Thursday, May 27, 2010
Issues
What is right and what is wrong? Your perspective and how you see the world makes up actions. The famous saying "one mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter" can be portrayed in two different ways. Depending on which side of the conflict you are on, you will either be seen as a the good guy or the bad guy. To the people you are fighting against, you will be seen as a "terrorist" and anyone trying to liberate you from the enemy will be seen as a hero "freedom fighter". A comparison to this is the conflict between Kosovo and Serbia. The KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army) were the so called "terrorists". The rebel fighters fought Serbian forces trying to prevent the genocides and ethnic cleansing from occuring. By doing so, the KLA was considered to be terrorists. Through out Yugoslav, shown over national television were videos of the genocide of innocent civilians. There were captions in Serbian claiming to eliminate the terrorists and that every Albanian was a terrorist. To the Albanian people of Kosovo the members of the KLA were the freedom fighters trying to save innocent lives. Depending which side of the conflict you were on there are two ways the same picture can be seen. What i saw the Serbian army to be was completely opposite to what a Serbian might have seen it.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Novel Journal Entry
" ' It is impossible to found a civilization on fear and cruelty. It would never endure.' " Orwell 281
Stalin's intentions during the Russian Revolution to expand communism can be portrayed by this quote, in the novel 1984. Stalin maintained a specific system when controlling his people. He killed, tortured, and convinced his people to fear him. The reason I decided not to compare this quote to Hitler is because Hitler didn't put fear within his own people, while Stalin did. The use of propaganda by the Soviets were very important at this time. The big posters of Stalin appeared everywhere for people to see. If Stalin thought people were against him, then people would be killed on the spot. The lack of food and education made the people rely on the government for their basic needs. Soviet Union fell apart in 1991, leading to the end of communism. Oceania was able to maintain control by using the each individuals greatest fear against them.
Stalin's intentions during the Russian Revolution to expand communism can be portrayed by this quote, in the novel 1984. Stalin maintained a specific system when controlling his people. He killed, tortured, and convinced his people to fear him. The reason I decided not to compare this quote to Hitler is because Hitler didn't put fear within his own people, while Stalin did. The use of propaganda by the Soviets were very important at this time. The big posters of Stalin appeared everywhere for people to see. If Stalin thought people were against him, then people would be killed on the spot. The lack of food and education made the people rely on the government for their basic needs. Soviet Union fell apart in 1991, leading to the end of communism. Oceania was able to maintain control by using the each individuals greatest fear against them.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Dreams take you on journeys
As people begin to pursue their dreams the obstacles along the way can send them on many different journeys. For Rajdeep his dream was to grow up to be a professional soccer player. As a young boy Rajdeep grew up watching his favorite South American soccer player, Diego Maradona, who came from a similar life style as Raj. Raj’s family lived in the shady area of Sabinas Mexico just south west of San Antonio Texas. With poverty around every corner and no opportunities in his village becoming noticed would prove to be a difficult task. At the age of seven, Raj’s lack of knowledge of an outside world different from his own made him think it would be easy to achieve his dream one day, but as he grew older Raj could see there were no opportunities for him in Mexico and started asking his father to move to America.
Just before Raj’s tenth birthday Jaswinder, Raj’s father, had saved enough money for the two of them to be guided in to the United States. Wanting the best for his son, Jas waited till the boy was old enough to understand the situation. On September 13 Raj was woken up at 3:00 am “Rajdeep get up, it’s time to go.” They boy still half asleep got up clumsily “papa I wanna take my soccer ball”, “No” his father replies “only your clothes”. Raj and his father meet up with a man dressed in dark jeans and a navy blue polyester jacket his father gives the man what looks to be over $500 dollars American and begins to ask the man how they will go across. The man brings they two up to a fence about 3 meters high with barbed wire hanging off the top the man walks up to a section of the fence and unlocks a small lock which was holding the fence together not to rise suspicion when border control came through the area. The man gives Jas a hand bag and tells him to follow the compass due north all the way to Fort Stockton. When they get there they are to use a pay phone and call the number provided to them in the bag.
It was almost 8:00am and the sun had been beating down on them for hours. The desert was so bright and hot that if people were exposed to it for more than 2 hours they could die from dehydration. Luckily Jas had brought a large bottle of water with them and every so often he would pour it over Raj’s head to keep him from passing out. As they came to the payphone, Jas called the number on the card and let the person to whom he was speaking to know that they have made it. They are then told to wait to be picked up and then they will be transported to a safe location. A lady in a 1980 brown ford pulls up to Raj and Jas and tell them to hop in. “Glad to see you have made it” she says to them. “Thank you for helping us on our journey” says Jas. Raj and Jas are taken to Fort Worth, just east of Dallas, and Jas is provided with a job as a hotel grounds keeper which pays under the table and an apartment complex to live in. Raj begins school and joins the soccer team, with practice and determination he becomes the captain of his school soccer team for the next 5 years.
In his senior year Raj lead his team to the state championship and was offered a full ride scholarship to play for the University of LA. Raj has been scouted by the LA galaxy and is one of the youngest players to play in the MLS alongside David Beckham. Raj’s father is now retired and is the number 1 fan of his son’s team.
Just before Raj’s tenth birthday Jaswinder, Raj’s father, had saved enough money for the two of them to be guided in to the United States. Wanting the best for his son, Jas waited till the boy was old enough to understand the situation. On September 13 Raj was woken up at 3:00 am “Rajdeep get up, it’s time to go.” They boy still half asleep got up clumsily “papa I wanna take my soccer ball”, “No” his father replies “only your clothes”. Raj and his father meet up with a man dressed in dark jeans and a navy blue polyester jacket his father gives the man what looks to be over $500 dollars American and begins to ask the man how they will go across. The man brings they two up to a fence about 3 meters high with barbed wire hanging off the top the man walks up to a section of the fence and unlocks a small lock which was holding the fence together not to rise suspicion when border control came through the area. The man gives Jas a hand bag and tells him to follow the compass due north all the way to Fort Stockton. When they get there they are to use a pay phone and call the number provided to them in the bag.
It was almost 8:00am and the sun had been beating down on them for hours. The desert was so bright and hot that if people were exposed to it for more than 2 hours they could die from dehydration. Luckily Jas had brought a large bottle of water with them and every so often he would pour it over Raj’s head to keep him from passing out. As they came to the payphone, Jas called the number on the card and let the person to whom he was speaking to know that they have made it. They are then told to wait to be picked up and then they will be transported to a safe location. A lady in a 1980 brown ford pulls up to Raj and Jas and tell them to hop in. “Glad to see you have made it” she says to them. “Thank you for helping us on our journey” says Jas. Raj and Jas are taken to Fort Worth, just east of Dallas, and Jas is provided with a job as a hotel grounds keeper which pays under the table and an apartment complex to live in. Raj begins school and joins the soccer team, with practice and determination he becomes the captain of his school soccer team for the next 5 years.
In his senior year Raj lead his team to the state championship and was offered a full ride scholarship to play for the University of LA. Raj has been scouted by the LA galaxy and is one of the youngest players to play in the MLS alongside David Beckham. Raj’s father is now retired and is the number 1 fan of his son’s team.
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