sister talk

I really enjoyed having the sister come in and talk about the history of the school. I remember hearing a similar presentation last year in my fye class. I didnt pay much attention last year but this year i learned much more. i think i payed more attention this year because i work in admissions and i give campus tours so i know a lot about the school in general. however i had no idea that we have establishments in other countries like japan. i didnt think we were very worldwide like that. i think its really cool to hear where the sisters have traveled to and what they have done. i give them so much credit because it is a huge dedication to go to another country and stay there for years helping those people who are less fortunate. especially considering that in many of these countries' government dont particularly support what the sisters are doing, like in the case of sister dorathy stang. i really enjoy talking to the sisters and hearing about the things they do.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

I guess I have not looked at the Declaration of Independence very carefully because I never thought there was much issue of involving religion or political status or anything like that. but then again, there are some places where it talks about God, i think, and there are some ideas that can only be achieved by certain government, but then again its for the united states right? so why would it need to be changed in order to aid those who have a different political status? unless they are talking about a different declaration, but i am not familiar with any other one.
there are a lot of similarities with the other declaration, but just different wording. it seems like this one is just more specific and makes a point to include the race, or color, or political interest in each article.
there are some articles that i dont remember being in the original declaration. like #9: no one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention, or exile.
I always thought that the declaration was pretty straight forward. however, like in many things that we have read and points that i have made before, i am from a different generation and feel like the things that were specified and narrowed down are basically implied. but not all people think the way i do so i guess it is best to have it in writing then to hope that everyone implies it and understands it.

chapter 24

I was never the biggest fan of Barbie when I was younger. I have always thought that Barbie was a very odd human to have children play with at such a young age because just the shape of her body and the way she looks is so odd. I heard from somewhere that if Barbie was a real person, she would be a very unhealthy person and would not live for a very long time. I think that it is a good thing that this Islamic company made their own style of Barbie and that it conveys the morals that are important to their culture.
the picture on page 726 is very interesting. I knew that the united states had a trade deficit but I did not know that canada, austrailia, saudi arabia, india, and brazil also had a trade deficit. it is interesting to see that there are more countries with a trade deficit than a trade surplus. this is a fairly recent map which makes sense because it is just about the time that the united states' economy started to decline.
the graph on page 728 is very eye-opening because it shows just what became important to people. the cell phone is a new invention that shows a lot of reglobablization because it is a huge step for the technology world. the international bank loans is also very interesting because it shows the increase on a more worldy level. the cell phones and internet use is easy to see in the unites states because we are more advanced than other countries, but the international loans makes me realize that the entire world increased their money amount and spending in order to advance in reglobalization.
the picture on page 732 is not surprising. the top one is a bit different than what I would think. canada and the united states are strong places to keep most of the military because they have a lot of land that is easy to use and in good weather conditions year round. austrailia is a bit surprising. but the parts of europe are not. the second part of the picture shows the amounts of McDonald's - this is not surprising to see that the united states has one of the largest amounts of mcdonalds along with some parts of europe and japan. these are also some of the areas that are advanced in technology and have a higher population.

