Humanities 8-Alisha

Power, What is it?

2009-05-17T20:45:00.000-07:00

The main purpose of the Humanities eight class was to understand the meaning of Power. According to Dictionary.com, “Power is the ability and strength to order, accomplish or change.” I agree with this statement because power can be seen in different ways, one can have the ability to accomplish any day to day task, but he can also be at a level where he has the strength to order a major task that can be done by others. From studies throughout the year, major topics such as the Industrial Revolution, Imperialism, World War II, The Russian Revolution, and the "Animal Farm" demonstrate major examples that relate to my generalization of what power is.

Starting off with The Industrial Revolution, The industrial Revolution was the time of early development in technology, it was when machines such as the Spinning Jenny, and the Water Frame began to take the place of man-made products. The Wealthier Cast however, heavily benefited from these machines, and had the power to let these happenings happen. Since the rich had more power, they were at a much higher political levels than the poor, they had the "strength" to "order" more out of the machines. Another Example of power in the industrial revolution comes from the machines itself. By the mid industrial Revolution, the machines had gained so much value over the economy of England and America, that they had the power to alter it's economy depending on it's income. This type of power is quite similar to my first generalization of power, the machines had the "strength" to "change".

Moving onto my second point,Imperialism. The time of imperialism was shortly after the industrial revolution, it was when the Europeans soon began to feel short of natural resources. Considering that Africa is like a bank for natural resources, a conference was held in Berlin where all the countries in Europe would gather to divide the countries in Africa according to how much POWER each country had, taking Great Britain for example,due to the industrial revolution, great Britain gained tremendous power, they had the "ability" to "order". And where capable to obtain the most nourished countries. Another example of power during the time of imperialism was the dehumanization of the slaves. The book, "To Be A Slave", shows many various points of views of how the slaves felt while having to work under another. This follows my second interpretation of the definition from dictionary.com,another master has the "strength" to "order" his slave to an extent where people may not classify the slave as human any more.

Another way to look at power may be with World War II. Shortly after the WW1, the Germans were in terrible conditions having lost a significant amount of money to the allied forces.To support the loss they signed a peace treaty, called the treaty of Versailles.To over throw the government, Adolf Hitler, a strong general in the German army showed up having three goals in mind, uniting all German speaking countries, secretly building the German army, and dominating Germany, all of which succeeded. Adolf Hitler had the power to accomplish all three of his goals,he had the "ability" to "change". After Hitler succeeded on his last goal, he set out on other tasks. In 1934, Hitler built up the power to invade the USSR, and in 1939, he could even disrupt Austria and Czechoslovakia. This uses another form of my generalization of power. Hitler had the "strength" to "order". Another form in which Hitler showed great power was in the midst of forming his supporting "party" called the Nazi's, the Nazi party supported and raised even more power to Hitler,in Hitler's case, he had the "strength" to "change". In my opinion, Hitler was the real reason for happening of the World War 2.

Lastly, the Russian Revolution,and a common novel called "Animal Farm",the events in the book "Animal Farm" run quite parallel to the events in the Russian Revolution. The Russian Revolution started during the turn of the 19th Century, around 1905, when riots broke out in Russia due to a poor monarchy. Tsar Nicholas the second, a greedy king of Russia during the time of the Revolution, only cared for him and his family. However, the power rested in him to deny reforms when the time was right. Tsar nIcholas the second had the "ability" to "order" the denies of reforms so that his family could benefit from it. The book "Animal Farm" showed 2 main sources of power. One, like stated before runs parallel to the Russian Revolution, it is where the owner of the farm, Mr. Jones, treats the Animals in the Farm much like Tsar Nicholas did in the Russian Revolution. He too had the "ability" to "order". Moving onto the other source of power which came from Napoleon, the "unequal" leader later on. Being a pig himself, Napoleon thought that pigs were far more superior than all other animals in the farm. However, many other animals in the book such as Boxer, the hard working horse, worked much harder than all the other pigs put together. And once again, the power rested in him to deny the change. He had the "strength" to deny "change". This source of power follow one of the main theme's of the book too, " Individuals in society aren't treated equally."

To Conclude, power can be seen in many ways, in the case of the Industrial Era, power was found in the wealthier class as well as the machines. In the Age of Imperialism, power was in the rich countries and masters. In the WW2 and the Russian Revolution, the power lay in the wealthier monarchs of the time. To look over the points, power can most commonly be found near the wealthier class, this is because they are at a higher level with which they can "order", "accomplish", or "change".

Work Planning for Population Project

2009-05-11T04:18:00.000-07:00

During the week that I get to work on my Population project in my humanities class, I would like to split my work in an order so that I don't end up in a position where I might have to turn my PoP in late.

Monday: On monday, I would like to gather and organize all my information, I would also like to go down to the library to finish any remaining research.

Tuesday: Since I know I have a lot of information, I think I would like to start taking notes on my notecards earlier.

Wednesday: Today, I would like to finish writing my notecards

Thursday: Since my first draft for the RP is due the coming monday, I would like to start writing my thesis statement today and maybe even start an outline

Friday: Today I would probably want to finish my thesis statement if I haven't already, and definitely sharpen the edges of my outline

Weekend: Throughout the weekend, I would like to write my first draft that will be due the coming monday

Even though this plan is a little fast, I think that I will be able to keep up with it's pace, as I will be working during class as well as at home.

PoP Reflection

2009-05-03T23:07:00.000-07:00

For population project, I decided to look at gender inequality and girls education. One of the most alarming facts that I had learned during this search was that almost 95% of the girls living in a rural state called Bihar were illiterate which means only about 5% were literate. This is partially because many girls don't want to go to school as there is a shortage of women teachers. Another important fact that I learned was that ancient Hindu myths such as the Ramayana, and Mahabharata often viewed women as a punishment from the gods. Schools in Bihar feared that if women come to school, then bad things will happen to their schools. They became superstitious. I am pretty sure that I will use the information that I have learnt in later life to try and improve the current problem.

What is the "Net Effect" of Globalization?

