Monday, November 29, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Research Question
If the LRA can't be stopped with violence and an army, how can they be stopped?
How does Joseph Kony force children to join his army?
What is being done to help these children?
Why is the world just now starting to help, after two decades?*
How are the children's rights being violated?
Why does Kony use children to do his dirty work?
How has religion contributed to the acts of the LRA? How do they use religion to justify their actions?
How has this issue been addressed? Has focus made any impact? Have there been any repercussions? When was the peak of global focus, and why was that? Ugandan history (why Uganda)? Why children? Family roles? Security? Released children (effects)?
How have abducted children been affected after they were released?
How has this issue been addressed in a global view, and what repercussions have come because of it?
Research Question:
How has global involvement influenced the conflict with the Lord's Resistance Army in Northern Uganda?
I will need to look up articles, books, and more that illustrate a global reaction to this incident, specifically whether it was a large focus and what repercussions, if any, that focus has caused. I will need to learn about various organizations that are responding, as well as what governments have done. I will need to find out when the peak of interest in Northern Uganda occurred, and why that is.
How does Joseph Kony force children to join his army?
What is being done to help these children?
Why is the world just now starting to help, after two decades?*
How are the children's rights being violated?
Why does Kony use children to do his dirty work?
How has religion contributed to the acts of the LRA? How do they use religion to justify their actions?
How has this issue been addressed? Has focus made any impact? Have there been any repercussions? When was the peak of global focus, and why was that? Ugandan history (why Uganda)? Why children? Family roles? Security? Released children (effects)?
How have abducted children been affected after they were released?
How has this issue been addressed in a global view, and what repercussions have come because of it?
Research Question:
How has global involvement influenced the conflict with the Lord's Resistance Army in Northern Uganda?
I will need to look up articles, books, and more that illustrate a global reaction to this incident, specifically whether it was a large focus and what repercussions, if any, that focus has caused. I will need to learn about various organizations that are responding, as well as what governments have done. I will need to find out when the peak of interest in Northern Uganda occurred, and why that is.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Tentative Research Proposal
1. I am interested in researching the Lord's Resistance Army and the child soldiers in Uganda. I'm interested in this situation because I heard about the organization Invisible Children, which works to stop these abductions, from a friend and I want to know more. I want to know the background information of what is happening and what is being done/has been done to stop it. I want to focus especially on children because I'm shocked at the extent that their rights are being violated.
2. http://www.invisiblechildren.com/our-story
http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/uganda_25184.html
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/lra.htm
3. I'm not sure what exact aspect of this conflict I'm going to research, but I know I'm going to research something related to the child soldiers. What would be some good books to use (especially some that contain primary sources)? What other organizations, besides UNICEF and Invisible Children, are working to resolve this conflict?
2. http://www.invisiblechildren.com/our-story
http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/uganda_25184.html
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/lra.htm
3. I'm not sure what exact aspect of this conflict I'm going to research, but I know I'm going to research something related to the child soldiers. What would be some good books to use (especially some that contain primary sources)? What other organizations, besides UNICEF and Invisible Children, are working to resolve this conflict?
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Maus Discussion - image
Image: pg 74. bug spray.
I talked about this image a little in the discussion but it still is the one that jumped out at me the most. Art was so nonchalant about killing the bugs, it's ironic and I drew many parallels with it. All of the characters in this book are animals, but they symbolize people. He said the flies were bothering him and just eating him up, so with a quick spray of pesticide they were killed and taken care of. I drew parallels with the Nazis killing the Jews, especially because the language they used was very similar. This image especially impacted me because it was the last of the reading. I was taken aback, and then went back and looked at it again. I think the thing that was the most shocking was the ease and the nonchalantness that Art had when he killed them, then said it was too cold and he went inside to read.
