Rosie the Riveter

Rosie the Riveter was a fictional character (modeled by very real people, like Shirley Karp) used in propaganda by the US during World War II.  Rosie was depicted as having her sleeves rolled up and strong arms to show that women were capable to help with factory work on the home front to aid the troops.  As an extra precaution for really slow people, the posters had motivational slogans like "We Can Do It!", just in case it was unclear what the message was of the poster.  Also, and importantly, Rosie was painted as being a relatively beautiful woman, proving that you don't have to be totally manly to work at a real job.

These posters were essential to aiding the American war effort, as much of the workforce was enlisted and without them the factories would have been forced to operate at less than maximum capacity, which would be very bad.  Plus, Rosie was seen as a symbol of the upcoming feminism movement and how women could be productive in the workforce.

And to prove how America is far superior to Canada, Rosie the Riveter would own Canada's equivalent, Ronnie the Bren Gun Girl.

Post-Colonialism in Culture

I haven't seen/read much on the topic of areas having been recently decolonized (tricky verb tense but accurate).  I kinda dislike downers.  However, here is a list of those this I have been exposed to:

"The Kingdom"

Kite Runner

Things Fall Apart

The Cold War

I interviewed my dad about the Cold War. He was very young at the time, still in elementary school, however when I asked him what he remembered about the time the first thing that he said was the Cuban Missile Crisis. This was a time when tensions were extremely high between the US and Soviet Union, and tensions reached their peak when the Soviet Union decided to place nuclear missiles in Cuba. My dad remembers hearing about the event at the time, and that most people thought that World War three was about to break out. There was also a huge amount of relief when the crisis was averted. I also asked my dad if he did any drills to prepare for a nuclear war in his school. All they were told to do in an event of a nuclear launch was to duck under their desk, like that would help against an atomic bomb.

Sandy Quartermain

Since no one in my family fought in WWII, I asked my dad if he knew anyone who fought in the war. It turns out, someone who used to work with my dad, named Sandy Quartermain fought in the war. He was a British glider plane pilot on D-day. The point of gliders was to get into enemy territory without being heard, so they turned off their jets when they neared enemy territory and crash land. Many of these planes were unsuccessful in landing and destroyed. These men were very expensive to train, and successfully landing was very hard. Sandy was successful in crash landing his plane and delivering his troops, and since he could not take off again, he went on to fight on D-day with the invasion force.

China

Down with the old and up with the new. This cliche is so true throughout history, it is pretty much the one sentence definition of the word revolution. This revolution used violence kind of like the one in Algiers. The Red-Guards targeted the wealthy because they were against Mao and while they said that they were targeting all socioeconomic demographics, it didn't seem that way to me. I think that by destroying all of the artifacts the Red Guards were just trying to kill any memories of the old China. This 'revolution' was more like a a war that was just trying to erase history.

Cold War

My mom moved to the states from Canada in the midst of the Cold War. She says that she remembers all of the bomb drills that she had when she got to the states and how stupid they were in hind sight because hiding under a desk is really gonna save you right? Well, she said that it was really nerve racking because unlike a fire drill she didn't know if she was actually taking in her last few breathes or not.

Oil-Mania

A wise man once said that possession is 2/5 of the law. As we can see the Middle East clearly possesses so much oil that it has put itself in a good spot to play a game called monopoly. The oil companies in the Middle East is able to make deals with all of the governments because they have the power and the control of the chip that everyone wants to get their hands on. If you ask me now that they have the oil, we should get our hands on all of the water we can so that when they need that then they will come to us. No, but for real, it is crucial that we can possess oil because the Middle-Eastern oil monopolizers will just drive the price up to show quarterly growth, especially as the supplies run thin.

Post Colonialism Pop-Culture

Movies: Blood Diamond, Jarhead, The Kingdom, 3 Kings, Rendition

Tv: House of Saddam, 24(a lot of Middle-East references in the current season)

Books: The Kite Runner

Kenya

With the life expectance of 51 in Kenya it is apparent that something has gone terribly wrong with the way things are done there. While much of the country is rural, thus making it harder for medical care to be brought in, a life expectancy rate of 51 is lower than most of the other countries in the world, some of which are even less developed than Kenya. With a population of over 31 million it would seem that it would not be overcrowded. the real kicker is that it has more access to WHO resources than the rest of the continent, so why is the life expectancy so low?

The Berlin Wall

How did the falling of the wall change the culture in Germany?

What were the mental effects and the cultural effects of the wall?

My monument is really interesting because over the course of its history as it changes so do the people of Berlin and it is really cool to look from 1961-???? and see how different events have been influenced by the wall like the reopening of a major intersection last month in Berlin that brings Western and Eastern Berlin closer together.

Cold War

As kids, the Cold War made no sense to my parents. My father even said, "I wondered why they called it the cold war." They were both unaware of the true magnitude of what was at stake, but their two shorts stories were quite different. My mother's is simple: the Cold War had no effect upon her. My dad on the other hand said it shook his childhood a bit. My father mentioned that the scariest incident he could remember during the Cold War was the Cuban Missile Crisis. Along with his parents, adults throughout his neighborhood were scared of what could happen, and began building bomb shelters. During school, my father and his classmates went through drills in which they would crawl under their desks, and curl up in balls. Of course this would do nothing against a nuclear attack, but this was the mentality that emerged out of the Cold War. The Russians were the "big bad guys" and were no ally of the Americans.

