Class 11, Language Development, Unit 7- Ecology and Development

 

Unit-7 Ecology and Development

“Sustainability is about ecology, economy and equity.” Ralph Bicknese

 Wangari Maathai

pERSONAL

Date of Birth               : April 1, 1940 

Deceased                     : September 25, 2011

Place of Birth              : Nyeri, Kenya

Nationality                  : Kenyan

EDUCATION

Ph.D., Anatomy, University of Nairobi (1971)
M.S., Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, USA (1966)
B.S., Biology, Mount St. Scholastica College, USA (1964)

Founder and Coordinator, the Green Belt Movement (1977–2002)

Chair of the Board, the Green Belt Movement (2002-2011)

She is a Kenyan environmentalist and political activist. In the 1970s, Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental NGO focused on environmental conservation and women's rights. In 2004, she became the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for her contributions to sustainable development, democracy, and peace. The Green Belt Movement organizes rural women in Kenya to plant trees, an effort that combats deforestation while generating income for the community and promoting empowerment for women. Since Maathai founded the Movement, over 40 million trees have been planted and over 30,000 women have been trained in forestry, food processing, beekeeping, and other sustainable, income-generating activities.

The Green Belt Movement (GBM) was founded by Professor Wangari Maathai in 1977 under the support of the National Council of Women of Kenya (NCWK) to respond to the needs of rural Kenyan women who reported that their streams were drying up, their food supply was less secure, and they had to walk further and further to get firewood for fuel and fencing. GBM encouraged the women to work together to grow seedlings and plant trees to bind the soil, store rainwater, provide food and firewood, and receive a small monetary token for their work.

 

 

Foresters without Diplomas

Glossary:

Forester                      - a person in charge of a forest or skilled in planting, managing, or caring for trees

Autobiographical        - dealing with the writer's own life

Green Belt                   -an area of open land around a city, on which building is restricted

Campaign                    -an organized course of action to achieve a goal

Movement                   - events of great significance, either in history or in present

Backyard                     - the area close to where one lives, or the territory close to a particular country, regarded with proprietorial concern

Women decade           - The United Nations Decade for Women was a period from 1975 to 1985 focused on the policies and issues that impact women, such as pay equity, gendered violence, land holding, and other human rights

Malnutrition                - a condition that results from eating a diet which does not supply a healthy amount of one or more nutrients

Adequate                     - satisfactory or acceptable in quality or quantity

Manifestation              -  the action or fact of showing something

Pursue                         - a seek to attain or accomplish (a goal) over a long period

Complicated                - complex

Nandi Flames Trees    - a species of trees

Empowered                 - make (someone) stronger and more confident, especially in controlling their life and claiming their rights

Indoctrination             - the process of teaching a person or group to accept a set of beliefs uncritically

Infiltrated                    - enter or gain access to (an organization, place, etc.) surreptitiously and gradually, especially in order to acquire secret information

Communal                  - shared by all members of a community

Nomadic                     - living the life of a nomad; wandering

Appropriate                 - suitable or proper in the circumstances

Initiate                         - begin

Compilation                - the action or process of producing something, especially a list or book, by assembling information collected from other sources

Fundraising                 - he seeking of financial support for a charity, cause, or other enterprise

Microanatomy            - microscopic study of tissue structure

Anatomy                     - the branch of science concerned with the bodily structure of humans, animals, and other living organisms, especially as revealed by dissection and the separation of parts

Expertise                     - knowledge

Disappointment          - dissatisfaction

Contribution                - involvement

Portrayed                    - showed/depicted

Subversive                  - seeking or intended to subvert an established system or institution

Exercises

Ways with Words

A. Match the words with their meanings.

a) constituency      - electoral district

b) Pursue               - seeking or intended to overthrow and established system of institution

c) Infiltrate             - to enter or gain access to (an organization, place, etc.)

d) Nomadic            - living the life of roaming

e) Anatomy            - art of studying the different parts of any organized body

f) Subversive         - to follow in an effort to overtake or capture

 

B. Study the following words.

 

Prefix	Words	Prefix	words
Mal	Maldevelopment, malpractice, malfunction	Miss	Misbehave, misplace,  misfortune
Un	Unable, unhappy, unfair	In	Inactive, incomplete, insufficient
Pre	Prepaid, predetermine, preview	Il	Illegal, illegible, illiterate
Dis	Disloyal, disobey, dishonest	Im	Impolite, immoral, impartial
Re	Remix, repay, reuse	Ir	Irregular, irresponsible, irrelevant
De	Derail, depart, degrade	non	Nonprofit, nonstop, nonsense

 

In the word ‘maldevelopment’ from the essay, the prefix ‘mal’- makes its meaning negative which means ‘faulty or imperfect development’.

 

C. Make two other words by using each prefix given above and use them in sentences.

 

Malnutrition- Many people are suffered of malnutrition in most of the poor countries.

Maltreatment – The maltreatment makes children violent.

Unreliable – Unreliable people are those who let people down. 

Unreasonable – We must not fight on unreasonable things.

Preface – The preface of the book made me read the whole book.

Premature – Exposing in the sun makes us premature aging.

