Essential Question

In my other essential question post, i sought to answer these questions, "How do we help the world? Are we focused on the right problem? Is giving money the solution?"

I first saw this video in english class, it was posted by Afton. The video was about these three highschool boys who went to Africa, specifically the Sudan, in order to get to the bottom of the genocide and problems going on in the contry. The boys did it on their own free time and with their own money and on their own motivation. They documented the whole trip and it was very moving. The focus of their documentary was on the children of the Sudan, whose parents died of Aids or of other things. These children walk around every night trying to find somewhere to stay. They are trying to get away from the government rebels. Which are a group of men lead by a terrorist and they look for young male children to abduct and brainwash into doing the work of the rebels. From killing, to stealing and abducting other children. It is pretty insane that these kids have to go through so much at such a young age. These American boys go on their own time and with their own money. They were motivated enough to want to go. At the end of the video it says that they need our TIME! This was the first thing they wanted. So here is one way we can help the world! GIVE some TIME! I feel this is very important! The last was money, money is very essential but I do not think it is as affective as giving your time. Alot of American rations, as shown in the video, were provided due to monitary donations, so indeed money is very vital to giving to the world. There is so many creative ways we can give back, like this video which helps to spread knowledge about this crisis in the Sudan with these invisible children. Creativity was the second thing we could give. We need to be more open minded, we need to give creatively. All in all I think its fair to say we need to do something!

Lit Circle Reflection #2 "Judges"

This week in English class we were reading "Judges". We discussed alot in class as a group. It was a very interesting chapter.

Judges

-Ants Attack!
-Ants are hungry
-Looking for food and water
-There is drought
-Ants=Congolese
-Pg. 308 quote. Congolese people = Congo ants
-nsongnsya=Ants

-Rachel
-Congo is sucking life out of Rachel
-Tata Ndu wants to marry her
-Releive price family by taking Rachel
-believes she will entertain other wives
-Rachel pretends to be married to Axelroot.
-Rachel takes to Axelroot
-Rachel enjoys his company
-Rachel's mirror breaks
-symbolize transformation
-Rachel is doing more around the house
-Rachel's 2nd missed birthday.

-Adah
-No prominent change in Adah
-She is talking alot more to Nelson
-We learn of Baza, twins = Bad
-Adah is attacked by ants, wants to die.
-Ants attack pg.306

-Ruth-May
-Sick
-Does not take Malaria Pills
-She is ghostly
-Nelson says that the Owl has taken her soul
-After she gets better she is still ghostly
-She is not lively
-She is given the charm from Nelson to make her disappear

-Leah
-Leah is losing her religion
-She loses faith in her father
-She teaches with Anatole
-She has fallen in love with Anatole
-The two are to marry
-Anatole gives her a bow
-The kikongo people think she is very manly

Vocab
-Bangala=Poisonwood
-Baza=Twins
-Baptiza=Baptize

Lit Circle

“All my life I’ve tried to set my shoes squarely into his footprints, believing if only I stayed close enough to hiim those same clean, simple laws would rule my life as well. That the Lord would see my goodness and fill me with light. Yet with each passing day I find myself farther away. There’s a great holy war going on in my father’s mind, in which we’re meant to duck and run and obey orders and fight for all the right things, but I can’t always make out the orders or even tell which side I am on exactly. I’m not even allowed to carry a gun. I’m a girl. He has no inkling.” p. 244

This quote is from Leah. I think this is a very important quote because it shows how Leah and the rest of the family are drifting away from Nathan. I think this is very prominent because Leah is like Nathan reencarnated into a young girl. Leah also says how she always wanted to be just like her father, but now she, along with the rest of the family, find themself astray from Nathan and his teachings and his orders.

“I knew when I went down. Someone’s bare foot wsa on my calf and then my back, I was being trampled. A crush of feet on my chest. I rolled over again and again, covering my head with my arms. I found a my way to my elbows and raised myself up, grabbing with my strong left hand at legs that dragged me forward. Ants on my earlobes, my tongue, my eyelids. I heard myself crying out loud -- such a strange noise, as if it came from my hair and fingernails, and again and again I came up. Once I looked for my mother and saw her, far ahead. I followed, bent on my own rhythm. Curved into the permanentsong of my body: left...behind.” p.306

This quote is from Adah, she thoroughly describes her experience of the ant attack on her, her sisters and her mother. I think this maybe a symbol or foreshadow of things to come. It is a very good picture when we see all the ants all over her body and pulling her down.

