Weekly Response #9

Things in China are not looking good. They are starting to look better, but not good. All of the pollution in China, whether in the air or water, is killing their people, wildlife, and land. People living by rivers get diagnosed with cancer because they drink and bathe in heavily polluted water. Also i am not too concerned about North Korea having launched a missile successfully. I believe them having a nuke would just be a defense to other nukes, and that they would not use it unprovoked.

Weekly Reflection #8

I did not believe the people presenting these tooics were experts. However, they did help me better understand their topic. The visuals and facts helped out with understanding, but the group activities did not. I think I did not do well on this project. I was given too much freedom and too little structure, and did not know how to handle that. The next time I did this assignment, I think i would pick a different topic...

Weekly Reflection #7

China is a nation that claims to have free speech, but I feel that it is not completely free. China reacts very harshly to dissidents and I do not agree with their treatment. I think the One Child Policy is a little bit much to ask, but it is definitely necessary. China is clearly trying to show that their government is very controlling, even though they claim to the rest of the world that they have personal freedoms. This week I also enjoyed sharing with the class what everyone felt were the most important human rights.

Weekly reflection #6

I feel like relations between Taiwan and China will not go the way we played it out in our game. I do feel that there could be a severe threat of a war or missile launches between the two nations, but I do not think there would be as much talking between the two. I feel that the TED Talk on the issue was a pretty accurate scenario, but i do not want any conflict in this area due to the innevitability of US involvement.

Weekly Reflection #5

I liked thinking about the prisoner's dilema this week. It was fun to contemplate wht decisions people would make based on strictly trust or fear. I also do not understand why China has not tried to invade Taiwan recently. The relationship between China and Taiwan seems both threatening, and safe due to all of the talk with little action.

Weekly Reflection #4

The thing that I learned this week that I liked the most, is thefact that people actually control the value of currency. I just thought that currency was all based on pretty much their number value, but I like that it is dependant on people's faith rather than the amount of money in circulation. However, it does scare me that any country's people can just freak out and determine their country is worthless, like what happened in Greece. I also liked that there is a website that compares currency values by using Bigc Macs.

Weekly Reflection #3

Money is a very strange topic that we have discussed in class. I believe that people do have to believe in their currency to give it value, but I believe that people stand behind this belief because they feel that their money symbolizes the work that they have done. In this way, the money a person has will equal their worth in society as well. I feel that paper money is definitely going to be replaced soon. Electronic money seems to make more sense, because thats basically what we use now anyway.

Weekly Reflection #2

I thought that the rebellion in Tiananmen Square got waaayy too out of control. I felt that the hunger strike was pushing it a little too far, but the government one-upped this over-reaction by proceeding to unload millitary arms on the defenseless students. I also thought it was really stupid when one of the students suggested they start burningthemselves in protest. I felt likeif the government was already killing people in the square, why would they care if you light yourself on fire? Also, dealing with the interview with Jiang Zemin, I felt like he was a two-faced, annoying little guy. Hewould keep saying one thing while doing other things, and overall did not seem like he was fun to deal with.

Weekly Reflection

The map project was a very relaxed, easy experience, and a nice way to start off the year as far as work goes. Thedisappearance of Xi Jinping is probably one of the strangest things going on in the world right now. The fact that the next ruler of China could go untracked for so long is just difficult to understand. Meybe it's just because something like that would never happen in America, but it's still very weird. So far, I think China is using the U.S. as their puppet as far as opening relations goes. The U.S. is giving up any of their leverage in order to make a play date with China, and China is sitting back receiving the U.S.'s gifts with open arms. By these actions, I feel like Nixon is showing that he is deathly afraid of what he thinks China will become, and wants to avoid any type of conflict with the country. Also, regarding the article, I think China is making the wrong decision in trying to get a mural in Oregon removed, and coming to the U.S. to try to convince people to get it removed won't help the matter. The mural should stay up because it is in America, China doesn't have any say in the matter.

