1the European Union
1the European Union
The European Union is a political and economic organisation, made up of 27 European State members including that
acts as an economic and political unit under common policies. The EU has its roots in the aftermath of world war II.
- In 1946, Sir Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the UK, held his famous Zurich speech, in which he declared
'We must form a kind of United States of Europe'.
- The EU’s story began in 1950, when six European countries - Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg
and the Netherlands – founded the European Coal and Steel Community.
- In 1957, the Treaty of Rome turned the previous community into the European Economic Community (EEC);
its focus was the elimination of customs barriers in the international economy field.
- The Maastricht Treaty was signed on February 7, 1992 and took effect on November 1, 1993: it established the
birth of the European Union (EU), that replaced EEC, and sets up a single European market aimed at ensure the
movement of capitals, goods, services and people across EU countries in freedom.
- The 1994 Schengen Treaty let people travel around Europe without a passport.
- Furthermore, the Maastricht treaty introduced the euro, which was intended to be the European common
currency. It has been adopted since January 2002; today, nineteen of the EU countries use the euro as their
official currency.
The UN organs are: the Security Council, the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council, the Secretary-
General, the Trusteeship Council, the International Court of Justice.
- The Security Council has primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. It has
15 Members (5 permanent and 10 non-permanent members).
- The General Assembly is the main deliberative, policymaking and representative organ of the UN. All 193
Member States of the UN are represented in the General Assembly. Each year, in September, the full UN
membership meets in the General Assembly Hall in New York for the annual General Assembly session, and
general debate. The General Assembly, each year, elects a President to serve a one-year term of office.
- The Secretary-General carries out the day-to-day work of the UN as mandated by the General Assembly and the
Organization's other principal organs. The Secretary-General is chief administrative officer of the UN, appointed
by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the Security Council for a five-year term.
- The Economic and Social Council is the principal body for policy dialogue on economic, social and
environmental issues, as well as implementation of internationally agreed development goals. It is the United
Nations’ central platform for reflection and taking decisions on sustainable development.
- The Trusteeship Council provides international supervision for territories that had been placed under the
administration of seven Member States, and ensure that adequate steps were taken to prepare the territories for
self-government and independence.
- The International Court of Justice is the principal judicial organ of the UN. Its seat is at the Peace Palace in the
Netherlands. The Court’s role is to settle legal disputes submitted to it by States and to give advisory opinions on
legal questions.
The United Nations presents a system of specialized agencies, including the World Health Organization (WHO), the
World Food Programme (EFP), UNESCO, UNICEF.
Unesco
The United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations
created with the purpose of promoting peace and understanding between nations through education, science, culture,
communication and information to promote "universal respect for justice, for the rule of law and for human rights and
fundamental freedoms" as defined and affirmed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
OMS
The World Health Organization, established in 1948, is the United Nations specialized agency for health issues.
Unesco
The United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations
created with the purpose of promoting peace and understanding between nations through education, science, culture,
communication and information to promote "universal respect for justice, for the rule of law and for human rights and
fundamental freedoms" as defined and affirmed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
THE UN PEACEKEEPERS
The UN peacekeepers, often referred to as Blue Helmets, represent the UN military intervention force. They provide
security and political support to help countries transit from conflict two peace. Peacekeepers are guided by three basic
principles: consent of the parties, impartiality, non-use of violence except in self-defence.
There are five permanent members: the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom and France. It includes all
States of the word, except the Vatican.
Peacekeepers are committed to:
- maintain order and law;
- protect civilian population and refugees;
- ensure the maintenance of human rights;
- disarm and demobilize combatants;
- demining.
The Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, also known as the 1951 Geneva Refugee Convention, is
a United Nations multilateral treaty that defines who is a refugee and defines the rights of individuals who
have obtained asylum and the responsibilities of nations which guarantee the same asylum. The convention
also stipulates which people do not qualify as refugees, such as war criminals. The convention also provides
for visa-free travel for holders of travel documents issued under this Convention.
The convention is based on Article 14 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which
recognizes the right of individuals to seek asylum from persecution in other countries. A refugee can enjoy
rights and benefits in a state in addition to those provided by the convention.
GLOBALIZATION
It is a term which describes the growing network of communication between individuals, groups, companies
and countries.The network is creating a shrinking world where local differences and national boundaries are
being integrated and the planet is becoming a global village.
It is a phenomenon of extraordinary complexity with a double face; in fact, globalization has positive and
negative sides.