2009-05-01T00:23:00.000-07:00

According to the World Bank, "Globalization is the growing integration of economies and societies around the world", in short, it is the expansion of companies into other countries around the world. Whether or not this is a good thing or a bad thing, it has been debated world-wide. Globalization allows lower class people who live in poverty to have a chance to earn at least something. It also allows the middle-class citizens to earn more, this is because their jobs have been outsourced into their laps, allowing them to earn more money. This follows the Boom-and- Bust cycle, when people get more money, they buy more products, when they buy more products, companies expand to become bigger, when companies expand, there are more jobs, when there are more jobs, there more people earning more money, when people get more money, they buy more products, and so on. Because of out sourcing, many westernized people often have to work with people who aren't necessarily "westernized", depending with whom this may concern, globalization also reduces the amount of racism in our world. Along with jobs, technology is also a main part of globalization, it is often known THE source to keep in touch with people around the world. Companies such as facebook, MySpace or Skype allow indirect communication with friends in seconds. This source of technology, along with other forms of globalization tends to keep the world in one time, opinion, and speed, it tend to keep our world much more united.

Although globalization has done a lot of good deeds for earth, it also has some negative impacts, using technology for example, technology allows humans to keep in touch with friends, relatives, or even strangers. But according to Thomas Freidman (Author of "The World is Flat"), his tenth flattener stated that an excessive use of technology may lead to a much smaller world. Returning back to jobs, globalization brings in new jobs into a certain company, however, it also has some out sourced jobs. Middle-class Americans lose their jobs because there jobs have been outsourced in to a remote area like India. This increases jobless claims in America, where the government has to pay for the families expenses. The people who have lost their jobs often have to face major mortgage issues where they have to pay the government back before a dead line. Globalization has also effected the annual salary of most jobs, as the rich become richer, the poor also become poorer, creating a vast split in class, because more of the world population is poor, the numbers are increasing rapidly, creating conflict between the rich and the poor. Moving onto Culture, countries such as India, and China have had a major impact on their cultures due to globalization, bringing in changes in eating, clothing, and even behavior. This also relates back to how the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, the rich communicate more with westernized countries, having to wear clothes to fit their culture, much like sonny from the Morgan Spurlock video where Chris's job had been out sourced. While the poor communicated less with the American, and never had to change their culture. This created yet another split in culture, where the rich would be westernized, and the poor would be remain in their old cultures. Overall, globalizations has some key points that can save our world from crisis, however, it also has some key points that can create major conflicts in our world.

Technology and Schools

2009-04-19T22:17:00.000-07:00

Q1 This Image has 3 main characters, by the face of it, there's a man, a women, and a boy eating their dinner.

Q2 It's really trying to show that the boy wants his father to read his blog, instead of telling him how his day went.

Q3 People in the world are using technology soo much that they would rather go on the computer, and paste what they are trying to say onto their blog, intead of talking.

Q 4 People do use the computer far too many hours in a day, just like I am doing it right now.

Q5 When I first looked at the picture, I saw a happy family eating, there was nothing about technology, this boyr looked nothing like a nerd, or even a tech person, but when I read the quote, I realized what the cartoonists is trying to say.

Q6 A couple of weeks ago we had a socratic seminar, that discussed whether we were using technology too much or not.

Q7 Maybe, the boy could be talking on his cell phone, or on a laptop at diner time.

Technology, What is it?

2009-03-22T20:07:00.000-07:00

Technology would be the advance of daily activities, they cut down the time it would take for one to accomplish a task, they reduce the amount of energy needed to accomplish a task, they are like the outcome of all logic, creativity, and material that we humans have made from the earth. Today, I guess the most important technologies vary by age, an infant kid might think that a fake mobile phone would be most important because they see their parents having one, but for a average middle school student like us, or even all teenagers might think the computer is the most important piece of technology because they can use it to right all the long essays they need to write for in daily classes such as Humanities. Since, a majority of the population in our world is the adults, I think the most important piece of technology would either be their mobile(a real one), or a laptop, these help communicate with the world around us. The Least important piece of technology for an average child, would be a walk-man possibly, because they use, but quite occasionally they are pushed away with yet another advance in technology, and are off with that new toy, thinking that they'll use someday or another, yet they never do. For average teenager, the least important piece of technology, would be a small fixing tool, not many teenager would found handling or even holding a small fixing tool. For adults it would be the car, adult use a car, but they don't really think about it. While using a car, they're either on their phone or thinking about something else! To Conclude, no matter how big or small your piece of technology, it is still needed quite deeply, in our world today.

Am I a Luddite?

2009-03-19T20:41:00.000-07:00

“Do you know what a Luddite is? That’s a person who doesn’t like newfangled contraptions. Contraptions like nuclear submarines armed with Poseidon missiles that have H-bombs in their warheads, and like computers that cheat you out of becoming. Bill Gates says, “Wait till you can see what your computer can become.” But it’s you who should be doing the becoming. What you can become is the miracle you were born to work—not the damn fool computer.”

- Kurt Vonnegut

I really think that the "damn fool computer" that we use every day can help us not only to civilization, but it is something we use almost everyday. We need a computer everyday, it helps us communicate and even save paper at times, it cuts down the amount of time we would take to accomplish a task, but while using this "damn fool computer," we never really remember that WE have created it, many people even come to believe that technology , and the "damn fool computer" is like a gift from god. God did not give us technology, god gave us the ingredients to make technology, but he left it to us to cook it. And so we did. But the computer isn't the only one that has deeply advanced into our generation, other technology like the "Euphio Project". The Euphio project was an invented,imaginary instrument that buys happiness. To add to my point, on pg 202, on paragraph 3, Lew states, "That's good-happiness by kilowatt, our motto will be "Buy your happiness the same way you buy you light"
To Conclude, I think that we use our computer so much, we always forget that we are the creators of the computer.