chapter 21

I find it quite interesting that WWI was known as the great war. at the time people were told that it was just a huge war. as the veteran from the opening paragraph was told, it was a war to end all wars. little did people know back then that it was just the beginning of the wars Europe would face. Just like the spreading of European people led to slavery in different countries which led to an array of other things, the great war lead to many other things in Europe. the cold war, nazi germany, WWII, and the great depression.
Every time i read about the first world war i feel like it was very obvious that another world war would occur. it just seemed like the countries never were okay with the treaties or with each other for that matter. there was so much hate and revenge between everyone at that time and its hard to think that a piece of paper would solve everything. its nice to think that way, but there was way too much tension to have a treaty be the end of it. i get the feeling that it was a grit your teeth and sign the treaty kind of deal. im sure that almost every country after that went home and planned how to get back at an enemy, despite signing. this also encouraged countries to become allies of each other, in case another world war would occur. all leaders had to be prepared for the worst.
I have always been interested in the 20s and the time right before the great depression. it just seemed like a fun care-free time. and then the great depression hit and things went all down hill from there. however it does make sense that this occurred right after WWI. WWI had a huge impact on the country and people. the economy was doing well with making and selling things for the war, but now that it was over, manufacturing guns and warfare was not needed and many people were out of jobs. not to mention the war vets who had to return home and cope with the things they saw in war.
the picture on page 634 is shown everywhere when it come the to great depression. it explains all of it perfectly though. a mother, possibly single, possibly the father served and died while over seas, the mother is just at a loss of what to do next, she is just waiting for something to happen, trying to come up with a way to survive, the children at her shoulders are miserable and wondering when their next meal is or if they will get clean clothes any time soon. this was a time when many people went homeless and had to try and survive on virtually nothing.
For some reason I am fascinated with the holocaust and WWII. not fascinated in the fact that it was a huge killing spree of Jews and other groups of people, but because that actually happened. it is an event that i have no idea why it was even allowed. the more i learn about it the more i think that it never could have happened and how horrible the nazi's were. but then i snap back to reality and realize that this did in fact happen and people did in fact suffer and hitler was in fact an insane, horrible, heartless, sickening man. in high school i had read Night by a survivor of the holocaust. it was a story that completely opened my eyes and made me sick to my stomach to think that people were treated this way. The Last Sunset was another story I had read that had the same affect on me. I cant help to find this interesting because i feel the least we can do about all the victims is to learn about what they had to go through, what they didn't do wrong, what they experienced. we have to learn from events like this to make sure they dont occur again.
Pearl Harbor is another thing that i find interesting. for the same facts as the holocaust. my softball team visited pearl harbor while we were in hawaii and it was a very cool monument to see. it was very sad, but again, i enjoy history and i feel we should learn from it.
Europe went through a lot and its good to see that after so many devastating events, the country still recovered and came out on top. i feel like Europe also had a lot of support during their recovery as well.
looking back on the history of everything, it is clear to us that everything was adding up to the next event, but people back in that time would just hope for the best and deal with everything as it happened. they had no idea what horror was coming next.

chapter 20

I hope everyone blogged so we dont have a quiz! :)

as usual i have a comment about the introduction of the chapter. we talked about it briefly in class. the fact that this teacher was in Africa teaching them english. the teacher had received a letter stating that teaching them english would put their women and girls in danger. When Andrews had first brought it up, i couldnt think of a reason why this would be an issue. the thought of interracial marriage or evern dating never came to mind. it is obvious that us students have grown up in a different lifestyle. interracial dating or marriage is nothing uncommon. for the older generation it may seem a bit obsurd but we dont think it is anything out of the ordinary. one of my best friends is in an interracial relationship and often times when we go out i do notice people giving them dirty looks or awkward looks. i also have noticed that these people are typically older generations. people our age dont even look twice. this is also a bit demening towards women. it sounds like men just saw women as their property and that they couldnt be trusted. it wasnt a fact of the women will make a bad choice, it was like women were their pet and they didnt want her to get attached to another owner. news flash men: this is no way to treat a woman hahahahha but again, i like to think that men are getting that idea now a days :)
later on in the chapter it talks about what happened usually when a country was conquered by Europeans. it is sad to think that the Europeans just waltzed right in, took what they wanted, destroyed things, and just left. it didnt usually happen as a fast rate, but it did happen over all. typically the indiginous people were wiped out or greatly diminished or the way of life was completely changed due to the idea of "the white man's burden". I feel like America still has this idea of a burden. we cant seem to stay out of other countries' business. I do believe that we should be involved to an extent because everything affects us, but there have been some cases where we go to another country to teach them or to help them with their government. i like to think that we are doing less of this, but the recent news with Lybia is starting to change my mind....

