30 for 30 responce

the events that brought the nation together was definitely rugby. The fact that Nelson Mandela was able to put aside the hate and bring the two very separated races together is inspiring. Also, rugby was a great way to bring the nation together and an example of when Mandela wore the springbok hat was a gesture that was very important. It was nice how everyone came together, even the black political activists that had so much hate.

Current Event 3:Gunshots heard in Haitian tent city

this article was about how gunshots were heard in the presidential palace in Haiti, and it was the most serious confrontation since the infamous quake. Thousands of Haitians have been left homeless and living in tents since January 12Th. Demonstrators lit the tents on fire, and earlier in the day they were protesting the governments inaction to the aftermath of the quake.

this article is of global importance because since Haiti is the most impoverished place on the western hemisphere, and the fact that there has been no action to improve the conditions is plain inhumane. but there is no reason to light a tent city of innocent civilians on fire. there needs to be a specific course of action to get Haiti back on their feet.

Current Event 2:Thaksin facing Thai terrorism charges

this article is about how a Thai court issued a warrant on Tuesday against the countries prime minister. he was charged with terrorism chargers with the Bangkok clashes and helped fund and plan the anti-government red shirt protests. he said that it was the government's responsibility to find and prosecute the people responsible for these attacks. Thailand's government has imposed a curfew in 23 countries for the next four days.

this article is of global importance because if a prime minister would commit these attacks, and then try to cover them up as if he was not responsible is morally wrong on SO many levels. And if he gets away with these charges, who knows what the world is coming to. If they do not set an example and put a stop to this, there could be a major fall out to the world.

Current Event 1:North Korea freezes relations with South Korea

this article is about north Korea making a statement that it was severing all ties with south Korea. A spokesman for north Korean committee for the peaceful reunification of Korea accused the south Korean president for blaming Pyongyang for the south Korean warship sinking. South Korea had already announced their suspension of trade with north Korea, making their relationship tenser than ever.

this article is of global importance because if south Korea and north Korea sever all ties, the consequences and fall out could be lethal, possibly even the next world war III. President Obama is working with the south Korean government to make sure that they are properly armed in case of an attack.

african map reflection

I believe that my groups preformance was excellent. considering that portugal took a majority of the land that we wanted, we were able to make ajustments accordingly. And, we took the land that fit the requirements as well as benifiting raw materials and farming. I think that great britian won, and italy lost because although they got land, it was unbenefical. Portugal went first and italy went last.

as for the real berlin conference it was different than expected. compared to the map we made it was much different for the way that it was carved up. but i believe that it was unfair that the africans had no say even though it was their land.

the scramble for africa responce

what this means is that there was such a high priority for raw materials and slaves in Africa, that all of the European were trying to get control of the country. there was almost like a competition to see which country can get the most land. it was traditionally chaos and disorganization throughout Africa.

African rainforest folklore:the spirit

this story is about a boy who goes into the jungle to kill an elephant to prove himself to his tribe. once he kills the elephant he realizes that he is still hungry and kills a little boy who is walking with a spirit, although he does not realize that its a little boy until he ate him. when the spirit came looking for the little boy, and when she found him dead she screamed. the people in the village heard this so they found the spirit, cut her up, and put her in the forest.

a big part of what made this story entertaining is that it had a lot of action in it, and it seemed as if there was always something going on.

this story talked about African culture mostly because of the spirit in the rain forest, but the culture also changed when it talked about guns because it represented the European imperialism.

i think you could apply this story to life because it seems as if its every person for themselves. the boy who was hunting ate the child because he was hungry, and even though it was an act of cannibalism.

Current Event 3:Schools in China prepare for copycat attacks

this article is about how schools in china are intensifying security after another violent attack on teachers and students. there were a series of copycat attacks and children were hospitilized and three 4-year-olds were in critical condition. police say thar teaching saftey awareness in schools is the best thing that they can do. Officals have tightned security by hiring guards to escort students from class. and teachers, parents, and students are reciving counciling to deal with the trauma.

this article is of global importance because they need to put a stop to this ongoing issue of attacks on innocent children.

Current Event 3

Current Event 2: Palestinian Authority blocks sale of goods made at Israeli settlements

this article is about the palestinians trying to get their dependence off of israeli west bank settlements. President Mahmoud Abbas signed a law banning buying israel made products in the west bank. anyone who was caught buying these products would be subject to fines and imprisonment. this movement will hopefully grow palestininan settlements, and make the more legitament.

this article is of global importance because it is the first step in the ligitament independence of the palestinians. this law could possibly be a stepping stone in a resolution in the palestinian/israeli conflict. because although it seems negative now, it could be a positive thing later.