Feedback on Q3 and Q4

2009-03-16T00:20:00.001-07:00

When we first arrived after the winter break, my goals for the third quarter were to improve my sentence fluency as that was a major let down during my African Research Paper. I really think that I have improved a lot in sentence fluency, before I would have to really be careful at what I was writing and how it was written, but now, it really comes much more naturally, when I read what I have written, it's much more fluent and flowing. Another goal I had for Q3 was to talk a little more during class discussions. Although I haven't improved so much in this goal compared to the old one, I really think I improved a little, as the year has gotten on, I have gradually opened my self up to the class. Knowing that this goal may need some more time, I want to enroll in onto fourth quarter. I am sure, that by the end of this year, I would have reached my goal. Now for Population Project, with this being the largest and "Hardest" projects of the year, I just really want to make sure that I did my best in it , and I did it up to my fullest extent. In the End, if I don't get a good grade, I'll know that I did my very best.

Holy and War an Oxymoron?

2009-03-08T20:34:00.000-07:00

Holy and War could never be a word that were put together, they're are just opposites, when someone says holy, they think of peace and something being very sacred, and when someone says war, they think of anger, conflict and violence. They belong to two completely different moods too, a person would only go to a holy place when they want help or when they want to thank god. However, a person only wants to go into war when they want to finish a conflict, or colonize the other side. Also, I have noticed that in almost every religious temple, there is this atmosphere that is very quiet, and soothing. Whereas when in a war( I infer from the movies), that it is very loud, rough and forceful. It is clear that these word are just too different to be put together.

To answer the second question, since almost every religion prevents war, why are the causes of most wars religion? Let me start with how the not every religion reclines from war, Islam, however, promotes war when it is in a deadly position, and I think, deep down almost every religion thinks the same, and why shouldn't they, if your religion is in a state where it might become extinct, you would have to fight back for what you believe is right. Another reason to why most causes of war are religion would be the fact every religion believes in different facts, they get too caught up with the little details that they forget that the overall fact is the same, like in Islam, Shina's and Sunni's, they both believe in the same god, yet the main causes of war in Iraq are the Sunni's and the Shina's. This shows that many religions are forced to fight with one another to save their their religions, or to stick to their facts or beliefs.

WWIII?

2009-02-22T21:07:00.000-08:00

With all the controversies, and conflicts going on around the world, I have a great feeling that there will be a bigger, better and more longer world war. However, I don not think it will be in our generation, I think it might just be in the early next generation, this means by the time the war has ended, many of us will be dead or many more of us will be very old. One conflict that is right in front of our eyes is Pakistan and India. Although, India and Pakistan were divided during independence, the pair still have many fights. Another example of a conflict would be between Israel and the Palestinians. And then up north, I'm sure Germany still sufers from WWI and WWII, with all these "little wars" going on all around the world, I'm sure they will evolve in to a major WWIII.

Anne Frank Feedback

2009-02-17T04:20:00.000-08:00

In her diary Anne opined: “…if you’re wondering if it’s harder for the adults here than for the children, the answer is no…Older people have an opinion about everything and are sure of themselves and their actions. It’s twice as hard for us young people to hold on to our opinions at a time when ideals are being shattered…” (July 15, 1944.) Do you agree or disagree with this quote? When was the last time that you experienced the “shattering” of an ideal?

As weird as it seems, I have to agree with Anne, many young children are less experienced in life, and hence are much more gullible, they usually just go with the flow, and believe what anybody and everybody tells them to believe. One way, However, that children tend to stick to their opinions is by stubbornness. Nowadays, a large percentage of children have grown to be quite stubborn, no matter what the situation may be, many stubborn people just cannot see the other side. That was the children, now, let's move onto the adults or grown ups. Almost every adult has faced a lot of the situations in daily life. This enables them to be much more experienced, and able to bend their decisions according to the conditions. To Conclude, I completey agree with Anne, it is much harder for children to stick with their opinions than for adults. Children are more gullible, and much easier to explain. While adults are more experianced and are more flexible to the ideas around them.

Last Letters

2009-02-14T02:28:00.000-08:00

1492
2ND Kaiser Street
Germany

Dear Joseph,
Hey brother, how are you?....I hope everything is just fine there.Hope you're taking care of mom alright. I'd sure like to see you guys, but the war is going on, and you know how I'm the new General now, I won't be able to come back for quite a while. Maybe in a year, maybe in 5 years, maybe I won't EVER come back. If I do, than we can celebrate....over my luck. But if I don't than, take care of mom, she's getting older by the minute, if you can't save up some money, than there's some left in my account, take it, and spend it wisely. Gosh, there's so much to say, so much to do....I still remember when we used to be kids, just after a stormy fall, we'd sprint down the muddy path into the great lake. Sink our skinny skinny feet in the clear water until it reached our knees, bent down to find our faces, yet we'd always end up with fishes. We'd take a deep breath, speak our prayer for forgiveness, and grab the first fish that slipped through our hands. You were always better at catching them than I was...I always wondered how, I guess I still do. And then, Mom would yell at us so hard, even Dad felt sorry, but what could we do, we were kids, we just had to do those kind of things! Now it's different, now, we have to earn our living, earn our families living, and never let them down. Speaking of family, you should find yourself a nice girl, she'd help you take care of Mom. Your lucky to have one, I don't even have a soul mate, I'm going to die soon anyway. Father's already dead, I guess I'll meet him there...someday. Uh-Oh, I have to go now, it's my turn to fight my way throught this battle. I hope I see you soon though

Take Care,
Your Beloved Brother,
Antony

World War Two, In 10 short steps

2009-02-11T07:38:00.000-08:00

Ingredients:
Germany
Ferocious Fire
Poland
Sparks at the stove
Japan
Italy
A spectrum of spices
Treaty of Versailles
Water to heat
Britain, France, Australia, and New Zealand
Belgium Holland, Russia
The Building Force/Anger

Step #1: Pour in some treaty of the versailles into your pan
#2: Spark the stove on by letting Germany attack Poland
#3: Let Britain, Germany, Australia, and New Zealand join Poland and the Treaty of Versailles
#4: Increase the fire to make it stronger by adding Belgium, Holland, and France to it
#5: Change the appearance of Britain because it's Prime Minister changed
#6: Add more of Britain so the fire can postpone it's attack
#7: While it's in the pan, chop Russia into pieces till it cannot be cut anymore
#8: Add a little more spice by getting Japan to attack the US
#9: Now, Take the Italy and put it in the Fire till it's burnt, then sprinkle the ashes on top
#10: Stop Germany and Japan by stopping the fire and Voila! Here is the your WW2