slave trade and collapse

We have always talked about slavery and the societies who have been involved with slave trades. But it wasn’t until this year and this class have I ever read so much about slavery and have discussed in depth about slavery in other countries. Our assignment was to look in the index and to read up on the parts where the book talked about slavery. Im not gunna lie, I figured it would only take 15 min or so to do the homework, but they I looked up slavery and found that just that subject took up about half a page in the index! I never realized how much this book talks about slavery.
As I was refreshing my memory about past readings I began to see a pattern between the different slavery occurrences. Majority of them begin with one country invading another and taking the natives as slaves. The natives then begin to rally together and fight back to gain their independence. The slaves were treated terribly, with few exceptions.
However, there is one incident that we have talked about in class, that is not in the book, and is taking place today. That is the sex slave trade. Although it seems the same as any other slave trade, I feel like it belongs in a category all its own. I have no idea why, but it just seems completely different. I’m not sure if it’s because it is happening today, in my time, or because I feel bad because it is mainly against women. Either way, this type of slavery is just so much more different than the other ones. I know that children were taken as slaves in past eras, but the fact that they are taking young girls today and using them for sex just blows my mind. I think that is what it really is. It belongs in its own category because these people are not being forced to do yard work or clean the house, they are being forced to give up their body and being put at the risk of sickness and diseases. One of the things that makes me most upset is that fact that these young girls have no idea what is happening to them. They are completely uneducated and have no way of fighting something they don’t know. The other fact that makes me really upset is how the older girls get “tricked” into agreeing to be a sex slave. How they are promised a normal job but get stuck doing a dirty job.
I know that we have groups that are fighting against this and our class is involved in one as well, but it just sucks that we cant do any more. How we cant just steal these girls away and how some of the only things we can do is convince them to use condoms. It is promising however to hear that people are making some sort of progress, it may not be a whole lot, but in time it will eventually get better.

collapse:
First I have to say that this packet is really long! I skimmed through it and thought that it was pretty interesting. But for the most part it was a bit boring. However I did read through the 12 environmental problems and found those to be very interesting. Before I get into that I would like to say that I don’t care much for this type of writing. I am not a big fan of the opinionated writing. I like to read facts. I feel like this piece is some facts, but more personal opinion. It kind of leaves me with the feeling of, “I get it’s a problem, but what do we do to fix it?” it does not give much solution to the problems the author is pointing out.
The first problem the author points out is the rate we are destroying natural habitats by making man-mdae habitats. I completely agree with this. Almost all of the world is covered by humans, there are very few places that are not covered by man-made habitats. I am very outdoorsy and I enjoy the natural habitats such as national rainforests. I think that there needs to be more protected parks in order to keep the natural habitats in tact.
Another problem the author talks about that I really agree with as well is the elimination of little species. I have never really thought about it. Its really sad when an animal goes extinct and I realize that it will have an impact on things because everything is connected in the food chain. But to think that if the little species start to be eliminated, it will have a slow impact that will creep up on us and take over. And that is where we get in a lot of trouble because by then it will be too late.
The other problems I generally agree with but I didn’t find them as interesting as these ones. I do agree with the author on the fact that all these problems are linked. The other thing I don’t like about this author is how the reading is conveyed. I get the feeling that this writer has no hope for humans or that we can’t change. Almost like this is whats going to happen so just accept it. Maybe he isn’t saying that but this is the idea that I get from reading it.

chapter 18

so i missed almost all this week of history class. monday we didnt have class at all and wednesday i had a softball game at stanislaus (wwe won both games woohoo!) but i feel like i have missed a lot, especially after talking to alexis and having her fill me in on some things. (thanks alexis :) so i figure the only thing i can do is talk some more about chapter 18. we have talked a lot about this in class already so let's see where my thoughts take me...
one thing we have talked about a lot in class and that everything seems to relate back to is marx's idea of utopia. i think that it is a good idea to hope that the workers will eventually work their way up to owning the company but it is a bit hard to actually accomplish. with just thinking of it, like marx probably only did it sounds great and definitely attainable, but when it actually gets played out it seems more and more impossible. first of all, marx says that the workers will eventually be the owners, but what happens to the original owners? do they just step down and say "okay your right, you've worked long and hard enough, you can have the company now"? i highly doubt that. this is the first thing that was wrong with his idea, the workers would have to do more than just keep working to own the company, you have to talk to the higher up people and eventually work out something with them, the ownership doesnt just fall into your hands.
the other problem i have with the marxism idea is that i dont think he put much thought into the circumstances that these people were in, that he was involved with as well. the way that these people lived was working all day, for long hours, under terrible situations and getting very little pay for it. these people are worried about getting through the day. of course they want to get to the top so they can be in charge and so they can get better pay and live "the good life" but half of these people had no way of knowing how to get there let alone knowing that they are even capable of such a thing.
i believe that marx's idea would be a bit more attainable in our lives today. there are some cases where a common worker ends up getting to the top of a company, but this also takes years of hard work and years of putting up with the common job. however, we also live with the knowledge of what people have done in the past which is working to the top on their own or becoming their own boss. being an entrepreneur. but this is also not very consistent with marx's idea because he said that the worker will just become the owner.
my favorite part about learning about the industrial revolution is that it is all evident in our lives today. we can see how agriculture was changed because nobody farms in separate plots, there are always fields of agriculture. the other aspects, like line of production and replacements of workers is also evident. it is also very cool to see how we have grown from those times. we now i have laws that only allow people to work for a certain amount of hours, protection, workers rights, and all that stuff. the industrial revolution has really shaped america into what it is today, a country full of hard working people who are all trying to get to the top

