Essay on Reading Response

I cannot make other writers’ creative choices for them but I can train a reader’s eye. Close reading is the heart of my creative writing courses because a writer must strive to be a perfect reader; a successful writing process depends on skilled reading practices. I will encourage Emory University’s creative writing students to become better readers of fiction and creative nonfiction and they will grow into better writers for it.

In this report I will investigate how shells oil pipeline is handled in the city Baraale, situated in Nigeria. The oil that passes through the community of Baraale and leaked on Forests and farms which evidently lead to a problematic situation facing the local community. I will talk further about ethical concerns that the community faces and how they can improve and recover.

Most children in the Niger delta have little or no education, due to lack of funds from their parents who have lost their lands and have no jobs because of limited opportunities. The Niger delta government and the oil companies have refused to look into the situation; instead they favor their close relations neglecting the masses. Corruption in the Niger delta has led some youths in taking drastic measure in order to put food on their table. For example, Ikechukwu Efe an indigene of the Niger delta said that some of his friends created their own “oil refinery”, which is made up of crude oil in metal barrels with controlled heat from fire woods. This is a dangerous process in refining crude oil but the degree of poverty in the state left his friends with no choice. If only the government of the Niger delta have created jobs with the wealth of the state Ikechukwu’s friend would not have to put their lives in danger. Until corruption is put to an abrupt the people of the Niger delta will continue to live in poverty.

International Monetary Fund of the forty two developing and emerging countries market survey including India, China and Middle East had finding that less than the half full passed world higher oil prices thought to retain customers. The incentive reduced subsidization to the contribution and conservation to the price rise by oil demand sustainability in the crude oil price relative face. The retail price of diesel in many countries, a crude oil refined product, the crude oil used in making the diesel is less than its actual price.

“You have to read 10 hours this week” said my first grade teacher. In elementary school reading logs were what all the teachers made us do. Every week I had to read a certain amount of hours. I however, never read the amount of hours I was supposed too. I would just fill out the log and tell my mom to sign it. At that time it sounded like a good idea but then came freshman year. Mrs. Daugherty changed my whole perspective on reading and how important it is to read.

My 3rd grade teacher Ms. Drew helped me learn how to read. Out of all my teachers I ever had I really appreciate her because she wanted to help me and had patient’s other teachers didn’t have with me. Without Ms. Drew in my life I would not even be where I am today because now-a days without being able to read you will be considered stupid and uneducated. She built up my confidence in reading by telling me I can do it, it worked because all the time and patients she put in me. I knew I can read I just was a hard-headed kid who needed somebody to sit down with me and show me how important it is to know how to read as an black male. Some problems I had when reading out loud is going skipping over words, struggling pronouncing words and just feeling ashamed and stopped reading when I miss pronounce a word.

At this particular moment, I find myself in an unsure realization with my attitude to reading and writing, even more to reading. I use to love reading, as a matter of fact, I would save my money just to buy new books to read. It would be right to say that I enjoyed reading in earlier years, and now I find myself reading things with no effort to try to understand the true concept of the text. I can still say that deep down I still enjoy reading but I rarely find myself getting truly invested in it’s unless it related to something I am familiar with.

My second year as a second grade teacher has been full of changes. This year, administration has changed the way that reading would look for second grade. Now, my students switch to four other teachers for the whole reading block whereas last year I had my class for the entire reading block. The group of students who I teach during reading range from DRA 20-28. These students are either on or above grade level in reading. For that reason, I am only responsible for the reading instruction of transitional and advanced readers.

The columnist Michael Burleigh, Daily Mail, wrote an article (8 August 2013) on corruption in Nigeria with the heading “A country so corrupt it would be better to burn our aid money”. He continues stating that since its independence in 1960 Nigeria has received an estimated 400 billion USD and estimates indicate that since 1960 380 billion USD of government funds have been stolen and out of Nigeria’s 36 state governors, 31 are under federal investigation for corruption.

Basically when I heard the term active reading i was a bit baffled. I questioned myself vigorously about this new term. Then I perceived it to be reading in a very conscious manner at the lierature before an individual. Or was it ?

My life has been an interesting twist and turn of events, from when I was a little kid I have issues with my school work and have had a lot of self-doubt in my ability to read, write, and be a confident person in my literacy studies. Reading and writing has never been something I am good at until recent.

Everyone has done some reading assignments in their life, either reading quietly or reading loudly. For me, I enjoy reading to others. However, when I was in the elementary school of United States, I cannot do that. At that time, my English was poor. My first English class developed my reading confidence a lot. Ms. Gonzales was the teacher for that class. For that class, Mrs. Gonzales always picks random student to read for others. Because of that, I get lots of practice on my reading skill. However, in the beginning of the semester, she does not pick me at all. In my opinion, she tried to protect my self-esteem. The reason of that is she does not want other people laughing at me due to my poor English. Although she does not pick me, I

These attacks on the oil companies are serious enough for the government to ‘reward’ the violence by holding discussions with these warlords. The reason for this is that the country is a petro-state. This means that the country’s economy relies heavily on oil revenue, about 50 per cent of the GDP, 95 per cent foreign exchange earnings and 80 per cent of its budgetary revenues. This came about after the civil war, beforehand Nigeria was a relatively small producer of oil, but after it became a global producer of oil, 5th biggest producer in the group OPEC. Because of this civil war, oil companies such a Shell have had to form close partnerships with the Nigerian government, and indeed military dictatorships in order to exploit the abundance of oil in the country. Very little money from the oil production has gone into the communities where the oil is

Nigeria got their independence from Britain on 1st October, 1960. Within the country of Nigeria, they have over 371 tribes, but the main three that is well known are, Igbo, Hausa, and Yoruba. Within that 371 tribes, they have 521 language. Nigeria is well known for their petroleum, and they have other natural resources include natural gas, tin, iron ore, coal, limestone, niobium, lead, zinc and arable land. The maximum crude oil production capacity of Nigeria is 2.5 million barrels per day, and the whole world consume an average of about 19.4 million barrels per day. One might ask, what is the problem with a country with the maximum capacity of oil production at 2.5 million a day? The problem is that people in that country are living in poverty. According to the Food Aid International organization (FAI), “3000 adults and children die everyday of hunger and poverty,” (Xinhua). My research shows that there are many contributing factor why people are living in poverty, which are: Unemployment, bad education system, inequity, and corruption. But my research focuses on the leading cause of poverty in Nigeria, which is corruption within the government system. According to “BBC News,” it shows that almost 100 million people living in Nigeria lives under $1 a day.

Once considered of lowest concern amongst Nigeria’s social problems, over the previous decade insecurity has since grown at an alarming rate. Where corruption and abuse of power were once the forefront of Nigeria’s problems, it is now insecurity that has that particularly unwanted title.