Animal Farm Movie Critique 2

2009-02-09T04:39:00.000-08:00

In our class, our second part started of with the executions of the animals. Let me start with the movie itself, I believe that the movie was far too short, it could have explained a lot more than just showing how they went to the very beginning stages after Jones had left. Speaking of Jones, In the book, men from the pub had broken down the windmill, while in the movie, Jones had put some cracker in the windmill causing the windmill to break. This made many of the individuals very sad, especially Boxer and Benjamin. Boxer, however was very strong and always strived to work harder. In the book, Boxer had grown old, and was unable to even walk at some stage. While Boxer rested, Napoleon and Squealer found a way to even trade him off to the Glue Company. Whereas in the movie, a rock fell on top Boxer, he hadn't shown any signs of growing old and had injured his foot. Moving on, When the Pigs walk on their two hind legs, they are celebrating, and are even wearing some human clothes. Whereas, in the book, the pigs walk on their hind legs with whips in their hand as if they are monitoring the individuals. Lastly,when the animals are all fed up, they decide to rebel against the pigs, this however does NOT happen in the book. One last thing that could have changed the movie a lot was showing change in the seven commandments. To conclude, the movie was far too short and if possible could have been modified quite a bit to fit more or less the exact story.

Animal Farm Movie Critique Part 1

2009-02-07T21:53:00.000-08:00

As I started watching the movie version of "Animal Farm", I soon realized that the movie had skipped through a lot of the hard work in the beginning of the book. And even before that, the speech that Old Major had given seemed much smaller compared to the speech in the book (pg 5-10). Also, in the book, Old Major died shortly after the meeting (pg 11), while in the movie, Old Major died right at the end of the meeting. Another thing that attracted my attention was that the Battle of Cowshed walked in a little too fast. In fact, one of the students even said," Isn't the battle of Cowshed a little later on?". Let's move on to Napoleon ,up until the meeting for the windmill, Napoleon was a lot like a dormant fly, he wasn't a very big part of the decisions that were being made either . I think, the animators might have focused a little too much on Napoleon because he was going to be the dictator later on. Along with events, the movie also alters the side characters a little. For example, in the book, there is a index of all the characters (pg 4). Whereas in the movie, many of the characters such as Mollie and Muriel were missing. Along with that, Moses, the tame raven, was not even introduced so well, in fact, a person who hadn't read the book from before wouldn't be able to tell that the raven was even a part of the farm. Moses plays quite an important role in the book, and should get that much importance in the movie too. To conclude, I think most of these differences are excusable, this is because, if they had imitated the book word, to word than I fear the movie would have gotten a bit too long.

Which animal best suits you?

2009-02-02T01:22:00.000-08:00

While reading this book, I gradually realized that I best suited 2 of the characters in the book. Let me start with, Clover, I guess I best follow Clover, because nobody really knows me, I haven't opened up to anybody I know yet, they all just know me from the "outside", the only person I've completely opened up to, would be my sister, my sister and I are always together, we're like the best of friends. Everybody else I know, knows my coat, but nobody knows my core(Except my Sis). The other person I think I suit would be Benjamin, being the smallest in my family(in age), I think that I have the least power,I know a lot of the stuff that's going on, and a lot of the time, I can infer what's going to happen, so no one really listens to me, also a lot of people say I have a different way of thinking, but if only some people would listen to me, I think I could have possibly changed the family! To conclude, I suit 2 people, Clover, and Benjamin, one because nobody really knows me, and the other, Benjamin, because I think differntly.

Tyranny, Injustice, Self-ditermination

2009-01-26T21:18:00.000-08:00

In my opinion, tyranny is when a king/person takes control over a country, without any vote, it's sort of like when a person comes out of the blues and decides to take over a country. Injustice is when a country or person or object is thought of smaller or less able than everybody else, and hence they are treated differently, or in an unfair manner. Self-Determination is when a country wants to be individual, and just be able to handle their problems by them selves. A couple of examples of tyranny, injustice, and self-determination is located right in our book called Animal Farm. One very clear show of tyranny is when the major,comes "out of the blues" and shows that all humans are bad because they use the animals' resources to feed them selves. For Example, the major stated that, the hens could have laid so many more chicken if the humans had not eaten them away(pg.3). More than tyranny there are many more forms of Injustice in the piece of writing that we had. For example, everybody might not like the major, everybody might not like the way they have to look at it. For Example there is Clover who acts like a spy because he is the closest to Farmer Jones and what if he finds that farmer Jones isn't that bad, but still he has to stick up for them...

Save Me, God, Save Everybody...

2009-01-22T23:36:00.000-08:00

BARROOM! BARROOM!

The sounds of the rifles pierce through my ear,

Is this a dream? Am I really in a war?

SWISH!

A strong burst of air brushes onto my cheek

Ten seconds later…

BOOM!

An artillery smashes into our reserve trench

I guess that answers my question,

I guess I AM in a war,

I guess

I'm in the First World War

It's my turn next…

My turn to hop

Over the top

To try

Knowing that I'll die

But still

At least I could kill

Someone from the other side

What will happen to my children?

Will they take the tormenting?

Terrorizing,

And torturing

Agony?

Or will they just die?

Will I just die?

Will everybody just die?

….Is this…..

PEEEEEEEPPPP!!

Air bursts out of the captain's whistle

Time to go…

out into the violent wrestle

God,

Save me….

