants on his side. He realised that as 90% of Chinas population were peasants, he needed to appeal to the masses. This policy was considered a success as an estimated 60% of the entire population benefited form the reform. However, this was to be a sign of Maos disregard for human life as this policy resulted in the death of 2 million landlords, by means of public execution during struggle meetings. Mao also started an early form of collectivisation, by 1952, 40% of peasants were collectivised. The next step was the encouragement of cooperatives, these favoured central management of land under private ownership, and by 1956 80% of peasants were part of cooperatives. The important factor of the land reform policy is that Mao was able to gain support from the peasants, the same peasants he would later use to conduct the Great Leap forward. Despite claiming to be a Marxist, Mao considered rural peasants to be the seeds of agricultural success but thought that industrial peasants were the backbone of the economy. The Great Leap Forward was to be the second economic reform Mao was to launch in China. Inspiring himself from Stalins economic model, in 1953 Mao launched the first 5 year plan. This plan was to be extraordinarily successful. The first of his 5 year plans set high production targets in oil, steel, pig iron and chemical fertiliser. Most of these targets were achieved, notably steel production quadrupled. Mao was able to cut inflation down from 1000% to only 15% by introducing a new currency the Yuan. Maos reforms were all interlinked. He used his social reforms to back up his economic reforms. Mao made revolutionary changes to womens lives in modern China. New sets of laws were introduced giving women the right to work, education and custody rights over their children. This was a significant improvement from the harsh days of foot binding. Mao also deemed it important to educate the Chinese population, another success was his improvement of literacy, and by his death 90% of China was literate. Not only did Mao revolutionise Chinese social life, but he put an end to corruption the government. However, these changes were to contribute to the launch of the great leap forward in a crucial way, by giving women the right to work Mao had significantly enlarged his work force which was important considering his beliefs in mass mobilisation. By the time the he announced the launch of the great leap forward 70% of women were employed. The success of the first 5 year plan can be explained by several factors. The targets set were plausible and most importantly Mao had the help of Russian economic and agricultural experts. However Mao deeply mistrusted experts. Some may argue that this was one of the main reasons for launching the hundred flowers campaign. In order to lure out intellectuals and opposition Mao gave a speech in 1957. During this speech Mao encouraged the intelligentsia to constructively criticize the communist party. At first the movement was slow to take of but once Mao forced the media to get behind it, people started speaking their minds about Maos regime. Communist party members were being heavily criticized and the Chinese people demanded reform. Mao, not uncharacteristically decided to reverse the policy in May 1957. This was to result in a crackdown on the intelligentsia known as the anti rightist campaign. Over 300,000 people were sent to labour camps. The hundred flowers was not simply a way at removing the intelligentsia, it was a way of removing Maos opponents, and this was to make the launch of the Great leap forward less difficult and certainly less questioned for the few experts that remained would be too terrified of speaking against the communist party chairman. The scene is now set for the introduction of the Great Leap Forward. Mao dreamed of transforming China into one of the worlds leading economic powers. Maos dream was to become Chinas nightmare with the launch of the great leap forward in 1958. Maos goal was to transform China into an economic superpower overnight. Many peasants knew little of what the Great Leap forward was for, most thought it was simply a plan to overtake major capitalist countries. However, to serve a higher purpose, Mao saw nuclear power as an essential element to become a superpower. However Maos secrete ambition was expensive. In order to mobilise labour, Mao had to further collectivise cooperatives in the rural parts of China. Mao believed that industry and agriculture were equally important, hence the slogan walking on two legs. However, the first 5 year plan had been beneficial to industry but agriculture had stagnated. One of Maos main concerns was Chinas population was outgrowing food production. In 1957 food production had grown 1% whilst the population had grown by 2%. Mao was distraught by the fact that the countrysides production was being used up in by the rural population. This posed a real economic problem for China. It meant that industry was not going to be sufficiently supported by agriculture and thus meant that Maos ambitions could not be realised. Maos answer to this problem was to decentralise control and enable enlarged agricultural units produce food and industrial products. These new super collectives would be known as Peoples Communes. These communes were under the control of local cadres whos main order were to extract as much labour as possible from the peasants. These cadres forced peasants were forced to hand over their property, thus reversing his policy of Land reform. The first of people communes was created in Henan in April 1958. It was composted of 27 collectives with over 9369 households joined together, by December 1958, 740,000 cooperatives had been turned into 26,000 communes. Mao had successfully militarised Chinas society, militia units squads were formed and were composed of everyone between 15 to 20 years of age. Living conditions in the communes were nothing short of appalling. Peasants eat, slept and washed together. All privacy was swept away from them, Mao even considered getting rid of peoples names and replacing them with numbers. According to Jung Chang and Jon Halliday Mao aim was to dehumanise Chinas 550 million peasants and turn them into the human equivalent of draft animals Mao had betrayed the peasants and was going to trade the peasants life for economic growth. Mao expected far too much from these communes. This may explain why the harvest predictions were astronomically high. Mao would have done well to examine the previous harvesting results. The normal yield was a ton per acre. The previous harvest of 1957 yielded a poor 195 million tons of grain. In 1958 Mao announced that the harvest figures for that year had been 430 million tons, western experts place this figure around 200 million tons. This demonstrates how much the production figures were exaggerated. Mao s political secretary Chen Boda told Mao that China was accomplishing in a day what it took capitalist states 20 years to accomplish. Production actually decreased during the Great Leap Forward by significant amounts, the harvest of 1959 was yielded a disappointing 170 million tons the CCP reported it at 282 million tons. This figure was to get even lower in 1960 when it fell to 143 million tons. This can be attributed to poor agricultural techniques. Close planting and deep ploughing were considered to be at the hear t of agricultural success. During these years Mao was asked how he intended to pay for his newly ordered soviet heavy machinery. Mao answered by claiming that China has unlimited food supplies. Consequently China increased its food exports towards Russia.

