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This chapter introduces its readers to the concept of tourism. It sheds light on the rationale for tourism, as it explains the tourists’ inherent motivations to travel. It also describes different aspects that together make up the tourism industry. Tourists travel to destinations that are accessible to them. They require accommodation if they are visiting a place for more than 24 hours. Leisure and business travellers may also visit attractions, and engage in recreational activities. Hence, the tourist destinations should have the right amenities and facilities. In this light, this chapter clarifies how destinations may offer different products to satisfy a wide array of tourists. Tourism products can include urban (or city) tourism, seaside tourism, rural tourism, ecotourism, wine tourism, culinary tourism, health tourism, medical tourism, religious tourism, cultural (or heritage) tourism, sports tourism, educational tourism, business tourism (including meetings, incentives, conferences and events), among others.

The tumultuous relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the West, in particular the United States, since the 1979 revolution is climaxing in the dispute over Iran’s nuclear development. However, if as expected, a settlement is reached, mainly by Iran backing down, an important question would loom on the horizon: Can the West, and principally Washington, live happily and peacefully with a theocracy that is ideologically radical in character and anti-American in orientation? This essay deals with that question and explores pathways that may lead to some answers. In so doing it will point out the root causes of the hostility of the clerical establishment towards the United States and why despite various attempts and strong incentives a thaw in relations has eluded both capitals. Significant internal and external factors will be highlighted in this regard and how they may perceivably give (or not give) way to the resumption of diplomatic ties between Iran and the United States will be investigated.

Cartoons have these last years represented an excellent way to lead debates on various socio-political and economic issues affecting Nigeria and to engage and enlighten Nigerian audiences. Almost all Nigerian newspapers and magazines have found them instrumental in their criticism of political malpractices and socio-cultural maladies plaguing the country. In line with this, many social forces (particularly NGOs) have embraced cartooning as a strong tool for environmental activism. Such social entities have in various platforms, deployed cartoons as a fruitful sensitization machinery to mobilize various segments of the Nigerian populace in favor of environmental protection. These sensitization efforts have most often entailed the construction/composition of emotionally and ideologically loaded cartoons that reflect many local myths and which are founded on local idiosyncrasies and worldviews. Understanding some Nigerian environmental cartoons has thus often been a complex task which in many instances, necessitates not only a full grasp of the principles of visual rhetoric but equally sufficient knowledge of some local myths and socio-cultural realities. In view of this fact, it may be interesting to apply semiotics in the reading of environmental cartoons. This chapter addresses this issue. It is divided into three main parts. The first part explores the state of environmental protection in Nigeria. The second part examines cartoons as a tool for social and political activism. The third part provides theoretical illuminations on the use of semiotics in the interpretation of cartoons and the last part provides a semiotic analysis of selected environmental cartoons.

Imperialism was, from its commencement, a racially and sexually gendered reality and the power differential among masculinities emerged in the master/slave relationship that characterized Empire. Hegemonic masculinity generated by the white conquistador birthed a resultant subordinate masculine identity that came to signify the non-White man – initially slave and, later, the free African laborer – in the New World. The subjectification of this non-White man, this Other, proved to be fundamental to the constitution of masculinity along racialized and sexualized frames, complementing how related ideologies functioned in a primarily economic enterprise underpinned by greed as the catalyst for the Conquistador’s actions. The impact? Almost indelible gender identity ramifications on the enslaved African and his offspring across the Caribbean diaspora. This chapter seeks to explore Empire-resultant and Empire-resistant constructions of masculine identity in Olive Senior’s “The View from the Terrace” and Paule Marshall’s “Barbados.” The overarching aim is to underscore that, in the postcolonial Caribbean, as the Afro-Saxon’s proclivity for all things White crumbles, the Afro-Creole man’s own emerging, defining and robust sense of self and masculine identity becomes visible.

From the heaps of garbage in street corners and highways, to blocked drains and obstructed waterways, Nigerian cities continue to bear marks of environmental degradation occasioned by the business activities of manufacturers. Globally, the picture is no less different as landfills, oceans and beaches bear indubitable testimonies of plastic pollution. While the manufacturers smile to the bank, governments and municipal authorities struggle with their meagre resources to combat the colossal burden of plastic pollution they generated in the course of creating wealth. The use of non-biodegradable materials such as polythene in product packaging is the primary driver of manufacturing-induced environmental degradation in Nigerian cities and other cities of the world. Recent developments in commerce in Nigeria, such as the emergence of the mobile supermarket, are responsible for the geometric increase in street filthiness in the country. Developing strategic alliances amongst Nigerian manufacturers or between manufacturers and municipal authorities is key in ensuring a healthy environment while doing business. However, such alliances must take a clue from the Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) embodied in the environmental consciousness practised in local markets in Nigeria, hereafter referred to as the ‘market-place model’ for environmental stewardship. This model, when replicated in other economies across the globe, would significantly reduce the global burden of plastic wastes and the hazards they pose in the environment. Conscience repayment, provision of refuse collection points, recycling and green packaging are part of ways of operationalising this model in everyday business. Adopting the market-place model in building strategic alliances for environmental stewardship would afford Nigerian manufacturers, and indeed global manufacturers, financial and non-financial business benefits such as cost savings through eco-efficiency, enlightened self-interest and good corporate image.

Robert Franklin Hoxie was of the first generation of University of Chicago economists, a figure of significance in his own time. He is often heralded as the first of the Institutional economists and the impetus behind the field of labor economics. Yet today, his contributions appear as mere footnotes in the history of economic thought, when mentioned at all, despite the fact that in his professional and popular writings he tackled some of the most pressing problems of the day. The topics upon which he focused included bimetallism, price theory, methodology, the economics profession, socialism, syndicalism, scientific management, and trade unionism, the last being the field with which he is most closely associated. His work attracted the notice of some of the most famous economists of his time, including Frank Fetter, J. Laurence Laughlin, Thorstein Veblen, and John R. Commons. For all the promise, his suicide at the age of 48 ended what could have been a storied career. This paper is an attempt to resurrect Hoxie through a review of his life and work, placing him within the social and intellectual milieux of his time.