Save everybody…

Military Rules in UAE

2009-01-18T19:44:00.000-08:00

I am from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and up until now, the government hasn’t put any pressure upon the people, I think this is mainly because there are hardly any TRUE emeriti’s left in the country, or because the country wants to keep a low profile, and pass it out easy. Also, the UAE has a rich source of oil, but Saudi Arabia, It’s major surrounding country has much more. One of the reasons why there aren’t any more emeriti’s in the country is because there are so many outsider or tourists, that many of the emeriti’s have migrated further west. I am also Muslim, it is said, that when there is a major war, where one has to save it’s religion, men have to fight, and woman have to help, for woman it is more voluntary, also, if you are sick, or traveling the risk is taken off your shoulder. I for one wouldn’t fight for my country because I don’t believe in violence, and I think it is better to talk it out, but if it were my religion, I would at least do what I can to save my religion. Another reason I wouldn’t do this would be because UAE has quite a formal, complicated yet straight forward military, to be in the military, you would have to be formal, complicated, yet straight forward, and for me that would be almost impossible.

Intro to World War 1

2009-01-11T23:55:00.000-08:00

This is a picture of the basic structure of how the WW1 was, each person represent each country, the fat,rich man on the top left represent England because he's wearing the British flag. The bear on the top right represent Russia, I am assuming this because Russia's main animal is the Great Black Bear. On the bottom right lies the Turks because of the hookah the man is talking in, the hookah originated in the middle-east, and then moved up north to Turkey. The crying lady, left on the side would probably be the Netherlands. The military in the bottom middle would most probably be Italy. Connecting all these are the most powerful countries, Germany and Austria-Hungry. These countries are so powerful because they are allies with almost every country, this cuts down the fear of them being invaded, but then again they could also be invaded by each other. Out of these countries, there is one country that is left over, and I think this country used to be very rich,and powerful, but soon enough, Germany, and Austria Hungry got more allies, getting more armies, and took all the power, this left the crying girl left to start all over again. I think the cartoonist was trying to show that most of these countries are more powerful because of their allies. But , the Netherlands weren't allies with anybody, and are the poorest.

Feedback on Quarter 2 goals

2009-01-05T19:16:00.000-08:00

During the beginning of the quarter, I had made 2 goals, one goal was to speed up the pace at which I was reading on, and the other was to improve my writing skills, as for the first goal, I think I have gotten quite I bit faster throughout the quarter, at first, I was a bit slower than my sister while reading the same text, but as time went on, we evened out , and soon enough, I was faster than her. My second goal, was to improve my writing skills, for me, I believe my vocabulary has stretched quite a bit, and in ways that proves that I reached my goal(in ways).

In order to improve my writing skills completely, I would probably want to work much more on sentence fluency this quarter, this is because that pulled down my grade quite a bit on the Africa Research Paper, and I wouldn't want that to happen again during population project. Another goal I would have is to talk a little more during the class discussions, I am mainly quite silent, so I'd like to speak what I think.

What is the Net Effect of Imperialism?

2008-12-01T00:55:00.000-08:00

Pros:
*Brought in Civilization
* New Ideas to the country
* New ideas like transportation
* A bit of communication
* Gave education.
* New ways of developing the economy
*Brought in Global trade
*Solved most of the health problems in the country
* Arica became a democracy

Cons:
* Imperialism brought in slavery
* Slaves were dehumanized
* Slaves were beaten because they didn't do some small thing.
* Black people weren't treated properly.
* Took up all the resources
* Kings got selfish with Africa's rich resources

Southern Africa- Today

2008-11-19T07:01:00.000-08:00

Southern Africa today is what it is, was primarily because of the Apartheid, an apartheid was a division between rich and poor, as time went on, people started to realize that the apartheid was a really bad idea, this was called the sanction. During the sanction, many citizens began to protest against the apartheid for reunion. One of their strong leaders was Nelson Mandela. Nelson Mandela was prisoned for leading petitions of protest, and is still known for them up till now. Years later, when the south was in great crisis. Nelson Mandela was released from prison and was elected president of South Africa in the year 1990. People say, that since Mandela was elected, all the peoples' thumbs are up. Yes, today, South Africa has equal right between men and women( it says), and the country's public schools are open to all universities. So you see, nelson Mandela has changed lives for everybody in Southern Africa

What does it mean?

2008-11-18T06:35:00.000-08:00

When I first saw this image, I first thought of the europeans(whites), colonizing over the Africans(blacks), in some ways I thought it was very racist, because all the black africans could do was hope that their homes weren't colonized. It wasn't fair for the africans to be kicked out of their homes. Now, let's talk about foot step. When I think of someone putting their foot down in that way, I suppose that that person would be knowing what he or she is doing. And in this case I suppose that the person also want everybody to follow his or her actions in that way, so his or her deed is just let loose. When I think of colonizing, I think of ruling, and this lead my head to one person ruling another, like bullying. So in the end, I think of colonizing as bullying.

Article on South Africa #3:Swaziland: Promise to Heal the Health Service

2008-11-18T06:08:00.000-08:00

MLA Citation:

"allAfrica.com: Swaziland: Promise to Heal the Health Service (Page 1 of 1)."allAfrica.com: Home. 14 Nov. 2008. 18 Nov. 2008 .

This article, linked to the citation above, shows that the food and health of Swaziland, Southern Africa, is going down. No matter how rich or poor you are, the hospital conditions in Swaziland are going is at a descending slope. In the article, there is a short quote from the prime minister, Dlamina, instructing the Minister of Health and Social Welfare about how wrong our country has gotten.

"If you don't do what I have just said about improving hospitals, you must just hit the road and head home."

Shocking, but true, the prime minister of Swaziland stated the rich will soon die, when I read this piece of information I was shocked that they were talking about the rich, I was thinking about how the poor, but now, I think,If the rich are in this state what would the poor be like. Here are a couple of reasons why I and the rest of Swaziland thinks that it's tough luck for the poor. In Swaziland, it is said that patients have to lie on the floor instead of stretchers. Also that one of the most eligible doctors in Africa has a high chance of getting HIV aids since he does not have a protection against all the diseases flowing the hospital. Bout what annoys me the most is that most of the poor canNOT afford a doctor.

Article on South Africa #2:Zimbabwe: Botswana's Khama Calls For New Election

2008-11-18T05:33:00.000-08:00

MLA Citation:

"allAfrica.com: Zimbabwe: Botswana's Khama Calls For New Election (Page 1 of 1)."allAfrica.com: Home. 4 Nov. 2008. 18 Nov. 2008 .