Current Event 1: Italy investigates report baby lived through abortion

this article is about a baby in italy that survived an abortion and lived an entire day at twenty-two weeks. A normal pregnancy lasts 40 weeks, so this baby was half way through which is not only morally wrong, but illegal. in italian law, a woman can only have an abortion over twenty weeks if the baby has physical or mental defects.

this article is of global importance because although it is a moral issue, and that is just cruel. A bishop in italy saw that the newborn was still breathing, he took the child to a hospital, but it had died three hours after. "The health ministry's own investigation will start Monday to determine if abortion law was breached, and will take the findings of the other two probes into account, the ministry representative said."

things i never knew about africa

one thing that i learned was that in Aswan in northern nubia the abu simbel temples along the west bank of the nile were carved of the pharoh Ramses II. and every february and october 22nd, at sunrise light penetrates these statues and illumanates them. also, Jebel Barkal was the capital and spiritual center of the ancient black kingdoms of the Nile for nearly a millenium. the great pyrimids of giza were built in the 4th century dynasty (4,600 years ago). the swahili people make up .5 million, and live in settlements along east african coast; the people have arab and asian culture. Voudo is the only traditional african religion that has survived in the new world. Vodou is monotheistic religion, which recognizes a single and supreme spiritual entity, and ossession, an important dimension of Vodou worship, is among the least understood aspects of the religion.

Africa...what do i know?

the first things that come to my mind about Africa are poverty, genocide, imperialism, unstable government, rebels, Sudan, Darfur, child soldiers, culture. these things come to my mind because Africa is a very unstable place with horrible things going on.

Obsession responce

• as they are showing all of these attacks all over the world, i cant understand how people can do this to other people.
• these jihads and hatred are happening everywhere, and that it is only a certain strain of Islam is radical,
• and not all Muslims are bad. so the majority of Muslims are also victims.
• 10-15% support terrorism groups.

• Islam is life
• jihad is a religious holy war for Allah
• kids are saying jihads poems
• jihad against other religions (in Islamic textbooks)
• wants to carry out executions of anyone who is a threat to Islam. powerful word
• jihad means self struggle (struggle with the west)

• main theme in Arab media is hatred/hostility to west
• demoralized Jews and the west (Arab/islamist propaganda)
• US blamed themselves for 9/11; real problem is duty to do jihad
• purpose of islamist propaganda is to make people hate the west so they will fight against them
• Palestinians had positive reaction to 9/11, many middle east had happy response to 9/11

• a lot of deception when it comes to spreading terrorism
• if you live in a Muslim land, and your not Muslim you can kill people
• BRAINWASHING!
• they are here, a threat to Europe. growing minority

• people don't see that Islamic fundamentalism is a global problem
• people deny that there is a terrorist threat
• the press should be alarming the people instead of looking the other way, history is repeating itself

• jihads resemble Hitler Germany
• learning from Nazi Germany, becoming the same but worse
• brainwashing little kids just like Hitler did
• media has outright lies against the west and Israel
• had Muslims in Hitler Germany because they had the same goal

• they want to destroy western civilization because they think they are superior
• they want to "islamize" the world and control the earth

• there is still hope to Muslims who do not believe that this is right
• the west should not generalize all Muslims because all Muslims do nor believe this
• in every generation there is freedom
• "the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil...is for good men to do nothing"-Edmond Burke

The Taliban Responce

No, i do not believe that the taliban can be defeated on Afghan land. because we have not taken the nesasary recon needed to know the terrain, and they are already very week because of the unstable terroristic government that they have known for so long. what needs to happen is for the afghani people to rise up, and give up osama bin laden, and get rid of the war on terror. the united states as a country cannot, but with the assistance of afghani forces it could be a stronger possibility.

Why bush went to war responce

I agree with this article. the three main reasons in this article why bush went to war are oil, Israel and military intelligence. This article talks about how going to war was more planned than people thought, and that there were possible ulterior motives behind it. Even though this article is clearly bias, each of these points have precedent and are each valid. the one i believe is why we went to war is because of oil.