Rearrange – Rearrange the following words into an alphabetical order.

Remake – A remake is a production of a film or television series.

Degradation- Humans are responsible for degradation of environment.

Demerit – A demerit is also a fault or weakness.

Mistake – Sometimes we do mistakes.

Mistreatment – I never forget you for your mistreatment.

Indulge – Do not indulge in immoral activities.

Inflate – Inflate the tube to check after repairing a puncture. 

Impossible – It is impossible to save her from drowning.

Immortal – Nothing is immortal in this world.

Irrational – His decision was irrational.

Irrelative – This is an irrelative matter to me.

Nonsmoker – I am a nonsmoker person.

Nonexistent – Don’t believe on nonexistent or mythical beings.

 

Comprehension

Answer these questions

 

a) What did Maathai decide to do for the community?

Ans:- She decided to help the community creating jobs such as cleaning constituency, planting trees and shrubs, cleaning homes of richer people in the communities.

 

b) Mention the problems faced by women in Kenya.

Ans:- The problem faced by women in Kenya are: problems of firewood, malnutrition, lack of food and adequate water, unemployment, soil erosion etc.

 

c) Why did the speaker go to the women to talk about planting trees?

Ans:- The speaker went to the women talk about planting trees because tree planting could solve the problems such as lack of firewood, building and fencing materials; stopping soil erosion and protecting water system.

 

d) What is the most important achievement of the movement described in the text?

Ans:-The most important achievement of the movement described in the text is plantation of 10 million trees making women independent and empowered acquiring knowledge and techniques in tree planting.

 

e) Why were the foresters’ ways not helpful to the women for planting trees?

Ans:- The foresters’ ways were not helpful to the women for planting because they had dealt in a complicated ways  to a very simple things like looking for seed and planting trees.

 

f) When and how did she start “The Green Belt Movement”?

Ans:- She started “the Green Belt Movement” by planting seven beautiful Nandi Flame trees in the backyard of the office of the National Council of Women in Kenya on the World Environment Day, on 5 June 1977.

 

g) Why do the donors want to provide money to the women?

Ans:- The donors wanted to provide money to the women because the efforts made by women in tree plantings were effective.

 

 

h) What happened when the speaker criticized the political leadership?

Ans:- When the speaker criticized the political leadership, they took away the office which had been provided to The Green Belt Movement founded by Wangari Maathai in Kenya.

 

i) Mention the agencies that supported her movement?

Ans:- The agencies that supported her movement were: the United Nations Development Fund for Women, the Danish Voluntary Fund, the Norwegian Agency for International Development, the African Development Foundation in the USA.

 

Critical Thinking

a) Do you think the title “Foresters without Diplomas” is suitable to the essay?

Ans:- The present essay entitled “Foresters without Diplomas” written by Wangari Maathai, is an autobiographical essay which focuses on the efforts made by Wangari Maathai and poor Kenyan women in Kenya to turn deserts and abandoned areas into greenery in Kenya. The success of the whole movement depends on the poor and uneducated Kenyan Women who used their common sense in looking for seeds and recognizing seedlings and germinating them when they fell on the ground.

 

I think “Foresters without Diplomas” is the suitable title for this essay because we come to know that poor and uneducated women in Kenya have made a great effort in preserving environment by planting trees and strengthening themselves economically without having university degrees in forestry. The foresters with diplomas, when they were invited by Wangari and her team to teach them planting trees, made the matter more complicated despite having university degrees instead of teaching women in a simple and easy way. Observing the foresters with degrees in forestry being failed in teaching women simply Wangari with her team taught a large number of simple and poor women in recognizing seeds, germinating seedlings and planting trees. They acquired knowledge and techniques simply using their common sense and became able to empower and independent themselves. During a period of ten years they were able to grow 10 million living trees. There were 1500 nurseries, run by 99% Women. Observing their efforts and outputs the well-known funding donors such as the United Nations Development Fund for Women, the Danish Voluntary Fund, the Norwegian Agency for International Development and the African Development Foundation of the USA, provided financial and technical supports to them however the Kenyan government was blind to this movement.

 

All the efforts and achievements mentioned in the essay are because of the poor, uneducated, and straightforward Kenyan women. The simple work having great meaning by these women in Kenya makes any reader puzzled and amazed. The success of the “The Green Belt Movement” only lies on the foresters without diplomas and energy and passion of Wangari Maathai.

 

b) Can a person make a difference in a society? Discuss with and example from a person who has made a difference in your society.

 

When we try to answer this question in a superficial level, it seems impossible. Can a person make a difference in a society! Yes, it is. It is obvious that until we get supports from a mass, societal change is quite impossible. A mass support in needed to bring a positive change in a society but who the mass is controlled by. Every successful movement has a pioneer figure - single person having energy, leadership quality, vision and passion for bringing a change is society. There are lots of people like Wangari Maathai, who have contributed a lot to bring this world in the present condition. Bill Gate, Martin Luther King Jr. Nelson Mandela, Gautam Buddha, Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi, Karl Marx are the examples who played a prominent role to bring a change is society like Wangari Maathai. By reading histories of these people and reading this essay we can say that a person can make a difference in a society/world.