I talked about this image a little in the discussion but it still is the one that jumped out at me the most. Art was so nonchalant about killing the bugs, it's ironic and I drew many parallels with it. All of the characters in this book are animals, but they symbolize people. He said the flies were bothering him and just eating him up, so with a quick spray of pesticide they were killed and taken care of. I drew parallels with the Nazis killing the Jews, especially because the language they used was very similar. This image especially impacted me because it was the last of the reading. I was taken aback, and then went back and looked at it again. I think the thing that was the most shocking was the ease and the nonchalantness that Art had when he killed them, then said it was too cold and he went inside to read.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Democratic Republic of the Congo Today
"UN releases 'heartbreaking' human rights report on the Congo"
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/10/01/congo.atrocities.un.report/index.html?iref=allsearch
This article is about the UN report that was just released about human rights violations in the Congo over 10 years in the Congo. It accuses Rwandan forces of committing these atrocities with the help of several armed Congolese groups. There have been thousands of murders and rapes in the Congo, with the violence being aimed especially at women and children. It says that Rwandans have been murdering ethnic Hutus who had fled to the Congo. I thought it was interesting that this article brought up the point that these children have only grown up with violence as a solution to problems, so that's all they'll ever know, and this strategy will deteriorate the situation in the Congo even more. Most of these atrocities had gone unheeded, but at the end of the article it said that hopefully justice will be able to be given, which I agree with.
"Rwanda threatens UN over DR Congo 'genocide' report"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11122650
This second article was written 2 months before the first article I chose. It's about Rwanda's threat to withdraw cooperation with the United Nations if the report detailing the violence in the Congo, which accuses Rwanda of being responsible, is published. They say they will withdraw peace-keeping operations in various parts of Africa, which analysts say would be a huge blow because of the escalating violence in Darfur. The Rwandan governments says that they went into the Congo when it was known as Zaire to pursue the Hutu militias responsible for carrying out mass killings of Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994l, while the UN says they killed thousands of Rwandan and Congolese Hutus. I am interested to see what Rwanda will do now that the UN report was leaked. Will they follow up on their threat? And if they do, how will that affect the situation in Africa, especially in countries like Darfur and the Congo?
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/10/01/congo.atrocities.un.report/index.html?iref=allsearch
This article is about the UN report that was just released about human rights violations in the Congo over 10 years in the Congo. It accuses Rwandan forces of committing these atrocities with the help of several armed Congolese groups. There have been thousands of murders and rapes in the Congo, with the violence being aimed especially at women and children. It says that Rwandans have been murdering ethnic Hutus who had fled to the Congo. I thought it was interesting that this article brought up the point that these children have only grown up with violence as a solution to problems, so that's all they'll ever know, and this strategy will deteriorate the situation in the Congo even more. Most of these atrocities had gone unheeded, but at the end of the article it said that hopefully justice will be able to be given, which I agree with.
"Rwanda threatens UN over DR Congo 'genocide' report"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11122650
This second article was written 2 months before the first article I chose. It's about Rwanda's threat to withdraw cooperation with the United Nations if the report detailing the violence in the Congo, which accuses Rwanda of being responsible, is published. They say they will withdraw peace-keeping operations in various parts of Africa, which analysts say would be a huge blow because of the escalating violence in Darfur. The Rwandan governments says that they went into the Congo when it was known as Zaire to pursue the Hutu militias responsible for carrying out mass killings of Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994l, while the UN says they killed thousands of Rwandan and Congolese Hutus. I am interested to see what Rwanda will do now that the UN report was leaked. Will they follow up on their threat? And if they do, how will that affect the situation in Africa, especially in countries like Darfur and the Congo?
Friday, September 17, 2010
Lingering Idea
The question that I felt we discussed the most and that still interests me is the one that says:
Hochschild talks about an African chief, Nzansu, who fought for years against the whites in the Congo in a large rebellion. The whites were determined to defeat and kill him, yet there is no mention of his fate. Why would this be?