Insane or Just Evil?

This article delves into the medical state of Adolf Hitler throughout his entire life. It brings up quite a few controversial points, however chief among them is whether Hitler was truly evil or whether he was just so insane and paranoid from his various medical disorders that he could not make any logical decisions. The article explains a large number of the diseases and disabilities that Hitler suffered from including hypertension, headaches, heart problems, vision problems, bladder infections, and much more. The question that this brings up though is, were these the true reasons for Hitler’s evil actions? The author of the article does not extend his specific point of view on the subject, however based on the medical evidence presented and what points he chooses to elaborate on, he seems to believe that these diseases played a part in Hitler’s decision making, however when it came down to it the only person at fault was Hitler himself. I share the author’s point of view on this subject, because based on the wide range of diseases that Hitler was afflicted by, he would obviously make rash decisions. Even in the article it says, “Hitler believes that his father was half-Jewish and had died of syphilis.” This in itself may have affected Hitler’s classification of syphilis as a Jewish disease. However, I do not think that these diseases can in any way be used as an excuse for Hitler’s behavior and decisions that he made during his life. So was he insane or just pure evil? I would have to say both.

The Price of Going to Class

For most students where we live, the thoughts that you have when you get up on a Monday and have to go to school are probably not ones of excitement. However, in Afghanistan girls are eager to go to school, to have the opportunity to be educated. Even after being sprayed in the face with acid by Taliban members, they still want to go back to school as soon as possible so they do not miss out on their education, however the fear of attack still remains. When the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in 1996, they banned most sources of entertainment including TV and music. Girls were forbidden to go to school and women were forced to wear burkas. When the Taliban regrouped in 2003 they began targetting schools. The question is, can we consider the Taliban fascist? Lets compare the Taliban to Nazi Germany. A certain extremist group rising up and taking power through manipulation of the general population. Having their ideals enforced through constant fear of punishment. The forcing of women to work at home and girls to not go to school is extremely similar to when the Nazi's made Jews wear the Star of David and did not allow them to own businesses. So can we consider what is going on in Swat Valley to be Fascist? Yes, there is no doubt about it.

Healthcare in Kenya

While looking at the fact sheet for Kenya, I noticed that the life expectancy for males is 51 and for females is 50 years old. These numbers may seem low to us in the US, where the life expectancy is roughly 75 years, however on the fact sheet it seems as though these numbers are slightly higher than the average life expectancy in the whole WHO region. Another interesting thing that I noticed was that the probability of dying for adults was significantly lower in Kenya than the WHO African region for males, but also significantly higher for females. Kenya also has double the percent of HIV caused deaths than the average, however its HIV prevelance among adults is lower than the average. This may say something about their health care system compared to other African countries. The TB prevalence and incidence is also almost double in Kenya compared to the other countries. The strange thing is that Kenya has almost a 20% increased access more than the rest of the WHO African region, which makes me think that there may be another reason for the increased prevelance rate of many of the diseases.

Rosie the Riveter

In World War I and World War II, the roles of women stayed pretty much the same, however they were portrayed differently. In both wars they helped contribute to the war effort by working in factories, as nurses, etc. However, all of this was temporary, only to be in effect while the men were off fighting. When they came back, the women resumed their usual routine. In WWII women who took jobs in factories contributing to the war were seen as patriotic. Rosie the Riveter was a good example of this. This poster was propoganda for women, encouraging them to go work in factories and even some new jobs. The poster of Rosie the Riveter is now seen as the beginning of women's rights, while in WWI their rights were very limited.

Decision to Drop the A-Bomb

The reason that this video was released by NBC was to commemorate the 50th anniversary of dropping of the atomic bomb. However, it was also an attempt to educate people on the horrible effects that the bomb brought on Japan. They take a lot of time pointing out the amount of casualties in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and also describing what radiation poisoning did to the people who were not killed by the initial blast. More than half of the people in Hiroshima died a painfully extended death by radiation poisoning. However, Americans at the time were unaware of this and only knew that the Japanese had surrendered, so they were celebrating. It seemed to me as if the video was trying to get the viewer to question their beliefs on the decision to drop the bomb, what with all of the personal interviews with the survivors about how their life was changed by the bomb and what they had to go through after the bomb was dropped. Was dropping the bomb the best choice? Probably not. But it was necessary to end a war that would have probably taken more lives if it had not been used.

World War II Pop Culture

Movies:

Saving Private Ryan
Letters from Iwo Jima
Pearl Harbor
Midway
Tora! Tora! Tora!
Patton
The Great Escape
A Bridge Too Far
The Longest Day

Books:

A Separate Peace

Carpoolng to School

In the Taliban run Swat valley, today many girl will not be walking to school. We hear about the courage of the young girls who will walk for hours just to get an education. The barriers of fascism and religion tat have barred women in that part of the world from learning for so many years is finally being threatened. Unfortunately however, the Taliban extremists are jeopardizing all of the work that the brave girls and other people in the community have worked towards. With threats of murder, rape, and kidnapping and with no government to intervene, it is unimaginable what those poor girls have to go through. With no resolution in sight we will have to hold our breath and pray that the determination of some of the bravest girls in the world will succeed.