In my first article of Southern Africa, it stated that Zimbabwe was trying to rearrange its government by uniting with a completely new form. In my next article(this one), that links to the MLA citation above, it is just a basic view of why Botswana wants Zimbabwe to re-run Zimbabwe's election. Botswana thinks that if a better or new president comes in, the president could clear up all the mess happening in Zimbabwe. I'm guessing Botswana is very much concerned of Zimbabwe mainly because Botswana is a neighboring country Zimbabwe. I'm guessing it's sort of like a if you die than I have to die too, or if you make a fool out of yourself, i'll get embarrassed too.

History and Culture

2008-11-17T01:35:00.000-08:00

South Africa has a large History and Culture, for example, a tribe of farmers called the Bantus migrated from west Africa to central Africa and then to the South almost 2000 years ago. Much later after that, Europeans arrived in the 1700's and changed to landscape and the way people lived much before that. Now, lets move on to the culture. Overtime many people created a diverse culture in south Africa, infact the region culture reflects both African and European cultures. Not only that, but it is said that the people of Africa belong to hundreds of different ethnic groups. One of the mains points that stick in my head was when Southern Africa's government put up a policy of separation, of races, or apartheid, the country was divided into four groups called the whites, blacks, colored, and Asians, I thought it was just really racist, because some of the colored and Asians couldn't go in certain areas of Africa, and god knows what the condition would be for the blacks or whites.

Scramble for Africa

2008-11-15T22:32:00.000-08:00

Me and Dana both got Great Britain, but I guess it was really Dana who got Great Britain, mainly because she did the attacking, negotiations,and claiming of land. Our primary goal was to control the Sues Canal, and we had it(at first). But I guess bit by bit, the Netherlands convinced us in swopping for something we didn't really need. By the time we got to round two, we realized that we needed a lot of the south , and but it was just too late for that since the France were smart and took over a large potion of the south before we even realized we even needed it. Another part we lost out in was attacking, we didn't have great luck with the dices, infact we never won any attacks, nor could we defend, and that was mainly how we lost against the Netherlands. I'd probably say that Spain or Portugal lost because they had the least amount of squares in the end. One of the main disadvantages for Spain was with the dices. Spain was in the worst shape when we started, with only three dices to roll from. The country that won would probably be France or the Netherlands. The Netherlands did a good job claiming over the Sues Canal, and areas around it, good job!

Physical Geography of Southern Africa

2008-11-11T19:44:00.000-08:00

Southern Africa has a large topography, infact most of the land in Southern Africa is lies on Mountains and Plateuas. These mountain and plateaus reach from 4000 feet or 1220 m above sea level. It is said that the steep face at the edge of a plateau is called an escarpment. Along with Mountains ans Plateaus, South Africa also has a large variety of Rivers. One of the most famous river in South Africa is called the Okavango River. One of the main reasons this river is so famous would be because the rivers water rever reaches the ocean, instead it forms a swampy inland delta. South Africa's Climate gpes from each to west, but it is said that the driest place in the whole of South Africa would be Madagascar, an island South East of Africa. Now lets move on to the resoarces in South Africa. Madagascar's froest provide timber, the regions fast flowing rivers provide hydroelectricity and also water for irrigation. But these aren't the regions most valuable resoarses, infact they are minerals. Mines in the South West of Africa provide most of the gold and silver the whole world uses today. So now you know South Africa is maily covered with grassy plains and deserts atop a large plateau. Minerals are among the region's main resoarces.

CAN we trust the book "To Be A Slave"?

2008-11-10T21:19:00.000-08:00

I'd Probably say yes, I do trust Julius Lester and his book, because all the detailes are so clear, it's as if he's probably interviewed each and every slave he has in "To Be A Slave" For example on page 38, there is a lot of detail, and he's also conveyed it in the right way, by showinig it in first person and later on explain it in third person. Also, the book, " To Be A Slave" has also won a Newbery Honor Book award which means the book has got to have something good in it for it to win the award. And last but not least, why would the teachers at AES make us read this book if they didn't trust it???

Articles on "South" Africa 1

2008-11-10T05:39:00.000-08:00

South Africa Picks President, but Uncertainty Remain

Nic Bothma/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

South Africa’s newly elected president, Kgalema Motlanthe, center, watched on Thursday as a supporter danced in celebration.

By BARRY BEARAK

Published: September 25, 2008

JOHANNESBURG — Kgalema Motlanthe, 59, a former trade unionist once imprisoned during the apartheid era on charges of terrorism, was overwhelmingly elected Thursday by Parliament as South Africa’s president.

But whether he merely keeps the seat warm until elections next year — when Jacob Zuma, his party’s leader, presumably will take over — depends on whether Mr. Zuma, 66, can continue to skirt the corruption charges that have long followed him.Two weeks ago, a High Court judge not only threw out those charges on procedural grounds, but also implied that President Thabo Mbeki and his cabinet had meddled in the case. The opinion led the hierarchy of the governing African National Congress to demand that Mr. Mbeki step down, leading to the quick ascension of Mr. Motlanthe (pronounced moht-LAH-tay) as an interim president.

The judge’s action, however, has been appealed by the National Prosecuting Authority. If the appeal succeeds, or if the charges against Mr. Zuma are simply filed again after the procedural mistakes are corrected, party elders could view Mr. Motlanthe as an ace in the hole rather than as a caretaker.

The A.N.C. dominates the political landscape here. In the last national elections, in 2004, it won nearly 70 percent of the votes.

But Robert B. Mattes, the director of social science research at the University of Cape Town, said that an ever-larger portion of the population had grown disenchanted with the party since the days of Nelson Mandela.

“This is reflected in a 30-point decline in voter turnout between 1994 and 2004,” he said. “Black voters unhappy with the A.N.C. simply stay at home rather than switch their allegiance to an opposition party.”

Cynics here suggest that the entire reason for sidelining Mr. Mbeki was to make sure that Mr. Zuma’s legal problems disappeared.