China and US Have Changed Their Relationship Status

China and the U.S. are frenemies, but in the friendliest of ways. I say this because they are both rivals, and they are both constantly improving their military defenses, but there is no imminant threat of war between the two nations. They both depend on each other too much to start a war. The U.S. owes China waaaay too much money for them to want to go to war. Thats like loaning somebody 1 million dollars, then killing them before they can repay you, it does not make sense! The U.S. also needs China for all the products the Chinese trade with them. The two countries friendships are too important for them to start a war, but they are still very competitive rivals, which is why I think they are friendly frenemies.

AP Exam

I thought the exam was relatively hard. I did not like a couple of the essays, but the multiple choice was not as hard as I expected it to be, although it was still difficult. I felt as prepared as I could be and was comfortable with the in class review. I was surprised by thequestion on cricket to say the least, but otherwise I didn't really know exactly what to expect so I just guessed I could see anything.

Marx and Engles

One of the positive points these men brought up was The equal splitting of the labor. With everybody doing the same amount of work it will lead to a happier society. The next positive point was free education and the destruction of child labor. Child labor is far too much work and is unnecessary, children should only learn at a young age and work when they are physically and mentally ready for it. All of the factories being owned by the state is a good point due to the fact that the owner of the company can not think he is above all of the workers. With the state being in control there will be no fellow worker on top, so it keeps all workers feeling equal. Keeping a banking monopoly also serves as a pretty good point because if the people in charge of the money began to slack off, the result could be catastrophic. I feel that destroqying the rights toinheritance is a very bad idea. People can still be entitled to things that their family owned and it is not right to keep them from those possessions. I also feel that giving the state all means of communication could possibly result in only appealing information from around the world reaching the general public. I do not feel that a heavy income tax is necessary as well. I also feel that agriculture and manufacturing should be kept separate. I just feel like they are too different to be combined completely.

Revolutionary Men

All of the pictures of these men have papers and writing utensils involved. This could be either to show that all of these men are educated, or it could be to show that they are always working on provisions they plan to make to the government. Also 3 of the 4 men have swords with them. This could express that they are willing to become violent in order to get their way, or that they are warriors who are trying to push new ideas with force and reason. The artists portray the men with these features to show that the men really want to make a change and will do anything they can to make a new government. This should show the future generations how bad these Revolutionaries wanted change and the future generations should not take their government for granted. These men need to seem heroic because they brought an important change about for their everyday citizens. I feel that the authors portrayed everyone except for Marat as looking heroic because they are all standing up straight looking somewhat heroic in their posture. Marat just sort of looks like he is suffering and wants an end to it.

TED Talk

I agree with what wassaid in this episode of TED talk. I do feel that America along with the rest of the West is declining in wealth and power. I also agree that places like China, Africa, and Latin America have a bright future ahead of them. I do think that they will definitely need to adjust and try to accept the 6 deadly apps in order to rise to their full potential because I feel that they are all necesities for a wealthy powerful nation. I do not think that if America gets passed it is going to be the end of the world and everybody is going to become poor, but I think it will serve as a wake up call. It will be a sign showing the American people and leaders that we need to change things that we aredoing poorly right now, and maybe even go back to how things were as soon as America rose to the highest economy in the world. I do think that America can change this economic decline, but it is going to take some time and flexibility.

Fabian Fucan's Attack on Christianity

Fucan is basically saying that Christianity is the wrong religion. He says this when stating that there is little truth to Deus's teaching and that Deus has a cursed fate. Fucan also mentioned how the countries that Christianity has taken over have been countries of barbaric people, and he states that his nation is more brave and will never give in to Christianity. He alsostates the destruction of the Japanese tradition that emperors are chosen by the Gods. He laims that the Japanese people would not break the Royal Sway and that Christianity would have to submit to this structure. He claims that getting rid of Japanese traditions will overthrow the culture and the country itself. He even finishes off by questioning the sensibility of a religion that gives a chance for such a terrible after life punishment.

Christianity and Capitalism

Christianity keeps splitting into different forms because it is further developing the beliefs of the Christian faith. They branch into different directions because some groups of people have one idea and if other Christians do not agree that this idea resembles Christianity, they either develop their own idea, or keep the same faith that they have currently. That is why there are so many forms of Christianity, from many differing beliefs based on the same set of values. I am not really too sure on what capitalism is exactly. My best guess is that it might mean a free market economy that has some government restrictions (of course making it not truly free) but is not completely ruled by the government. Basically I think it is an economy that is run by the people, but monitored by the government. Maybe???