I think it's interesting to think of how Nzansu was one of the whites' greatest opposers, yet there was no mention of his death. The motives behind that interest me. It was one of the quotes that stuck with me most after I first did the reading. We had a good discussion hypothesizing motives for this, some of which were that Leopold didn't want the world to know there was opposition in his supposedly philanthropic colony to no one bothered to record it. I think it's fascinating how so many people must have either been there or known about the event, yet we have no idea what happened today.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
"King Leopold's Ghost" pgs 33-60 response
Leopold:
"Leopold would not always be cautions; at times he would overreach himself or reveal too much about what prey he was after. But there was something fox-like about the manner in which this constitutional monarch of a small, increasingly democratic country became the totalitarian ruler of a vast empire on another continent. Stealth and dissembling would be his trusted devices, just as the fox relies on those qualities to survive in a world of hunters and larger beasts" (Hochschild 35).
Stanley:
"Always anxious about his reception in the upper reaches of society, Stanley never forgot that courtiers of the King of the Belgians - a baron and general, no less - had sought him out on his return to Europe" (59).
Affirm:
"If he was to seize anything in Africa, he could do so only if he convinced everyone that his interest was purely altruistic" (46).
I agree with this. There was no public support for colonizing Africa simply to gain more land, so Leopold had to convince the Belgians that it was for a purely selfless reason, that it was only to help civilize those savages unfortunate enough to need help. He couldn't let his real motives be seen because that would just work to his disadvantage. He had to be seen as truly selfless.
"Leopold would not always be cautions; at times he would overreach himself or reveal too much about what prey he was after. But there was something fox-like about the manner in which this constitutional monarch of a small, increasingly democratic country became the totalitarian ruler of a vast empire on another continent. Stealth and dissembling would be his trusted devices, just as the fox relies on those qualities to survive in a world of hunters and larger beasts" (Hochschild 35).
Stanley:
"Always anxious about his reception in the upper reaches of society, Stanley never forgot that courtiers of the King of the Belgians - a baron and general, no less - had sought him out on his return to Europe" (59).
Affirm:
"If he was to seize anything in Africa, he could do so only if he convinced everyone that his interest was purely altruistic" (46).
I agree with this. There was no public support for colonizing Africa simply to gain more land, so Leopold had to convince the Belgians that it was for a purely selfless reason, that it was only to help civilize those savages unfortunate enough to need help. He couldn't let his real motives be seen because that would just work to his disadvantage. He had to be seen as truly selfless.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
"King Leopold's Ghost" pgs 1-32 response
I found the most interesting part of this reading was when Hochschild was talking about the reaction of the African's to the whites' arrival. I thought it was very interesting how the Africans thought that the Europeans were people coming from the land of the dead. What stood out to me was how they thought the Europeans were cannibals so most of the slaves being transported on the ships refused to eat because they believed they were eating their fellow Africans. I was also drawn into the part where the British were being self-righteous and ignoring their history of slavery and condemning not Portugal, Spain, or Brazil but the Arab slave-traders for their allowance and promotion of slavery. The hypocrisy was what kept my attention. I felt least interested when Hochschild was describing the life of Henry Morton Stanley. Some of it was interesting, but that was where I found myself zoning out.
discussion questions:
1.Why was Henry Stanley so prone to exaggerations in his reports, and why were they accepted?
2. How much effect did Affonso have on decreasing the slave trade in Africa? How would our views of this time change if we didn't have his voice and his view of this period in history?
discussion questions:
1.Why was Henry Stanley so prone to exaggerations in his reports, and why were they accepted?
2. How much effect did Affonso have on decreasing the slave trade in Africa? How would our views of this time change if we didn't have his voice and his view of this period in history?