Mr. Mbeki is suspected of suspending Vusi Pikoli, the leader of the National Prosecuting Authority, last year to stop the intended prosecution of a political ally, Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi. To some in the A.N.C., a similar dismissal now to protect Mr. Zuma might seem a practicable tactic.

But such a strategy would also seem venal — and Mr. Zuma has already been buffeted by years of accusations. In 2005, his financial adviser was convicted of brokering bribes Mr. Zuma’s way, which led to the corruption case.

In 2006, Mr. Zuma was acquitted on charges of raping a 31-year-old family friend. He testified that the woman had courted sex by sitting provocatively, and his Zulu upbringing had left him no choice but to oblige her.

Mr. Motlanthe is as reserved as Mr. Zuma is gregarious. The new president is not well known to many South Africans, though he is a familiar figure in the party He spent 10 years imprisoned on Robben Island. He became active in the labor movement as an officer with the miners. He was the A.N.C.’s secretary general from 1997 to 2007.

After being sworn in on Thursday in Cape Town, Mr. Motlanthe promised to keep South Africa on much the same path Mr. Mbeki had followed. “Mine is not a desire to deviate from what is working,” he said.

He announced the reappointment of the finance minister, Trevor Manuel, who is credited with keeping the nation’s economy at a hum. He announced one major change, however. Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has been given a new position as a minister in the presidency. In her previous job, health minister, she became a polarizing figure for espousing beetroot, garlic and lemon as a cure for AIDS. The new minister of health will be Barbara Hogan, a senior A.N.C. member of Parliament who is viewed as a welcome choice by groups that campaign for the distribution of antiretroviral medications.

Zackie Achmat, an anti-AIDS advocate, told a South African television reporter, “It’s a great day.

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This Articles shows how South Africa's newly elected president has to fight to untangle all the economical mess in the South of Africa, for instance, Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe insists that all the goverments in the South of Africa unit and act as one because the whole world is in an economical loss at this moment.

I'd probably say this would be good news because, it is timeliness, this peice of news is happening right NOW( Sept 25!). It has relevence, every citizen would be concerned who their next president will be, because he OR she could have different ways of making this country run which could casue to a loss for the wealth of his OR her bussiness. It has impact, every citizen SHOULD know what is going on in their country...you never know WHAT could hit you. It has reference...to the president. And lastly it has progress, as much as there is fear of new style there is hope for a better futher.

2008-11-07T00:08:00.000-08:00

Well, we all know where THIS is....this is the K
aba in Mekka. Thousands of people have come to walk around this rock that muslims call,"The house were Allah, their god, lives", all these people are part of the Islamic region, imagine how much land this would have taken to accomadate all these people, AND the large mosque around it. Having been in this place before, I know what it like to be here, it is unbeleivable at how clostrophobic it is out there, women loose their children, Men loose their wives, and father's loose their sons, it is quite absurd.

"Violence leads to more Violence"

2008-11-02T19:44:00.000-08:00

Does violence lead to MORE violence? well yea I'd say yes....If your having a fight with someone, a person would just try to stop you and your "fighting opponent" , but they just end up in the fight too.....even in Julius Caesar....In Act 3, where the conspirators killed Caesar, there was a LOT of chaos, the chaos lead to Brutus, and Antony's Speech, when Antony won...the conspirators fled.....lead to capturing them.....and as you can see, this is leading to WAR!

2008-10-20T01:48:00.000-07:00

If I were Brutus I would want the better good of Rome, but I would also want to keep a good friend of mine. From the play, I can't really see this "GREAT" friendship neither of them have confronted themselves up until now, I don't really know HOW strong this friendship is and that's why I' d probably choose for the better good of Rome, and try pushing Caesar away. I wouldn't even know know what would be going on inside Cassius' head, I'd just follow Cassius, as he would bribe me and I could end up killing Caesar, not achieving ANY power and letting CASSIUS be king!

The Leaders of 8th Grade

2008-10-13T02:13:00.000-07:00

I'd think that a good leader would be one who would have a good reason for people to follow he or she, one that strongly believes in the group and one that could explain what they mean when they are convincing another to join the group. In our grade, 8th Grade, I would think that the leaders of todays 8th grade would be Aysha because she always leading a class or an essembly. She also isn't afraid of being who she wants to be in front of strangers

Case Studies in imperialism

2008-10-13T02:00:00.000-07:00

Imperialism started when more larger; more powerful countries wanted to dominate countries that were smaller and weaker because for one they were all craving for something that could make a profit or is wealthiest for their country for example, South East Asia got dominated by the west because of it's fertile land. yes, SE Asia's Land was so fertile you could double or even triple crop during a year.Also many of the outcomes or changed made were positive too, for example, India's textiles industry jumped up rapidly because England no longer dominated India and even thanks to Ghandi getting shot. Speaking of getting shot, the world is getting more and more violent by day. Almost all of Middle East, India , SE Asia, and Africa got dominated by means of violence or force, Middle East got dominated by war or signing contracts.

Goals for Q2

2008-10-06T20:22:00.000-07:00

My goals for the first quarter were to earn a A- and to improve my writing skills. I think I've improved a bit in my writing skills but I guess I missed the small things like portfolio snapshots that really got my grades down.

This quarter(quarter 2) I would like to improve my reading skills, because apparently I am pretty slllooooooww, I only read like 100 pages a day! Along with that, I'd probably still want to continue revising my writing skills.

Feedback in Goals

2008-09-08T00:19:00.000-07:00

My first goal was to get an A- without getting any extra credit, well at the moment I have an A- and without any extra credit so I guess I'm achieving that goal right now but usually my grade goes down towards the end of the quarter so in the end it might not.

My other goal was to improve my descriptive writing skills because personally I'm not that good of a writer, I can't really tell whether I've grown as a writer in one month, but my the end of the year, if I'd ask you, you'd probably let me know.

"Mr. Coyle's Stock market in the 1870's"

2008-09-04T05:51:00.000-07:00

I thought the stock market was really cool because it tought us how investors would have felt when their money really got lost, but also when there money doubled or trippled. Also how a free market works. You put us in a panic zone when you said that the first person would get a A+, sacond A, third,A-, fourth B+ and so on, because we knew there would ba a mojority of students that would have gotton a C or below. So I guess it worked out pretty well!