Avian Influenza and Its Expected Ramifications Essay -- Disease/Disord

Over the past fifteen years H5N1 influenza (also known as Avian Flu or Bird Flu) has become a common topic of speculation and debate worldwide, causing quite a bit of confusion about its possible impacts on our society. At this point in time it is generally recognized by the international medical community that Avian Flu is bound to become a pandemic, most likely within the next ten years. Research on Avian Flu and its effects have led many scholars to make grave predictions of major global turmoil while a small portion of medical scientists remain skeptical, believing we will have enough time to thoroughly prepare for the outbreak. The one thing that nearly all health professionals seem to agree upon is that the avian flu will surely have a large impact on the development of humankind. To truly understand the threat of this disease and what we must do to prepare for it, we need to look at the issue from multiple angles and consider what the spread of a disease so lethal and so pron e to mutation would mean for our daily lives, health professionals, laws and government procedures, and of course the continuation of the human race. It is necessary in order to understand Avian Flu's impacts on society to first understand what H5N1 influenza is. Like any virus, influenza viruses cannot reproduce on their own the way bacteria can. Technically, viruses aren’t even alive because in order for them to reproduce, they must take over the living cell of another organism. This makes all viral diseases notoriously hard to cure because modern research has yet to reveal a medication or procedure that can kill a virus without killing its host. The best medications that we currently have available to treat viruses can only prevent the virus fro... ...pe.com/viewarticle/757540>. Swain, James C., Linda L. Chezem, Caroline S. Cooper, Kim B. Norris, Carolyn T. Ortwein, Ronald J. Taylor, Fred Wilson, Francis Schmitz, Daniel O'Brien, Clifford Reeves, Elaine Snyder, 13) Thomas, James C., and Siobhan Young. "Wake Me Up When There's a Crisis: Progress on State Pandemic Influenza Ethics Preparedness." American Journal of Public Health 101.11 (2011): 2080-082. ProQuest. ProQuest, 24 Jan. 2012. Web. 14 Apr. 2012. . 14) Thomas Rhatigan, Joseph A. Trotter, Christopher Billeter, and Lenzing Lahdon. "Guidelines for Pandemic Emergency Preparedness Planning: A Road Map for Courts." CDC.gov. Center for Disease Control, Apr. 2007. Web. 12 Apr. 2012. .