Friday, August 27, 2010
Current Events Class Activity
Article: "Murdered bodies found in Mexico 'were migrants'"
1. 72 people were found murdered at a ranch in Mexico. They were migrants from Honduras, El Salvador, and Brazil, among other Central and Southern American countries. A survivor told officials that they had been kidnapped by an armed gang that are suspected to be drug traffickers and were then killed when they refused to work for the gang. Mexico's government condemned the killings. Marines, who had been summoned by the survivor, had discovered the bodies piled on each other in a room. This highlights Mexico's two largest problems: drug trafficking and illegal migration.
2. This happened recently, on Tuesday, August 24th. It is breaking news that hasn't been discussed much.
3. Questions I have: If these things are happening so often, what is the government doing to try and stop them? If this is a known site about fierce fighting between cartels, why does this keep happening? It might help to learn more about the specifics of the other instances where mass graves have been found.
1. 72 people were found murdered at a ranch in Mexico. They were migrants from Honduras, El Salvador, and Brazil, among other Central and Southern American countries. A survivor told officials that they had been kidnapped by an armed gang that are suspected to be drug traffickers and were then killed when they refused to work for the gang. Mexico's government condemned the killings. Marines, who had been summoned by the survivor, had discovered the bodies piled on each other in a room. This highlights Mexico's two largest problems: drug trafficking and illegal migration.
2. This happened recently, on Tuesday, August 24th. It is breaking news that hasn't been discussed much.
3. Questions I have: If these things are happening so often, what is the government doing to try and stop them? If this is a known site about fierce fighting between cartels, why does this keep happening? It might help to learn more about the specifics of the other instances where mass graves have been found.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Newsworthy Events
These are the 3 events that I remember:
9/11. I was in third grade in Mrs. Doak's class, doing a writing exercise, when another teacher came in and turned on the TV. We only watched for a few minutes, though, but then my teacher turned it off. Everyone was shocked, and I went home that day and my parents were extremely shocked.
Obama becoming President. I remember watching the inauguration in school and talking about it in Ms. Vogt's class. I remember talking about it with my family and seeing the headlines everywhere. I remember the mock election we had and how that was what the whole school was talking about.
Hurricane Katrina. I remember I was in 7th grade. I remember the school having a drive to help them and many organizations popping up to help them. I don't remember many details, I just remember what a big deal it was.
These are the 3 events that my parents remember:
9/11. My mom was at home with my little sister who was watching PBS kids, so my mom didn't hear what happened until a neighbor called. She went into her room because she didn't want my sister to be scared and then heard all about it.
Watergate Scandal. My mom was camping with her sister and her sister's husband. She remembers it being on the radio a lot and that being all that the adults would talk about.
Legalization of Abortion in 1973 (Roe v. Wade). My mom was in 7th grade in a Catholic school, so it was a huge deal. They all had pro-life bracelets that were being handed out. Everyone was extremely angry about it.
9/11. I was in third grade in Mrs. Doak's class, doing a writing exercise, when another teacher came in and turned on the TV. We only watched for a few minutes, though, but then my teacher turned it off. Everyone was shocked, and I went home that day and my parents were extremely shocked.
Obama becoming President. I remember watching the inauguration in school and talking about it in Ms. Vogt's class. I remember talking about it with my family and seeing the headlines everywhere. I remember the mock election we had and how that was what the whole school was talking about.
Hurricane Katrina. I remember I was in 7th grade. I remember the school having a drive to help them and many organizations popping up to help them. I don't remember many details, I just remember what a big deal it was.
These are the 3 events that my parents remember:
9/11. My mom was at home with my little sister who was watching PBS kids, so my mom didn't hear what happened until a neighbor called. She went into her room because she didn't want my sister to be scared and then heard all about it.
Watergate Scandal. My mom was camping with her sister and her sister's husband. She remembers it being on the radio a lot and that being all that the adults would talk about.
Legalization of Abortion in 1973 (Roe v. Wade). My mom was in 7th grade in a Catholic school, so it was a huge deal. They all had pro-life bracelets that were being handed out. Everyone was extremely angry about it.
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