chapter 17

usually i really enjoy the beginning of the chapters but i was not too crazy about this one. it started off fine talking about the parade but i got a little bit lost in they focused on the fact that the chinese people were leading the parade with bikes.i understand their reasoning and what their message was but i did not understand why the author used this example to kick off this chapter. i feel like it was a bit of a stretch to use this type of an example as nationalism and the other ideas portrayed in this chapter.
i would have never thought that the french revolution really kicked off the other revolutions around the world. i always knew that the revolutions were close in dates and that they all happened around the same time, but i never really thought that they were all like a chain reaction. its almost like one country saw france and what they did and thought "hey that looks cool, lets to that too" i guess that is what really happened, just in better lingo haha
i was looking at the grapg on page 501 and i think its weird that the british had to recognize american independence. it makes sense after i think about it, but at first i thought of britain as america's mother and like they were asking permission to be their own country like a kid asks permission from their mother to go out. americans did leave britain and they did act as a "mini britain" for a little while but the whole reasoning why we fought with the british was so we could be on our own and do what we wanted, but then we have to be recognized by britain? i dont understand that. it should be that big of a deal.
i have always found it really crazy that we started out with 13 colonies all on the east coast. i can see why the settlers were so worried about traveling and finding the rest of america, that is a lot of land to explore!!!!! its crazy to think that they got all the way across america!
i found it intersting that i didnt know much about that haitain revolution. i was always taught about the french revolution and the american revolution but not muchwas said about the haitian war. im not sure why because it seemed like it was just as important as the other ones. but reading about it in here, it was very violent. it seemed similar to any other fights, bloody and gruesome, but the picture on page 509 just really added to the pictures alre3ady in my head about war. this picture with the haitians hanging their enemies, was very terrifying. i think the part that made it especially gruesome was the fact that in the background there were about 20 more hangings, it wasnt just a picture of one or two, it was a lot of images of people being hanged.
i still cant get over the chain reactions that went on between the revolutions. knowing the things that people fought for and the ideals behind everything, it makes sense why people feel so strongly about their independence.
i also feel very strong about womens rights. i feel that a woman is just as strong as a man and should be able to take on the same things if she wanted. i mean c'mon a man would never be able to give birth! haha