Evaluation Of Work In Progress †Blue Remembered Hills Essay

For the past term and a half I have been studying Blue Remembered Hills as part of my Drama Coursework and a couple of weeks ago I performed an extract from the play with three fellow students. I will be writing about my Work In Progress and how well we worked together as a group to make our performance successful. To do this I will be focusing on the rehearsal process and the final performance. The Rehearsals. The rehearsals went very well, with steady progress throughout each session. The main strengths were the whole groups ability to pick up words, stage directions and changes quickly, for example when we decided to use a domino effect for our entrance. This effect was put in close to the end of our whole rehearsal process but we never had any problems with it and no one forgot it either. We also had all our lines learnt by the fourth lesson which meant we could get on with focusing on our stage directions and character analysis. Our main weaknesses were our character analysis, for example one of our group members found it hard to perform as his character because his personality was very different to his characters and his volume was a slight issue as well. I also found it hard to perform as my character because at the beginning I would let the status slip slightly at the wrong moment and I wasn’t seen as the bully anymore, I would also have to be careful about my pitch because I was playing a boy and sometimes my voice would come off girly and high pitched. One of our main problems was that some of us had other commitments like work or clubs that made it hard to organise lunchtime or after school rehearsals this affected our rehearsal process because when we managed to organise a rehearsal it had to be a short one or someone might have forgotten or not been able to make it, so it was hard for our teacher to asses our work and give us feedback if there was someone missing. We over came our problem by working extra hard in our lesson time so we could pay off for it that way. We also tried to work outside a lot so it could help us imagine our surroundings and the sort of things a seven year old would do outside. I found my strengths were my ability to incorporate ideas into our work and give constructive criticism. I don’t feel there was a directors role because we all had ideas and were able to give each other advice on their character build up. I felt I was able to help the group improve practise by asking for line reruns and workshops to improve our overall characters. My main weakness was character analysis (as above) mainly because, as a group, we didn’t do enough character analysis and this could have helped me. I feel my contribution benefited the rehearsal process because I could keep the group focused on a task and I was a good team player. I fell I could have helped others in my group more without feeling I was going to offend them because it affects the whole group dynamics if one person is unsure and it shouldn’t have to be a hindrance. The demands of working in a group are to not mess around or waste time, because you have to put as much effort in as your group members otherwise it isn’t fair, and you are putting the whole group in jeopardy and therefore are not able to make a satisfactory performance. The Performance In our final performance the domino effect worked really well as opening the scene because it gave us all the energy we needed to open the scene as seven year old boys. The thing that didn’t work well was the dirt on the floor, the sticks were fine, it was just the debris and mud on the floor that didn’t work. We put it there to make the scene more site-specific but it was unnecessary because we didn’t need to use it as a prop and had to sweep it up afterwards as well!! Our strengths as a group was our ability to stay in character even when we weren’t speaking because this helped to keep the energy levels high and keep the performance interesting. As an individual performance my strengths were my volume and diction because I felt I carried my words out so everyone could hear me. My weaknesses were my body language and pitch because I would often slip out of my characters voice and body language. For example when I am fighting with John I would lead from my chest which isn’t manly. I felt our group created a performance that clearly expressed a theme suited to our target audience. We achieved this by developing skills which enabled us to broaden our minds and act as seven year olds. I was able to play my character because: My voice was mainly boyish and I was able to pull off bully mannerisms; My body language was like a seven year old because instead of sitting I would squat, or I would fold my arms to show stroppiness when someone does something I don’t like; My facial expressions suited the mood I was in or the situation that was happening, like when the atmosphere dropped when everyone looked at the squirrel in guilt I changed my facial expression to look uncomfortable or guilty; My gestures were large and clumsy like that of a child like when we were trying to get the squirrel out of the tree I would wave my stick or hurl stones at it; And my interactions with others on stage were that of a higher status character and sometimes very nasty because I was a bully and carried the higher status, likely after my fight with John I stuck my tongue out at him and made other nasty gestures towards him. Overall I felt that my performance and our overall work in progress was a success and we worked very well as a group to make our performance successful.

What Are the Main Benefits of Immigration to the United States of America

What Are the Main Benefits of Immigration to the United States of America? When the question is about immigration, usually it is related to movement of people from one country to the other one. To talk about the Unites States of America, the notion of immigration is highly-debated in different areas, especially in the political one. For a long time, immigrants were the ones who created the history of the whole country. The United States of America is the country, which was founded by immigrants long time ago, but even nowadays a great number of people still flock here. Why do they come? They are looking for political freedom and an opportunity to achieve the aims they failed to achieve at home. No matter what, the USA is still the land of opportunities. Among the reasons why people prefer to live in the United States of America is the one that they are planning to make up a successful marriage which is quite possible. They are looking for better employment. The majority of immigrants agree to change their place of living in order to forget about poverty and leave behind unemployment in their mother countries. They hope to find better fortune elsewhere than at home. One of the main beneficial factors which causes immigration of millions of people is the education factor. People want to study at the corruption-free good colleges and universities and they are able to do that in America. To talk about illegal immigrants, in the United States of America they get an opportunity to earn more money, than at their homelands and have relatively better life style. To cut the long story short, it would be better to name the basic and the most important factors, which attract people to go to the USA and make living in this country much more beneficial, than in their motherland: political liberty, religious broadmindedness, better economical opportunities, high standard educational level.