Griot Methods of Recording History

I feel that the methods the Griots used to pass down history were much more interesting than the methods that we use today. For instance, I would much rather learn history through listening to songs and stories than reading out of a textbook. However, there can be faults in the Griots' ways. The cons of keeping a verbal record of history is that it is more likely to change over time than a recorded history is. For example if one man embellishes on a story a little bit and then each person he told embelishes a little more and the chain keeps going in this direction, the story can end up as completely different from reality. The songs or stories can also begin as less than true if the tellers want to keep the glory of the people involved in a story. For instance if your best friend dies in a battle odds are you are going to make a story favor him rather than tell exactly what happened. However the pros of these methods is that I feel like more people would be interested in their own history and they would always want to search for more knowledge. I feel that the overstating can even serve as a pro in this manner because it could attract more interest to a story or song that is still mostly accurate. The Griots definitely chose an interesting way to pass down their history, but it might not be the most acurate way to do this.

Mongol Trials

I personally enjoyed the Mongol trials. I liked having a class activity where even if someone came prepared they could be completely thrown off. I felt that I did not do as good as I could and should have. I regret allowing my team to keep my focus on genocide as a european knight and take all of the blame for that. I should have stepped up and told them to base my questions more on the kidnapping and terrorism aspects of the trial, as genocide does not generally work in the case of wars and battles. After the trial my feelings on the Mongols are completely mixed. I do think in some ways that they are not just crazed killers, but they are far more than common empire builders. I also want to admire their empire, but I can not help but think they were too aggressive. As far as the verdict in the trial I would say that the Mongols are guilty of kidnapping and terrorism, but the defenses points were far too weak to say the Mongols are guilty of genocide.

Genghis Khan: Crazy Killer, or Strategic Genius?

I see Genghis Khan as a strtegic genius more than a crazy killer. Do not get me wrong he was responsible for a lot of deaths, but they did serve to benefit him. Whenever he wanted to kill people, it was motivated killing, he did not just think to himself, "hey I really want to go kill all those people in the village over, that sounds fun", instead he thought, "those people are my enemies and I need to eliminate them while they are distracted so my people are ot harmed". Genghis was also brought up in a very brutal part of the world where it was normal to see death. Killing or harming people was a way to survive, so when he was plotting invasions to kill many people, it was not killing to kill, it was killing to survive. Also, I think if Genghis Khan was a psychotic man motivated by ending lives, he would have executed his former best friend when he was captured. Instead he could not even watch as the man he now called his greatest enemy, who had invaded him multiple times, was executed. Genghis Khan clearly used his killing methods strictly for strategy and not for some kind of sick pleasures.

Crusades Project

The crusades that my group chose were 3, 5, and 8. In the 3rd cusade Richard Lionhart was abandoned by his followers. When he attempts to attack the Muslims by himself I think the Muslims thought he was crazy. However the Muslims were willing to negotiate with him for the probable trade and new ideas that would result as a sort of prize for them. In the 5th crusade, the crusaders attempt to attack Egypt, although many of them die of heat stroke before even seeing battle. The Muslims view them as very insensible for this reason and they do not take the crusaders seriously. The 8th crusade is just a failure. The crusaders fall very quickly and by this point the Muslims are just annoyed by the crusaders' attempts.

Crusade Project Progress

All of the finished rage comics have been emailed to everyone who took part in the meeting our group had on Sunday. I will be posting them with my personal description of each one shortly. However I have opted not to do the children's crusade anymore.

Crusade Project Progress

Today I decided to collaborate with Joe Greeley, Steven Hong, Derek DeCastro, Josh Rosenberg, and Keval Kapadia. We chose to work on crusades 3, 5, and 8. We are planning on making several rage comics to voice our opinions.

Diwali

Throughout this year we have studied both India and Hinduism, and Diwali is the major holiday celebrated in India and by Hindus. It is the celebration of good's triumph over evil, and the celebration ranges depending on the luni-solar Hindu calendar.