We went to war because of oil. It is something that over the years the united states has become more and more dependent on. We thought if we could come into Iraq and overrule, we could obtain oil, and as said in the article comparing this to pearl harbor; all that was needed was a reason to invade, and 9/11 was that reason. Oil is a very controversial topic, and whoever has control has power, and the united states needed oil to feed their growing dependency.

oil responce

i think with the crisis of foreign oil, we should start wining ourselves off of it. because the middle east has so much control over oil, they can price it at whatever they want if they are not completely content. so it is basically blackmail. i think we should start to change our lifestyle like Italy did, and use other modes of transportation.

i think that water is a bigger issue is water because you need water to survive. without water there will be utter chaos and anarch, and the issue of oil will be long forgotten. in order to take water to pump oil, you need alot of water, and that water could probably be used someplace else so we as a world are not so water stressed.

True life responce: Julia

I chose Julia, because i thought that she was the most interesting. she was also closest in age with me, so that made her more relateable. I admire the progress she has made with her youth group. it also shows that there isn't hate everywhere. Julia has tried efforts to bring together Palestinian and Jewish people, and at least within her youth group she has succeeded. i honestly cannot believe how different her life is compared to mine. i don't think i could handle waking up one day to find that some of my friends have been killed in a bombing, and later having to take the same bus. the most complicated thing in my life is trying to finish all of my homework or having drama with friends. i am very fortunate where nothing in my life compares to hers.

2 Israeli soldiers, 2 Palestinian militants killed in clashes

this article is about after seeing terrorists planting explosives the IDF opened fire and killed two Israeli soldiers, and two Palestinian soldiers.

this article is of global importance because it shows that if they will open fire that quickly it will be very easy to start world war III if these conflicts are not resolved peacefully.

Report: South Korean navy ship sinks

this article is about how a south Korean ship sank in the yellow sea near north Korea yesterday. The president of south Korea wants an investigation and wants "all possibilities" checked.

this article is of global importance because if indeed north korea hit this ship, it could possibly be the one thing that starts a war between them.

At least 32 die in Iraq market blasts

this article is about two bomb explosions killing 32 people. a roadside bomb went off outside a marketplace and woman and children were also part of the killed and wounded. Also, atleast six shops were damaged.

this article is of global importance because it shows how terrorism is never going to let up in iraq. there will still be bombs going off because someone isnt happy with how things are going and we need to fix that. it is doing more harm than good to innocent civilians.

Arab Nationalism Sheet Responce

I think the topic has lead to Arab nationalism really because of European imperialism. because the Europeans messed everything and never left, it bread hatred towards them. The common factor is westernization, and by taking away Islamic culture, the Muslims did not like that which made them not like the west and any ideas that they came up with.

Out of the three i think that they are really all intertwined. So really they are all important. But imperialism is the start of all of it because they came in and changed everything, therefore forcing them to westernize. I don't think that Zionism has the most conflict because although it is an issue, it is not the main one. Zionism is when Israel wants a homeland. even though it breeds conflict it is not as important as imperialism or westernization since Muslim extremists hate anything western

Veil responce

i don't really understand what the big deal is about this veil thing. it is apart of Islamic culture, and although it is not specifically in the bible, people should be able to wear it how they want. in this culture people have so little rights, that they should at least have this one. in both articles, How i came to love the veil and Does Islam require the veil, overall the main problems are how people would react. people in the western powers see people in veils and might be freaked out by it and possibly think that they are terrorists or something. So overall, i believe that people should be able to wear the veil if they want to they should be able to, they just need to be able to take the consequences that comes with it.

Article Responce

no i really don't think that the journalist is right. first of all, what gives him the right to generalize this country saying when we are only christian when that is just not the case. And so what if our country has different religions and if we are secular. none of that should even matter and that was completely off base in my opinion.

i think that Bin laden's claims were quite scary. he sees the united states as an enemy because religion is not out number one priority and compares 9/11 to Muhammad breaking down polytheism. No i do not think that his claims are justified.

Article Responce

I think that the Jews deserve the holy land. They were there first and were forced out of their homeland and they should be able to get it back. They also built the extremely holy city of Jerusalem, which is very important to all three religions. Without this city, at least for the other two religions, they might not have progressed as far as they did. But for the Jews, it is apart of them. When they pray they face Jerusalem, and they deserve to have what’s rightfully theirs.

Tajikistan Votes Under President's Watchful Eye

this article is about how tajikistan is holding elections, but the people holding them are keeping more of an eye on who exactly people vote for. 

this article is of global importance because if people in countries are so controlled by their own governments that they dont even have the right to actually vote for the person you want to run your counrty is a very shocking thing.