chapter 16

i didnt read this chapter on tuesday but we also didnt talk about it in class, thats why i am reflecting on it now.
i always knew that religion was one of the main reasons why countries fought with one another, the basic beleifs of how we came about and the attempt of one country converting another country to their desired religion. I had not known that Muslims had ousted Christam Crusaders by 1300. I wonder what things would have been like if the Muslims did not do this. Would christianity be even more powerful? Probably. Would there be less Muslims in the world? Maybe. It is a weird thing to think that such a small event could have made such a huge difference in the variety of religions in the world.
I cannot believe the lives that Popes and preiests had lived. More focus on the ones that were higher up and the ones that got away with things like corruption. Most importantly i am shocked to read that popes would take bribes or sell indulgences in order to remove penalties or sins. this is not how christianity works. i am a catholic myself and feel very strongly about this situation. you cannot bribe yourself out of sin, it takes some good old fashion prayer or confession and nothing feels better than praying for forgiveness. i dont think i could ever bribe my way out of a sin, i would feel so guilty and could never live with myself. sadly, some people think this is the way to receive forgiveness. however, these are the people that need to find God the most.
i find the chart on page 464 very interesting because i do now know much about the protestant faith. being a catholic i have not studied many other religions. it is crazy to see the differences in beleifs like how important Mary plays a role and other such things. I was always raised on catholic beliefs so i find it weird in some of the cases of what the protestants believe in.
it sounds a bit odd at first to think that when people expanded across the world, their main concern was to find other people who shared the same faith as them.
after thinking more about this however, it makes more sense because it would eliminate many debates because they all have the same beliefs. it is a bit surprising because for the longest time we were taught that people expanded to find new land and discover things like gold and spices. religion was never brought up as a huge issue or the main goal.
not only am i catholic, but i am also very interested in the sciences. which makes things some what confusing. i can easily see how many cultures turned to science to explain things and follow it like it was a religion. with so many religions to choose from, why not go with something that we have "evidence" on. the scientific revolution is one of the things that is evident in our schooling today and that makes a huge controversy for many scholars in all countries. however, without this scientific revolution we might still be drawing the world flat or thinking that the earth is the center of the universe. i think that the scientific revolution has not only helped bring the science side of things to the table of evolution, but it has also forced the religious scholars to dig deeper and find more answers to the many questions in life. with these two ideas bouncing off one another, there are unlimited questions that will slowly be answered in time.

Chapter 15

I always like how the author of our book introduces the reading. He always starts off with some sort of story or fact that really gets me thinking about the topic and it always relates to my personal life, like all history! this chapter starts off with a very moving story of what a woman with african american descent wrote in a journal at a port. It is impossible to imagine what life would have been like if I was a slave, things would be COMPLETELY different, I can think of so many ways of how it would be different, but I have no idea what it would be like. Just reading about all of it is just jaw dropping.
I find it very interesting that the one thing people traded during this time was spices. I have never really paid much attention to spices unless I was cooking, I find it odd that they were so valuable. But then I had to think what the food must have been like. Probably not very good and very bland! Considering that almost everything we eat today has some sort of spice in it, I don't think I would enjoy eating as much without spices. I am sure that once people discovered spices everyone wanted some. It makes everything so much more tasty!
I like the picture on page 448 about the Russian fur trade. It makes sense that they found fur to be so valuable because they lived in freezing temperatures. What I was surprised about was the fact that they migrated so much according to where this commodity was available.
The graphs are especially interesting to me. The first bar graph about the amount of slaves traded is just ridiculous. I still can't imagine people treated each other like that, but we just live in a different world today and I have been brought up with very different morals than people back then. The second graph showed where majority o the slaves were traded to. I always pictured the slaves to be working on some rich southern land in America, which was true, but I had no idea that they were also traded to Spanish America, Brazil, and Caribbean. I was VERY surprised to see that that Caribbean had the highest amount of slaves traded there. Thinking more about it, there have been times where slaves were talked about in places other than America, but I have just seen more movies, read more books, or heard more stories about slavery in America. I am sure it also has something to do with the fact that I do live in America and majority of the history we learn through our lives is about American history. This would definitely explain why I have heard more stories about slavery in America.

sex trade reflection

I have heard of the problems with human trafficking. Our school has a lot of events to try to help this issue. It is a huge issue. This reading was very emotional. It was very different to hear the experiences from some of the victims themselves. Of course we have our own imagination and ideas of how their lives might go, but until you hear it from the person themselves does it really set in and hit you and say “this is reality”
First of all I must say that this reading also helped me realize how good we have it here in America. I couldn’t even imagine what life would be like if I had to live off a couple dollars or less a day. That would be so hard to manage! And that’s not even thinking about having more people to feed and clothe. To only spend a few dollars on an entire family a day sounds so miserable and stressful. It makes me very thankful to be in the situation I am today.
I was always curious as to how the girls were chosen to be in the sex trade. I knew that some of them volunteered without knowing all the details of the sex trade, but to think that a person actually came to them and deliberately lied to their face is just unbelievable. To get their hopes up and say they would be making great money in a café when really they are going to do terrible and dirty and dangerous jobs for a bunch of horny ungrateful men? That in itself is absolutely horrifying.