Feedback of the 43rd War

1a. In what absolute location do you think The 43rd War takes place?

I think that this book takes place in El Salvador because the volcano Atlacatl is located in El Salvador. (Atlacatl Battalion). I also think it takes place in El Salvador because Uno is Christian and Lolo has a cross around his neck. The percent of Christians in El Salvador is 83 %. (El Salvador). And lastly, I think it takes place in El Salvador also has many jungles and in the book, the author always used the jungle when they were in their drills. (Central America Travel).

2. I think the author was vague about the location because it keeps you thinking about the book. She did this by giving clues as to where it was and the location of some certain places. But, I don’t think that she had a real reason for doing things. Sometimes the best books are done by accident.

"(Atlatactl Battalion)." Wikipedia. 27 Jan 2008 .

"(Central America Travel)." About.com. 28 Jan 2008 .

"(El Salvador)." CIA World Factbook. 28 Jan 2008 .

(Moeri, Louis). The 43rd war. New york: Library of Congress, 1989.

Decleration of Independence Summary

When it becomes necessary for a country to declare a separation with another country, you should give reason for why you declare your independence. The colonists believe that its obvious that all people are equal and that they have the rights of Life, Liberty and to have the right to happiness. Governments get their power from the people. When any part of the government that starts to take away the rights of the people , the people have the right to change or take away the government or to make a new one. While people have the right to change or alter governments when theyre not doing what they’re supposed to be doing, that it’s for the right reasons , not just however or whenever. It’s they’re duty to get rid of that government. The colonies have suffered enough and now its necessary for us to alter the former Systems of government. King George III has damaged colonists, caused injuries and here are some of the reasons how he caused these injuries.

King George III did not obey the laws and they were made for the better of the public good.

He didn’t allow the government to pass laws that would help the colonies.

He has judged by hisself the people , for the time in their offices, and the amount of money they make.

He made armies without the permission of the legislatures.

He constructed the Quartering Act in which his troops stayed in our homes.

He stopped our trade with other countries in the world.

He put taxes on items without our (the colonists) permission.

He has taken our seas, burned our towns, he has taken the items in our ships, and destroyed the lives of many people.

Every time he did one of these bad things, we asked him to stop. We only asked him of these things when he hurt us. He is not fit to be a king. He is a tyrant. Not only did we talk to King George III, but also to the British legislature and told them why we came to the colonies in the first place. But nothing changed. Those of us that are gathered here, are saying that we are free! We promise to work together and make this happen.

Snake Feedback

What are the main visual elements?

--- One of the main visual elements is the snake cut into pieces. And then there are the abbreviations for eight of the thirteen colonies on each piece of the snake.And then under the snake is the phrase “Join or Die.”

What issue is the political cartoon about?

--- The issue is that the political cartoon is about is that if the colonies don’t join to whatever the government wants, then they get exterminated.

What is the cartoonist’s opinion on this issue?

---I think that the cartoonist feels that this issue was a very strong issue and that it was negative. I say this because the snake is cut up and it has the initials of eight colonies on it.

What evidence in the cartoon supports your opinion on how the cartoonist feels?

--- Like I stated previously, the snake is cut up and it has the initials of eight colonies on the cut up pieces. And I’m thinking that the initials that are on the snake are the ones that didn’t want to join and they were executed.

What other techniques could the cartoonist have used to make the drawing more persuasive?

--- The cartoonist could have made the “join” part lowercase and then have the DIE all uppercase, so there’s more emphasis on DIE. I would have put bright colors on this drawing because it would catch somebody’s eye and you could put emphasis on parts that you wanted emphasis.

Great Powers Game Debrief

1q. Which country were you? How did it feel to build your empire? Which countries had the advantage at the start of the game? Why? How did you empire compare to other empires?

2q. In the long run was it more important to buy armies, navies, industries or colonies? Why?

3q. What did you do well? What would you have done differently?

4q. How successful were your alliances? Did they help or hurt you? Could they be trusted?

5q. What are three specific things you learned about conflict from this simulation?

• 1a. I was the Austrian- Hungarian Empire. The countries that had the greater advantage in the beginning was USA, Great Britain and maybe France. Well I think they had the greater advantage because they are the bigger countries, and having the bigger countries they can do more and they have more power. My empire was actually pretty good compared to a couple of others. For example, Italy, it wasn't as good as I thought it would be. And Japan seems to be a pretty powerful country, yet it came in last place compared to my fourth place. But, I was nothing compared to the USA. But wen I went to war against him, I actually won.
  
• 2a. I am really undecided on this question. I think it is pretty equal. If you want to get a lot of economic points in this game so you can buy more, than sure get industries and colonies, but if you are going to declare war, you should buy armies and navies. However, since there are a limited amount of colonies, you should get them in the beginning, especially before people have enough armies and navies to declare war against you. But, the down side of navies is that two of them only equal one navy, so I ended up not getting any.
  
• 3a. I think something I did well was keeping treaties and then making treaties. I was able to declare war and then people would back me up so I could win and then I would give them their fair share. But something I cold've worked on would be managing the amount of economic points per year that I got, meaning how I used them. I think I bought too little armies and that's why I had to have so many alliances.
• 4a. My alliances ended up helping me a lot. I went to war against a couple of countries, and they backed me up a lot. And I backed them up and I ended up getting a couple of industries out of it. So yes, they did help me out a lot. Well, Russia, Italy, Germany, I could trust, but when France broke their alliance with USA, I was a little nervous on if he would break our treaty. And then the Ottoman Empire I cold pretty much trust, but I still had a slight doubt about it.
• 5a. One thing would be that conflict can happen all over the world, not just what you hear on television or what made it into history books. Secondly, there can be conflict in alliances. When France stopped the treaty with USA, USA got pretty upset and wanted to declare war against France. And thirdly, I learned that economic power and political power are not the same things. You can have one or the other or both. So you can use all your economic power to declare war and that shows that somebody is rich and powerful and BOOM, there's another historical war . So using your different powers is very resourceful when there's a war/conflict.
  

