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.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
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....
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....
Thursday, March 17, 2011
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.
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.
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