U.N. presses for more investigations into Israel-Gaza war

this article talks about the Israeli Palestinian war that has been going on. the UN has tried many things to appease both Israel and Palestine but it seems like nothing is working. there is much tension between them, and it seems as if there isn't much that they can do. its more a question of when and what is gonna make this tension act out as a civil war. 

this article is of global importance because of the ongoing conflicts between these two countries in this region. the main region this is of global importance because if one country makes another one angry enough they could strike, and set off world war three.

Death toll in Chile earthquake passes 700

This article is about the devastating earthquake in Chile, with a magnitude of 8.8. This is one of the hardest hit regions and it is an unthinkable catastrophe. just as we are trying to aid relief in Haiti, now another part of the world is in tragedy. They have accepted a lot of offers for international relief aid and they have finally reopened some airports for private plains.

This article is of global importance because for one it is a frantic search to find love ones, but it also seems that the world as a whole has just been suffering one natural disaster after another, and the united states as a world power seems to be stretching itself thin helping one country after another.

What is the biggest issue in the middle east and why?

I think currently the biggest issue in the middle east currently is the new found knowlege of iran becoming a nuclear state. this is the biggest conflict because al-queda is a very big threat, and although if iran were to acsess those nuclear weapons they would not directly bomb the united states, but they would bomb people that the united states that are affiliated with them. such as israel, and if they were to bomb it, it could possibly start world war three. also, if iran was to give terrorist's acsess to these weapons, there is really nothing good that would come of that.

The middle east

The middle east could be defined in many ways, but the most common are geographically and religiously. There is such a melting pot of middle eastern culture that dates back thousands of years. Also, it is the birthplace of many religions such as Islam, Christianity and Judaism. I think that there has been a lot of conflict in this region for thousands of years because of the high value on oil, and religious land.

Why was Gandhi able to overcome british imperialism?

He had overcome British imperialism by first not fighting back when assaulted. In south Africa he protested how they should burn government passes because if the British preach liberty but they don't allow them to really live, and that was unfair. By uniting India he would be able to fight against the British, but he would need to have to unite three polar opposite groups. By doing this it helps him overcome British imperialism. He was also able to overcome imperialism by identifying with the lower class Indians by dressing like them. In his speech he was able to sway the masses and abolishing untouchability and burn every British cloth. Every time he is thrown in jail he fasts so his body is different, and if he dies in jail the British look bad so they let him out early. during the salt march, by the British ignoring, laughing, fighting, and losing Gandhi was able to overcome this Independence by using civil resistance and the idea of being in control. Also, even when Gandhi is put in prison the movements still go on, meaning that he has raised awareness. that is also why the reporter who is American is there.

I think that Gandhi did enjoy it because he got to unite a nation, but once Pakistan was created it seemed as if everything that he had worked for had just gone away even though he overcame British tyranny. This created a civil war which was or good so it started off as an amazing thing, but it ended up being very bad. If Gandhi would have lived, i still think that there still would have been problems because the only thing that united them was that one common goal of overcoming British tyranny and imperialists. Once that goal was reached there was no reason for them to be united anymore. I think that there might be a brief peace in the fighting but people never forget where they came from and in this case, both Hindus and Muslims are enemies. And when Gandhi was shot that proved that people could never be completely unified.

Social Injustice Responce

The one that i would pick is number two because if the majority does not want to be oppressed then you should do what you can to abolish or amend that law. It is better than the other two because there is just a point in time where people cannot take it anymore and they need someone to step up and lead them to a rebellion. For example, with Gandhi in India, he saw the horrible oppression going on in India and he finally stepped up and lead the Indian people to overtake the British.

State of the union address

In president Bush's state of the union, he talks more about the military and President Obama talks about our country, and it's domestic problems. but if you look at them...there are a lot of identical words used. it seems that we as a country have not come very far as shown through these speeches. as presidents, they want to try to fix the world, but obviously they can not. it actually very frustrating to see when people make impossible promises and do not deliver, but i guess that is just the work of every politician. I also think that this year is not going to be an optimistic one. even though the economy is getting better there is still an abundance of problems facing this country and the world. and when the President says that he's going to do something and he hasn't done anything. So when the two speeches are almost identical, it definitely shows that the country has a lot of work to do in overcoming these obstacles and actually accomplishing things.