What is the “net effect” of the Industrial Revolution?

2008-09-01T20:35:00.000-07:00

There are a bunch of pros and cons towards the "net effect" of the Industrial Revolution,

Pros
1. The Machines let the human hand rest for a while.
2. It let some of the poor people earn some money to eat
3. When the IR went to America, the cost for transporting goods from one factory to another got canceled out, since they were together.
4. Made production faster and could get more of it.

Cons
1. Alot more laborers were fired since they had no more work to do.
2. When the IR went to America, there would have been major arguments between England and the US
3. When inventor might invent something they would get competition, the invisible hand and would argue.
4.This might cause a world war because both England and USA were major countries in the trading world.

Reflection on Factory game 1 & 2

2008-08-22T03:12:00.000-07:00

Mr. Coyle....... I'm gonna KILL you someday! Do you know how much work you made us do today!, it was terrible! I think we should have done Dana cute dogish- cow thing, it was with marker so it would be much faster to color! I think yesterdays factory was much more relaxed because we each had ouyr own thing to do, but now with everybody yelling at you, you kind of get frustrated and you want to tell them to do there own work and maybe it'll go much faster.
Although we didn't do any copies but we could tell that they were all one thing that is tried to be copied acouple of times.

Feedback on how I learn..

2008-08-22T03:09:00.000-07:00

Wellll….. Most of the time I learn really well by watching what I have to learn so it attracts my attention and allows me to focus on my own speed. Sometimes I’m really tired of watching something so I enjoy reading on my own from time to time, I like reading because it gives me information I don’t know especially when I learn. Also I really like how I can imagine in my own mine without any interruptions, but beware! I can never concentrate when someone else is reading out loud to me I just get lost! For Example, when you read a page from the outsiders I
knew what was going to happen, and I was listening but I still can’t translate the information to my mind. I don’t really like working in large groups, like nothing more than two people in a group including me, because I know that I can’t just let the other person do everything alone! But sometimes my mind just wanders of to some other land over the ocean when I’m working with more people, and then my group is still talking and they ask me what I think and I have no idea what they talking!

New Yorker, New Yorker !

2008-08-20T07:28:00.000-07:00

Barom! Barom! Barom! Barom! was all I could hear, with my sister Uroosa besides me on the very last seat of the coaster! We were about to ride on the scariest coaster in Vegas! Oh boy! It sure felt scary, as we climbed up the rail, I started to wonder how long we had been going up for it kept going on and on, and on. I wanted to see how high up we were, but as I went to peer, two security tags pulled me back, one over by my neck and the other on my chest. Suddenly the coaster came to a halt, " Ah! this would be the perfect time to look back" and as soon as I did, the coaster zoomed higher at 200 km/hour. I could feel my stomach turn and unlike most people I just began to laugh. The coaster rushed faster than a cheetah to the earth; it didn't even stop when it landed, but went straight back up again, I wasn't used to such opposites, but it scared me the most when I saw the three consequetuve turns. The first time my coins fell off, the second was when my favourite ring fell off, and last but not least, my glasses slipped straight off of my eyes. When we were done I came out with a sparined neck and a terrible headache! Oh I knew it would hurt.

'Necessity is the Mother of Invention'

2008-08-18T21:14:00.000-07:00

Necessity is the mother of inventions, it means you make inventions of new objects that take time to progress and hence you make new inventions to speed the progression so it doesn't talk as much time. Necessity is the mother of inventions. If you need something you should try to intent it. For Example, Orville and Wilbur created the aeroplane with just a box and a string, before the aeroplanes, there was no way to reach from one side of the world to the other in less than a day.If the aeroplanes weren't there, there would only be ships and that's to carry goods.Also the telephone, you wouldn't be able to contact people when in time for an emergency. Without the telephone there wouldn't be any sense of communication, and the telephone moved on to email or internet. But most of all there's electricity, electricity gave light to life at night, gave wind to summer indoor.

Feedback for Quarter #1

2008-08-13T05:19:00.000-07:00

What were two highlights from the first week of school?

Well.....I liked how we started the year with The Outsiders it was an effective and strong story, and gave us a little feel of what 8th grade is. I also like the fact that we don't take a test as a final for The Outsiders , but we make a project and we can choose what we want to do out of those 5 choices.
What was your first impression of Humanities 8?

" Ooooohhhhh boy! This is definitely gonna be hard!" Having a ton of homework on the first day of 8th grade! Also you had given double the amount of reading to us compared to the other teacher, putting us in thinking of " Will this go on for the rest of the year?"
What are two goals you have for this quarter in Humanities? (Remember a goal needs to be specific, realistic, and measurable)

I usually get an A- in Humanities mostly because of extra credit, but now I would like to really earn and achieve an A-. Another thing is, I would like to strengthen the quality of my writing, especially in description because I wouldn't be able to get really descriptive when I'm writing a serious story, which my lower my grade quite a bit.

My Buddies

2008-08-12T00:45:00.000-07:00

Since I used to live in Dubai for a majority of my life, I would think that most of my buddies would live in Dubai. My best friends there are Bhavi, a tall sort of fat but still fun girl born in England and lived her whole life in Dubai like me.She was funniest when I was funniest and sad when I was sad, we weren't that close but we had a lot in common.Being around Annabel was a bom!, I could always think I was closer to Annabel than what I was to Bhavi.Annabel was just fun to talk to, and I think she thought me fun too. She had long brown curly hair with the prettiest face in the world. When we went to 5th grade, we were moved into Ms. Jeffery's class, there we found a girl named Kylie was sweet to let us enter her gang. She was the leader and beside her was Kianna.Kylie was a round gymnast who could do anything you asked for. Kianna was even more prettier than Annabel, which I guess got Annabel jealous. Behind them was Veronica and Cortney, Veronica was a tall swimmer and Courtney was a short runner. Since then I felt that I was in heaven.....until I came here!