Congo History

Congo History 1955-1966

Patrice Lumumba started being teh regional head of the Cercles of Stanleyville and helped to educate some of the people of the congo in 1955. He was arrested that year for ebezzlement of post office funds. He was released in July 1956 where after he founded teh non-tribal Mouvement National Congolais in 1958, which was a peaceful organization for people in the congo to protest. He was president. He also formed the All-African People's Conference that year as well.Congolese independence was established on June 30, 1960. The Belgians finally gave into the Congolese idea of independence. In 1960 Ptrice Lumumba gave his famous speech in front of the Congo, important Beligians, and King Baudouin. Patrice was elected to be prime minister, and his president would be a man named Kasavubu. Soon after in July Congolese soldiers mutinied and, along with civilian mobs, began raising hell, raping white foreiners, and destroying property. The UN's task force restored peace. Lumumba's reign was short lived as teh province of Katanga took independance from the congo with Belgian support. They were headed by a man named Moise Tshombe. In September, Lumumba was taken out of office by his fellow president Kasavubu. Lumumba tried to get back and take away Kasavubu's presidency. Kasavubu had Lumumba arrested, with help from a man named Joseph Mobutu who would later become dictator Mobutu. Lumuba was arrested in December of 1960 by Mobutu's troops. Mobutu's reasoning was that Lumumba would be tried for trying to lead an army to rebellion. Supposedly the U.N. try to tell Kasavubu to tread Lumumba according to due process of law. The U.N. and the Soviet Union fight over the release of Lumumba. In an attempt to apeal to local UN troops he was flown to Leopoldville and appeared beaten and humilliated infront of journalists and diplomats. The UN did not accquiest to his plea due to orders from New York. Lumumba was beaten again during a flight to Elizabethville on January 17, 1961. It was there that Lumumba was executed by command of Katangan authorities, in the presense of Belgian officials and president Tshombe. In 1964, UN announces that they are going to leave in the Congo that June but are annoyed by tribal rivalries revolting against government. In November of that year, armed government forces launced an offensive against the People's Republic of the Congo on the reasoning that they were being supported by communists, in particualr China. They threatened the rebel capital of Stanleyville. The rebel learder announced he had taken 60 americans and 800 Belgians as hostages. UN forces started a rescue force task and saved 2000 American and Belgian hostages. Some unlucky hostages were killed before aid could reach them.

Congo Events 2000-2007

Patrice Lumumba is still a very prominent figure in Congolese government. He is praised for his acheivements in gaining Congo's independence. He is immortalized on the 1 franc bill.

Essential Question

"Be ever mindful of your right to speak your mother tounge. Be ever mindful of your right to life and education. Be ever mindful of the lives once slain for your gain. Be ever mindful! Let them not have died in vain."

Tears, sweat, blood, flesh, stained the streets. Premature lives offered in the name of freedom dated June 16, 1976. On this day thousands of students self led a peaceful march against the white goverment and a passed law that they shall only speak english tounge in their schools. 10 Highschools in Soweto, South Africa, led a march to peacefully protest. They had enough of the white boundaries they were taught in school. They had enough of the restrictions they were forced to live with every day. So they decided to do something. Thousands of students marched. Thousands of them angry. Thousands of them were masacred. The black and white picture of the young man holding a little boy was printed all over the papers of the world. That little boy was Hector Peterson. He was 13 years old. He was the first of the children to be shot. No one knew Hector, but they planned on avenging his death. "And a child shall lead them."

