The Most Important Thing I Learned

The most important thing I learned this year is that there is more to a history class than just dates and events.  I improved my ability to make connections between different historical events, which has allowed me to see many things in a new light.  I thought this class was very fun, and I learned a lot.

2 different endings

The two events are not that similar. In one, someone is being punished for their crimes, and in the other, someone is trying to destroy a culture. I guess they are similar in the sense that the guy from the second passage seems like the person who got put on trial in the first passage. However, the endings are not similar at all.

Oil Production

All of the major oil-producing areas are by major bodies of water (rivers, persian gulf), and this can easily lead to conflict.  This can lead to war because countries will want to take over the oil areas so they can control the oil production and so that they can control the waterways.  It would cost the countries MUCH less in shipping fees if they had control of the waterways, and they would make a great deal of profit from the production of oil.  Therefore, the location of oil production sites can, will, and have resulted in conflicts.

Kenya's Health Statistics

Kenya has major healthcare problems.  The life expectancy is 51 years, and 12% of people die before age 5.  Only 4.6% of their money is spent on health care, and considering the fact that Kenya has an insanely high AIDS rate and has had several Rift Fever outbreaks, that seems like a low number.

Research Questions

I have several research questions, but they are all related because they all address the same issue.  The questions are:

How does the design of the Vietnam Memorial relate to the actual war?

What ideas about the war – good or bad – do the memorial give to people?

How does the Vietnam memorial compare to other war memorials??  Would it have looked any different had the U.S. won the Vietnam War?? (US was victorious in the other wars that have memorials)

I think these are good questions because they try to find out the psychological effects that the wall produces, and I think that this will result in an interesting and informative research paper.

Vietnam Memorial Websites

http://www.thewall-usa.com/information.asp http://www.answers.com/topic/maya-lin
http://www.dailyushistory.com/AB/Vietnam%20Veterans%20Memorial.htm

Dinesh D'Souza

Dinesh D'Souza wrote a book called What's So Great About America? in which he defends the U.S. against lots of different verbal attacks. He said that people in the U.S. weren't grateful enough and criticized too many things when they should be happy for living here. He then claimed that the United States and our culture was superior to much of the world, saying: If one begins with the multicultural premise that all cultures are equal, then the world as it is makes very little sense," he says. "Some cultures have completely outperformed others in providing the things that all people seek -- health, food, housing, security and the amenities of life." I disagree with some of what he is saying here, but I think that Dinesh made a valid point when he said that we should be happy to live in the United States because we could be living in a place with no clean water or a place that is being destroyed by genocide. However, I disagree with his statement that all cultures are not equal. Cultures do not provide homes, food, or anything else he named - they provide STYLES of food and houses, and provide history and something of an identity for people. Cultures cannot possibly outperform one another because cultures cannot "perform" anything. Sure, some governments may be better than others at caring for its people, but all cultures, however different they may be, are no better or worse than any other culture.

Things Relating To WW2

The only book, movie, tv show, etc that i have seen a World War 2 Reference in was a Simpsons episode where Bart joins a band and is tricked into playing songs that contain subliminal messages encouraging people to join the military (aka propaganda). there were lots of flashbacks to the war.

Children's Education

The war had a tremendous impact on children's education.  Most schools in the cities were shut down because everyone was evacuating to rural areas.  The buildings were often turned over to the government.  Since many people were moving to rural areas to avoid attacks on big cities, class sizes skyrocketed, especially since most male teachers had to go fight.  The war had a big impact on the educational system.

Atomic Bomb

I think that this video's main purpose was to show that the U.S. is remorseful about harming so many people. The way the video was presented made everything seem so sad. I thought the use of video and the word choice helped convey the message very well.

Textbook organization

I think that chapter 24 in the book was organized moderately well, but not perfectly. It seemed like they tried to organize chronologically, but also stick to a certain topic, which was useful because you got information about any group, country, or historical turning point. However, that messed up the chronology. If I were to make the textbook, I would keep it the way it is, but at the end of the chapter, I would add a timeline of everything from the chapter. They have small timelines scattered throughout the chapter, but that isn't helpful if you are simply looking for dates of events.

I think that this was a great form of propaganda because it appealed to people's competitive sides. It encouraged people to work in factories because it implied that if they did so, the opposition would be easily trampled. It also made people feel like they were directly contributing to the destruction of the enemy because the text was directed at the people. It didn't say "Help the soldiers bowl them over," which would have made the citizens feel more distant. So, overall, this was good propaganda because it got people in a frame of mind that was conducive to helping the war cause in the form of making weapons.

Appeasement Not As Good As Compromizing

I do not use appeasement very often because I learned from previous experiences that it does not work very well. Generally when people use appeasement, they let little things slide, and little things build into giant problems that could have been prevented. For example, if you let someone take your food and hope that they won't do it again, you merely encourage them to keep taking more of your things. When my dog was a puppy, he would beg and annoy my entire family, and we would appease him by giving him some human food, and now he chews up things such as shoes and pillows.

Appeasement is different than compromisation because when you compromize with someone, you may lose something, but you gain something as well. When you appease, you just lose and as time goes on, you lose more and more. World War II happened because everyone appeased Germany and let the Nazis grow very strong. Nobody bothered to compromize, and most countries paid for it with lives. Therefore, I think that appeasement should not be used and compromization should be the method of choice.

Article Review

The article I read was about how some of the Olympics' proudest traditions and symbols have a dark past.  The torch relay and the 5 rings were both created by Adolf Hitler as a form of propaganda to add prestige and glamor to the 1936 Germany Olympics.  The torch was supposed to be a representation of the "perfect" German nation and their accomplishments, and the rings were added as part of the pageantry as a representation of the first 5 Olympics.  I think that it is really a shame that 2 international symbols of the Olympics, one of the few events where every country can put aside their differences in the spirit of competition, were created by a person who wanted to dominate the world.

www.nytimes.com/2004/08/14/sports/olympics/14torch.html?ex=1236142800&en=d2bd00907b9d4aaa&ei=5070

The Taliban and Fascism

Jackson Siegman
Fascism Op-Ed
2/25/09

By definition, fascism is a system of government distinguished by centralizing authority, enforcing strict sociological and economic rules, and suppression of any opposition using all means necessary, even if that means physically or mentally harming people. We have seen examples of this throughout history: Nazi Germany, for example, centralized their government under Adolf Hitler and established the Aryan social norm, which was enforced with concentration camps, Jewish ghettos, and the overall decimation of Europe’s Jewish population. Italy also was known for having a period of fascism, with Benito Mussolini as a dictator and a strict police system created. Much of this happened 70 plus years ago, and many people think that fascism is a thing of the past. Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there is a new fascist regime rising in Afghanistan, and it is the infamous Taliban. The Taliban is using their political power to enforce traditional Islamic rules restricting women’s rights. But Islamic culture is not so much the problem; after all, people are very protective over their religious beliefs. The issue at hand is that the Taliban is forcing women to sell themselves short in life, as they are limited to playing the role of the stay-at-home mothers of the world while men fill jobs. I looked up Afghanistan’s poverty statistics (www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2008/10/17/afghanistan-20-million-people-under-poverty-line.html),

and over a third of all people live in poverty. If women were able to work and go to school without being ridiculed or tortured or killed, we would most likely be looking at much more promising statistics. We have seen similar actions before; in other fascist regimes, as we discussed in class, women were promoted as homemakers and babymakers to further the development of the government and the ideals they try to bestow upon the people of their country. If we look at the definition of fascism, we can see that the Taliban fits the mold perfectly, and as their power increases, our war there will unfortunately increase as well.