Prisoner of Her Past PowerPoint

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Research Question

The Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe during the Cold War brought censorship to many countries.  But was this suppression of freedom effective? What was the motive to bring this censorship?  Did the motive of the Soviets prove to work, in other words, did the Soviets achieve what they wanted from the censorship?


To find out what I am going to need, I am going to have to research different topics concerning the Soviet Union and their goals of the occupation of Eastern Europe.  Then I am going to look specifically into two main examples of the occupation in which there was a social revolt, one in Czechoslovakia and one in Hungary.  Once I have specifically introduced these events, I am going to show that the Soviet Union failed with their censorship of radio, news, etc., and how the that freedom of speech is essentially an unstoppable force that people demand.

Human Rights Ideas

How US Senatorial Failures have caused Human Rights Violation
http://www.suite101.com/human-rights-violations
http://www.suite101.com/content/congressional-senatorial-failure-a26186
or
Soviet Occupation of Czechoslovakia and Eastern Europe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_Spring

I am probably going to propose how the Soviet Union affected Eastern Europe during their occupancy and how there were numerous human rights violations, not necessarily major violations, but violations nonetheless.

Test Embed

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MAUS II First Half

After the discussion, I feel that so far in the reading that most of my questions have been answered to some extent.  The primary thing that I am still unsure of is how Vladek felt guilty after Auschwitz as described by Art's therapist.  This, I hope, would bring a better understanding to the character of Vladek when he talks with his son, not only about the Holocaust, but also concerning life in general.

Article Review

http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2010/oct/01/uganda-un-war-crimes-congo
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/24/congo-crimes-un

The main issue that I am finding is how the UN is dealing with the Rwanda genocide issue and the war crimes that occurred in the Congo from 1993-2003.  In one of these articles, the failures of the UN are harshly criticized and in the other, Uganda had joined Rwanda and Burundi in attacking the UN for the accusation of the war crimes in the Congo.  In both of these articles, it appears that UN is failing to do its job.  There was a serious genocide that occurred and there still has been nothing serious dealt with by the United Nations.  This just brings the question that is the UN doing right?  Concerning the the defenders, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi, why are they so desperately trying to defend themselves from the UN accusations if the genocides happened because of the countries?

KLG Quotes

King Leopold II:
"What mattered [to Leopold] was the size of the profit.  His drive for colonies, however, was shaped by a desire not only for money but for power.

Henry Morton Stanley:

"he drove himself almost as hard as he did his men; on the journey he lost more than sixty pounds."

Response to Pages 1-32

Questions:
Of the reasons Europeans went into Africa, which was the most important?

How did Stanley's childhood effect his work later in his life? 

For me the first 32 pages were kind of a disappointment.  I was expecting information on King Leopold and was sort of things happened in the Congo during his reign.  Instead, the introduction, prologue, and first chapter all served as possible set up.  Even though the information presented in those first few sections might be relevant, it was not what I thought the story would be.  Even though Stanley as a person is very interesting, I myself did not find him to be as connected as I would have preconceived.  I would have anticipated something concerning an almost physical struggle with Leopold or something of that nature, but it is what it is.  And I have to applaud Stanley for what he had done.  His mother bringing shame to him, while he makes something of himself in great magnitude.  Wonderful

End of Class Response

In class, I am eager to learn more about is the Berlin conference.  I do not know if we will be doing more with this, but I am curious to know which countries were involved.  How was Africa divided up?  Which countries were in attendance?  It is just the one thing that stood out to me.

In-Class Activity: Current Events Practice

1. What's being discussed in this article?
     In the article, the topic of building a large Islamic mosque in New York is being debated.  On one side of the article is the view of those who do not want the mosque because it is too close to Ground Zero.  However, on the other side, there are Muslim people who are arguing that the mosque should be there because there should be a separation between church and state, and because they say that Americans hate Muslims.  And because of the controversy, especially after 9/11, the building of a mosque that close to Ground Zero is a very sensitive subject.

2. When did the event happen? (Is this breaking news or something that's been analyzed and discussed for a while?)

     This specific event has only just arose, but the entire American-Muslim conflict has been continuing since 9/11.  I believe that this one event concerning both sides is just another battle in the continuous saga that is this conflict.

3. What questions do you have that would help make this article make more sense to you? What more do you need to learn about to be able to report on this event?

If there were any questions that I had, it would be how does this article relate to the conflict between Israel and the Muslims, which it seems to bring up a few times.  So, this means that more about the conflict between these two different groups would help put into context the important issue that is building a mosque and where.

Me
9-11
It was a September morning.  I thought that it was going to be just a regular day, but I was definitely wrong.  After it happened, all of us students were brought together.  I was very difficult for us to understand why someone would do this; it seemed like the teachers were also very uncomfortable.  But remembering back to that time, it seems that there was much more hype afterwards.  Was the government involved?  Was there a bigger conspiracy?  The point is this was an important news story in my life because thousands of innocent people were killed because a group of terrorists were mad at this country.


Election 2008
With months of anticipation, all I heard was "change, change, change."  The November day finally came; it was clear that we would have the first African American president.  This, to me, was the story.  Even though I believe that his policies have not worked out, and his approval rating are falling.  He was the first to break the color barrier in the White House.  Even though he is arguably not the best president, he is the first and only African American president.


Steelers won two Super Bowls
There is was; I was actually there.  In Detroit, I saw the Steelers and the Seahawks battle it out for Super Bowl XL.  It was loud; it was yellow, and the Steelers had one.  Finally, after all of my life of rooting and cheering the team that I had rooted for won.  A few years later, it happened again.  Even though I was not there, I was watching the whole game, and when Holmes made that catch, my house went crazy.  Perhaps the most memorable moments of my entire life came from those two days in February.

Dad
Man on the Moon
It was the first mission of this magnitude ever commenced, and to this day, it has rarely been repeated.  It was an achievement for both man and science.  It was July 20, 1969.  The perhaps most important event in the history of mankind.  We as humans were able to walk on other surfaces, and explore places unknown.  This one event should help pave the way for more interplanetary travel and exploration.
9-11
 That one September morning changed everything.  In one day, it was gone, those two towers were gone, and our sense of safety and superiority were gone.  The effect that the one event had set things into perspective.  We were all now scared; we did not have a sense of being king anymore.  Our sense of hope almost all but shut down.  We needed a bounce back, and that is what happened.  We as a country were able to come back and work ourselves up once more.

Bears won Super Bowl
After 21 years of waiting, it happened.  It was the first team he started rooting for:  The Chicago Bears.  After many many years of waiting, the Bears won the Super Bowl in blow-out fashion.  The Patriots did not stand a chance against Dikta and the Bears.  The parade in the streets afterwards were perhaps even more amazing rushing through the streets of Chicago chanting for the Bears.  Event the Super Bowl Shuffle was a great part of the win.  So, when the Bears finally won, my dad and along with the entire city of Chicago was ecstatic with joy.