They all marched and planned to meet in a designated spot. They did not make it there. They were stopped by white police officers who, unprovoked and without reason, open fire on the students. The students ran away. Angry, they came back, and they rose hell. The video tells of the mayhem that occured on that June 16. The mayhem caused by Highschool students who wanted to make a difference. Highschool students who learned the hard way that nothing is for free. Many of them were unarmed. They took up bricks and threw them. They burned government buildings, schools, police cars, everything. They wanted to be heard. Many of them died. Many as young as 8 years old. The movie "Sarafina", is about one of these Highschools whose students marched on that day. The movie shows you alot about what happened that day. What fueled the movement, and how they changed South Africa. I remember a part in the movie where they show the white police officers gathering hundreds of Highschool students into their prison for investigation. They wanted to know who started and who was leading the march. They tourchered and killed most of those kids. The walls of the prisons were covered in blood, bodies piled high. Broken promises of freedom, life and education.

We've talked alot in class about giving. It's quite evident that these deprived kids don't need whats in our hands, but our hands themselves. They needed our care, they needed our help. Money is good, but help is better. These Highschool students changed a their education system. Together they helped free South Africa. I am a Highschool student, we are Highschool students. What is our Potential? What can we change?

Essential Question

I have a new Essential Question,
"How do we help the world? Are we focused on the right problem? Is giving money the solution?"

There is more wrong with the world than poverty. There are things worse than poor people. Things worse than starvation. Things that have been prominent from the dawning of time. As old as Can and Able. Hate. War. Power. Greed. Why can't we give help? Why can't we as Americans share democracy with other countries? Why can't we share our freedoms with other countries of the world? Most don't want it. We'd just be forcing our way of life on other people. Just like Nathan Price. Plus who says we even want to give. Govenments don't want countries to have the same freedoms as we do. Why? Its makes for cheaper goods. More gold, diamonds, cheaper oil. Life is easier for us, we are richer. We could give money to those people in Africa, we could give money to people all over the world. But it seems to be a pattern that money flows to those with power. Those with power only want more power. Power in the form of weapons means death to those who don't have power. Thats most of the people in the world. I am against giving money away blindly. I, unlike singer, would much rather take myself to the problem and help myself. That takes alot more heart. That fills the heart. You have a human interaction. Give money to a corporation, thats all it is, you give money to the corporation. You give money to the kids you see on T.V., who are mostlikely dead when the money gets to them. If indeed the money even gets there. Helping the people in Rwanda, remember that? Or did everyone forget? How many died? Men, women, children. Hate is worse than poverty. We can give all the money in the world, but that didn't erase the age old rivalry and hating of two African tribes, won't help wars.

Here's a youtube video I found. I can't post it because it is very graphic and explicit. But thus is the world. Thus is America.
I don't recomend you watch this if you have a weak stomach. Or if vulgar language offends you.


http://youtube.com/watch?v=0P26mFohLzc

Imagine children younger than you who have to go through life this way everyday. Imagine a 12 year old African kid taken from his family, given an AK-47 and direction to kill anyone that he does not recognize. Imagine the psycological affect that would have on him. Imagine a whole tribe of these kids 20 years after the fact. Where is he now if he's not dead? Hate, and all the things that stem from hate will always be present in the world. Prejudice, Greed, Jealousy. Since the days of Jesus, and before. How do get rid of it. Take a good look at this video. How long ago do you think these tapes were. Obviously not that long ago, the video's in color. I'm guessing in the past 20 years. Imagine the atrocities that are occuring now. Wait until someone posts that on youtube, you can watch it in High Def. Open your eyes to the vast problems in the World and ask yourself. Is charity the answer? Or are we just running around in circles? I agree with Landon's post. The Deliver Me post, I the world doesn't need charity and sympathy, they need help.

Lit. Circle Reflection

During our Lit. circle my group have discussed a number of different things about the current chapter we've been reading about the Poison Wood Bible.

Our first main point was about Nathan Price.
Nathan Price
-selfish
-only wants things done his way
-is very stubborn
-will not listen to others
-believes his way of life is best
-wants others to live life the way he says
-he in a way creates his own bible in his house hold without knowing it
-he physically and emotionally beats his family
-he is inconciderate of his family, especially his wife

The second biggest point we talked about was Orleanna Price.
Orleanna Price
-very submissive, passive
-cannot stand up for herself
-coward
-is very obedient to Nathan
-she has her own ideas she is not able to share
-she is very scared
-she is very unstable
-she is not a good role model for her daughters

These are the two main things we talked about in our first Lit. Circle.