The positives are that:
- Goods can move freely;
- Distances are reduced and you can move from one side to another very easily, thanks to the development
of means of transport;
- It is a source of development for the poorest countries, in fact, African leaders know that globalization is
useful for the development of the country;
- Exchange of cultures, traditions, lifestyles, thanks to the means of communication, for example the
internet, with which you can exchange an unlimited number of information, and you can chat even in real
time;
- Money circulates among all states, whereas previously it circulated only in a single country;
The downsides are that:
- Exploitation increases as large multinationals exploit the labor of the poorest countries;
- Work becomes more and more precarious and unstable;
- A large part of humanity is excluded, since in a type of society like ours based essentially on communism
and the exasperated search for material well-being, individuals are not valued for their human and moral
abilities but for the ability to produce in a society that only reaches out to economic goals;
- Increases pollution and the distribution of the environment to build more industries.
The Portrait of Dorian Gray is an 1890-1891 novel written by Oscar Wilde. The novel is set in 19th-century
Victorian London, which at the time was pervaded by a typically bourgeois mentality. It tells of a handsome
young man, Dorian Gray, who will come to make his beauty an insane ritual. He begins to realize the
privilege of his charm when Basil Hallward, a painter who is a friend of him, gives him a portrait painted by
him, which he reproduces in the height of his youth.
Lord Henry Wotton will play a decisive role in Dorian's life, whom he knows right at Hallward's studio.
There, in fact, Wotton, with his extremely long speeches, negatively influences Dorian, who begins to look
at youth as something really important, so much so that he feels envious of his own portrait, which will be
eternally beautiful and young as he ages. Struck by panic, Dorian arrives to stipulate a sort of "pact with the
devil", thanks to which he will remain eternally young and beautiful, while the painting will show the signs
of the physical decadence and moral corruption of the character.
After a tormented love affair with a theater actress named Sybil Vane, which ended with the girl's suicide
after a show in which she acted badly, Dorian, seeing that his figure in the picture ages and takes frightening
grimaces every time he he commits a ferocious and unjust act, as if it were the representation of his
conscience, hides the painting in the attic and gives himself to a life of pleasure, sure that the painting will
suffer the miseries of fate in its place.
He will not reveal the existence of the painting to anyone, if not to Hallward, who will then kill in the grip of
madness fomented by the painter's criticisms, which he believes causes his ills as the creator of the work.
Every now and then, however, he secretly goes to the attic to check and mock his portrait which ages and
becomes ugly day after day, but which also creates so much remorse and fear until, tired of his evil life, he
tears the picture with the same knife. with whom he had killed Hallward.
Eventually the servants find Dorian dead with a dagger stuck in his heart, unrecognizable and precociously
withered, at the foot of the portrait, who has returned wonderfully young and handsome.
Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin in 1854.
He studied in Oxford and he became a disciple of the theory of aestheticism, accepting the " Art for Art's
Sake ". He left Oxford and settled in London. Aestheticism was a search for the beautiful, a science through
which men looked for the relationship existing between painting, sculpture and poetry, which were simply
different forms of the same truth. He married Constance Lloyd in 1883 who bore him two childern but he
soon became tired of his marriage.
In 1880s Wilde wrote some importante stories and the novel "The picture of Dorian Gray". After that he was
interested in drama but the novel and the tragedy damaged the writer's reputation because they were
considered immoral. In 1891 he met the young Lord Alfred Douglas who became his lover.
R. BROOKE - Born into a well-to-do academic family - Brooke's poetry would have
changed in tone and imaginary - Brooke is remembered as a war poets, who inspired
patriotism in the early months of the great war - He assumed a symbolic role that
turned into the myth of a young and beautiful fallen. - He didn't get in touch with the
horrors of the war because he wasn't a simple soldier - Brooke died in 1915 at the
age of 28 because he contracted blood-poisoning the soldiers. The speaker is the
poet he is speaking to foreign, the England is view as glory its quality are the power
and superiority.
The poem is nostalgic, sentimental and patriotic, he is not afraid of death, the grove
will be in England, he will enrich the foreign soil with his dust of English origin, he
will be buried in England earth. There is an emphasis on war, he exalt English race.
The death suggest me: glory, immortality and peace. In this poem the principal
theme is the exaltation of the homeland, think always his country and wants to die
there
. S. SASOON - First poet that portrayed the truth about war - Born in an upper-class
family - He carried out his protest against “the political errors and insincerities for
which the soldiers are being sacrificed - He was extremely spontaneous - His
description are cruel and realistic - He used devices like satire,documentary…
W. OWEN - In Wilferd Owen'works positive emotion of love, admiration are present
as well - In a war hospital he produced his most brillant poems. - He had a negative
vision of war - He used many assonance and alliteration this give moral force which
people must suffer and die. - He used phara-rhymes - his sonnet DULCE ET
DECORUM EST based on the poet's experience of horrors of war. I. ROSEMBERG -
He was very poor - modern poems - He used a simple language (spiritual and
elementary)