Alvin's Global Blog

Nelson Mandela and Apartheid

2010-05-12T08:31:00.000-07:00

Apartheid is a racial segregation policy in the government of South Africa from 1948 to 1994. That meant that sometimes black people werent even allowed to vote at the time. Nelson Mandela was a fighter. Instead of bowing down to this unjust system of government, he became a lifelong warrior in the battle to free South Africa. That is why he was considered a hero during that time period with the Apartheid.

African Independence

2010-05-12T08:27:00.000-07:00

After the fall of Germany in World War 2, the European Nations that had once imperialised Africa wanted to bring democracy and government to them. The Africans where still being treated differently. They werent even allowed to vote, and the Europeans were racist. Even though the Africans got there independence they still were not civilized. Africa mainly gained their independence by the late 1990's.

Film Lesson : "The Right Stuff"

2010-04-14T08:25:00.000-07:00

During the film the US and the USSR were competing against each other. They were competing to have a space program. In the beginning the Russians were winning to get the space program against them. They had the first satellite in space which was called the "Sputnik". The first man in space was also from Russia as well. The United States were the first ones to go to the moon and plant the US flag on it. All the US sent was a monkey to space after Russia sent a human. During the Cold War the United States showed how they didn't want Russia to know what they were doing. When the guy broke the sound barrier the United States didn't want Russia to know as well that it had happened.

NATO and The Warsaw Pact

2010-04-12T08:19:00.000-07:00

NATO- is an organization of people in the countries in Europe and North America. The reason why they did that was to make an alliance system. They wanted that so if one country attacked any of the ones in the NATO organization they would all help them fight back together. So its practically like if it was countries ganging up together just incase another country wants to fight against them. Now that Europe and North America were together they have a better chance of fighting together than by them selves. That is one reason why they did the NATO and what it is. All of this had happened during the Cold War in 1947.

The Warsaw Pact- was mostly the Soviet Union and its satellite countries. That was supposed to be another alliance system like the North Atlantic Treaty, but it was made to a response towards it. The Soviet Union attacked Czechoslovakia in 1956. They also took military action against Hungary. Both of these were members of the Warsaw Pact. East Germany decided the leave The Warsaw Pact and join the West Germany to become a reunified Germany in 1990. That is what The Warsaw Pact was and what had happened during that time period.

Film Lesson: "Night and Fog"

2010-03-25T08:07:00.000-07:00

Night and Fog was a very good documentary. In the documentary they showed a lot of the same things that they showed us in Schindler's List. Some of the things was like the gas chambers and the showers that they had for the Jews in Germany. All of those things was all to get rid of them and kill them. I believe that the hollywood movie showed more details than the documentary because they showed us the actual killing of the people. Its like if we were actually there seeing all of that happen and all those people dying every second.

Film Lesson: "Schindler's List"

2010-03-24T08:06:00.000-07:00

The movie "Schindler's List" illustrated the holocaust and everything that had happened at that time with the Nazis and the Jews in Germany. There are many scenes that are how it had happened back in the day with the Nazis and the Jews getting killed. In the movie some parts were very brutal how they killed all those people for no reason just because of there religion. Schindler's List has a lot of imagery because I can still picture some of the things that happened in the movie. Between 1933 and 1945, Nazi Germany established about 20,000 camps to imprison and kill the Jews. That was one of the things that were most powerful to me watching all of that happen. The Jews were either killed at the moment or slowly and painful in the camps that they made. They were barely even fed and when they got food it was a piece of bread the size of your thumb. That meant that a lot of those people died from starvation in those camps just because they didn't have enough money to feed them so they rather just let them all die and suffer. One of the images that stayed in my mind was when all the dead people were being pushed and thrown with the bulldozer. That machine is used to push dirt and it was being used to push the human bodies that were laying dead. I think that "Schindler's List" was more powerful to me than " Night and Fog". One reason is because in "Schindler's List" they show more details of how they were being killed, especially when they get shot in the head. They show all those graphical images that you wont forget once you see it.

Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) and the Modernization of Turkey

2010-02-24T08:25:00.000-08:00

Mustaga Kemal was born in 1881 in Salonika (Thessaloniki), Ottoman Empire. He is known as the father of modern Turkey. He was a military and political leader who transformed Turkey. He changed and modernized Turkey and made it more secular. He had many achievements during that period of time. He was the president for 15 years and he died in 1938. He introduced abroad range of swift and sweeping reforms in the political, social, legal, economic, andcultural spheres - virtually unparalleled in any other country. One thing that he said about the clothing is that instead of the people wearing regular hats they should wear a "fez". That is a hat that does not have a grim so when they pray and kneel down it wont knock off the hat. Secular is pertaining to worldly things or to things that are not regarded as religious, spiritual, or sacred; temporal: secular interests.

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2010-02-03T08:15:00.001-08:00

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