Quarter 3 Goals for Myself

Go back and review your goals for quarter two in humanities. These can be found in the October Archive of your BLOG in a posting titled,” End of Quarter 1 Feedback”. Evaluate how well you have achieved those goals. Include specific evidence from the quarter to validate your evaluation.

In addition to your evaluation please create three specific goals that you have for quarter two in humanities. Remember that a good goal is realistic, measurable and specific. List them at the end of this BLOG entry.

Well, one of my goals was to learn how to write a good research paper and I think I can say I learned how to do that because that was one of our studies in Humanities.

Another one of my goals was to read more. I like to procrastinate on reading and i achieved that because I was able to read the Da Vinci code in about two and a half weeks.

My last goal was to learn more about Imperialism because I basically knew nothing about it. And I did achieve that goal because, well I did a whole socartaic seminar on Globalization is cultural imperialism and i was able to debate all through that.

So I achieved all of the goals that I set for myself.

Now, Im setting my goals for quarter 3.

1. I want to read 30 pages a day of my AR books.
   
2. I want to get atleast 25-30 points in AR.
3. I want to ba able to plan out everything I will do for UBD, so I dont get behind on ANYTHING!
   

Hotel Rwanda

SOURCE A
“… The United States has been a driving force in the provision of humanitarian assistance, in condemning the violence and in trying to organize a U.N. mission designed not simply to promise, but to deliver what it promises. Sending a U.N. force into the maelstrom in Rwanda without a sound plan of operations would be folly … Emotions can produce wonderful speeches and stirring news editorials. But emotions alone cannot produce policies that will achieve what they promise. If we do not keep commitments in line with capabilities, we will only further undermine U.N. credibility and support. The actions authorized last night will help. They may save lives. But ultimately, the future of Rwanda is in Rwandan hands.”
Anthony Lake, American National Security Advisor during a press briefing on May 25, 1994

SOURCE B
Frontline - Another example. Over 2,000 Tutsi refugees took shelter at a United Nations troops compound guarded by Belgian soldiers who then abandoned them, went to the airport, left them to die. How do you feel about that?
Riza - “Just as anyone who had any responsibility for this would feel. Terrible, sad, but I was not on the ground, I don’t know what the circumstances were. Maybe those Belgian soldiers also realized that resistance was futile. It’s quite possible. Maybe you feel that they should have gone down firing and been killed. Well, I do not know whether their commander gave them the order to withdraw, or whether they themselves decided. They certainly didn’t telephone New York.”
Iqbal Riza quoted in a PBS Frontline interview. During the events in Rwanda, he was deputy head of U.N. peacekeeping.

SOURCE C
“This was not the first time, nor would it be the last, that General Dallaire (the Canadian in command of the UN forces in Rwanda) would learn that Kigali–designated a “weapons-free zone” in the Arusha Accords–was a Hutu Power arms bazaar. It was hardly a secret: grenades and Kalashnikov assault rifles were openly displayed and affordably priced in the central city market; planes carrying French, or French-sponsored, arms shipments kept arriving; the government was importing machetes from China in numbers that far exceeded the demand for agricultural use, and many of these weapons were being handed around free to people with no known military function–idle young men in zany interahamwe ( A Hutu Power group) getups, housewives, office workers–at a time when Rwanda was officially at peace for the first time in three years.”
Excerpted from Chapter 8 of Philip Gourevitch’s book, We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families.


According to the sources and the film, how did individuals, groups of people and the world community fail the people of Rwanda?

• First off, the whte people left when the Rwandan people needed them most. Rwandan people were left to take care of their own problems. They were deep underwater.
• Secondly, the Hutu people failed Rwanda by killing just about anybody. They didn't kill the supporters of their own kind, the people that went with them, but they did kill the Hutu refugees as well as the Tutsi refugees.
• Thirdly, General Bizimungu was close to not helping just because Paul wasn't able to give anything in return. The General was being really SELFISH and would oly help on account of receiving something in return.
• Fourthly, Gregoir was a traitor when he told the Hutus(that were killing everybody) about Paul and that the U.N. was trying to get people out in trucks.
• And finally, when the refugees were calling people to sign for them to get out of the country, only about 1/4th of the people replied/helped the people get out.

African Footprint Reflection

1. What are the main visual elements?
2. What issue is this political cartoon about?
3. What is the cartoonist’s position on this issue?
4. What evidence in the cartoon supports your opinion regarding the cartoonist’s position?
5. What other techniques could the cartoonist have used to make this cartoon more persuasive?

• The main visual elements in this picture is, of course, the footprint on Africa and the propaganda colors.
• That people are just taking over Africa without realizing what they are f=doing to Africa. The people, the land and the culture. They just think that people can take over Africa and not care. They just want to leave their mark.
• The cartoonist's position on this issue would be negative against the people that have and are presently taking over Africa. This person does not like the fact that people are taking advantage of Africa. But the cartoonist could also think that it is OK to take over Africa by putting his own footprint on Africa.
• Well, the negative part of the cartoonist's position would be just mainly because he posted this on the world wide web to spread that it's not good to do this kind of stuff to people and land. But the positive evidence would be that he's saying he has left his mark, and then once again, he put in on the world wide web and thought " OK, this is cool, why don't I spread the news that people can take over Africa."
• The cartoonist could have given more backup on what they think about this subject because there are two sides to this confrontation. Like saying on the footprint... NO. Just plainly on the footprint, he/she could've written that.