'The Blue Marble'

"The Lorax" by Dr Seuss is a fictional story, essentially about a Once-ler who decides to open up a small business cutting down Truffula trees and making products called Thneeds out of them. The Lorax tries to persuade the Once-ler to not continue with his business, but the Once-ler ignores the Lorax's warning. But eventually the small business turns into a factory. The destruction of Truffula trees means that a native animal must move away as they have no food source. The pollution from the factory also causes more native animals to flee. In the end, the Once-ler chops down the last tree and his business is forced to close down. Years later , a boy is then given the last Trufulla seed so that the boy can plant and potentially revive the Truffula tree population.

Even though "The Lorax" is aimed at children, there are many messages in the book that can be related to problems in the real world. I believe that the book could be foreshadowing what could happen to our world if we continue to neglect and mistreat our planet like what happened in the book, as the events happening in the book could be compared to events happening in the real world, such as dumping waste products in to rivers, deforestation and releasing pollutants into the atmosphere. I believe that the Earth is worth fighting for.

The Earth is worth fighting for because we depend on a lot of nature in order to survive. It gives us the oxygen that we breathe and without oxygen a majority of life on Earth today, would be nonexistent. Our planet gives us energy and resources which is extremely important, as without the natural energy and resources, we would not be able to do many of the tasks we do in everyday life today. Nature also starts off the food chain which we depend on to survive as it provides us with a source of food. Besides needing Earth to survive, a world without nature would be nothing more than urbanized land. It is also important to remember to keep a balance with nature, meaning that if we choose to have urbanized areas we also need to have natural land as well.

It is important to respect the Earth as it is where we as people make our homes. It is important to preserve nature as it is also the home of many other things that live on this planet and many generations to come. Nature and Earth isn't just where humans live, and it's important to respect that. After all, we as people have caused all these problems on the planet, so shouldn't it be our responsibility to find the solutions?

Equality - Paving the Way Towards Utopia

"Men are created equal, it is only men themselves who place themselves above equality." - David Allan Coe

Equality is the state of equal freedom, rights, opportunities and treatment. Had I the opportunity to create a new society and could only choose one characteristic that this society would follow, I would choose equality.

With equality comes equal and mutual respect and treatment of others. When disputes within this society occur, it would be solved through collaboration and consensus rather than violence and hostile behavior. Equal opportunities, would mean that the social hierarchy would not be as radical as the hierarchy in place today, meaning that there would be no exceedingly poor or rich compared to the rest of society. Equal rights and freedom would place no individual or group above the laws and norms established. 

Equality is important as it leads to a more efficient society that can handle problems much easier. A society with equality as a primary principle will be able to find solutions towards problems much faster than a society which argues and fights over everything. 

The Night of Broken Glass

On the nights of November 9th and 10th, 1938, a series of attacks took place throughout Germany and in some parts of Austria called Kristallnacht. The attacks targeted Jewish property, synagogues, the Jews themselves and practically anything the Jewish people owned. On November 10th, Joseph Goebbels the current Reich Minister of Propaganda at that time called of the pogrom. The events were called Kristallnacht, which literally means 'crystal night', because of all the shattered glass left on the streets the following days. German estimates say that fewer than 100 were killed and that 30000 were arrested and taken to concentration camps. On top of the destruction of Jewish property, the Jews were made to pay 6 million Reichmarks as the Nazis argued that the Jews actually caused it.

The Kristallnacht attacks took place in response to the assassination of Ernst vom Rath by a 17 year old Jew. But the aggression that took place probably would not have been so strong were it not for the propaganda released by the Nazi Party. The propaganda was used to shape every German citizen to believe what Hitler believed, and that was that Jews were the enemy. Hitler also targeted propaganda towards children as he knew that it would be a member of the youth in Germany that would grow to become the next Fuhrer. He wanted the future-Fuhrer to teach what Hitler instilled into Germany’s people to the Nazis of the future.

I’m surprised that so many people would change their opinions on Jewish people so radically as Germany was not particularly an anti-Semitist nation before the Nazi Party came to power. Other people did not agree particularly with the Nazis but they still did not do anything about it and just chose to accept what was going on, in turn, becoming a bystander. If it were me in that same situation, I would probably also choose to be a bystander.

What's a Learning Profile?

I found that I'm a Learning Profile C. A Learning Profile explains what kind of learner you are and can be found by taking some simple tests to find your dominant eye, ear, hand and leg. Then you must decide whether you are a more logical or a more gestalt person. If you're a more logical person, you would think of 'pieces of a picture' and if you are gestalt dominant you look at the 'whole picture.'

Being a Profile C, I am logic dominant and I learn best by focusing on pieces of information I can hear. With my right ear being dominant I can take in pieces of information best when my right ear can be easily used, meaning I would have to sit on the left side of the speaker or where the sound is coming from. I process and learn a piece of information best by explaining it again or writing. My left eye scans from right to left and I sometimes possess a difficulty reading languages that go from left to right, like English. I find this true as sometimes while I'm reading, I might get confused about a sentence and read it multiple times. A good way to work around this problem is to reverse the direction of which I'm reading and scan a sentence from right to left. While under stress I am limited in the ability to take in a lot of information visually. I would like my teachers to know that I prefer a well-structured and organized lesson in order to keep things simple and easier to understand for me.

Aung San Suu Kyi

Aung San Suu Kyi, a pro democracy leader in Burma, was recently released from 15 years of house arrest. During her time as a pro democracy leader, she has made many sacrifices and faced many tough decisions to help Burma. I can't imagine having to make as difficult decisions as she has. During her house arrest she could not see her sons grow up. During a brief release of her incarceration her husband was dying and she had to make a difficult decision to stay in Burma or visit her husband. The government of Burma said that if she left the country she would not be able to return and they would not let her husband visit her. Her husband also said that he didn't want his life to interfere with Aung San Suu Kyi's political buisness. She decided to stay in Burma to continue to help her country and I think that this is her biggest sacrifice. Still after going through house arrest and all her sacrifices she says that it's only house arrest and she didn't get the worst punishment like others. She says she hasn't sacrificed anything because everything she has done has been a choice. I think this ties into this year's theme of Heroes and Journeys because there's no doubt in my opinion that Aung San Suu Kyi is a heroine to many.

The picture above shows Aung San Suu Kyi talking to a streetful of her followers.

Reference: http://mthago.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/aung-san-suu-kyi.jpg

Identities

Jesus Colon, a black Puerto Rican, was in a train when he saw a woman and her children. He questioned whether he should help because he knew that she was struggling and courtesy was a big thing for Puerto Ricans. He thought about what would happen if he did offer help, he thought whether that woman was prejudiced. Jesus arrived at his destination and he just rushed past her. As he walked out of the station he regretted his decision, thinking, what if the woman was not was not what he thought she was. He regrets that day when he placed that label on that woman thinking that she was prejudiced because he failed to stick to his rule of courtesy and let down that woman. That day was also a turning point in Colon's life as he promised that he would help anyone regardless of how they would take this help. I'm not sure whether his decision was right or wrong as it would depend on whether that woman was prejudiced or not. If that woman was prejudiced and she accused him of something he could have gotten into serious trouble because there was heavy racism in the United States.

James Berry's poem "What Do We Do with a Variation", gives some possible responses to someone with a variation. The lines, "Do we shut our eyes to it" and "Do we move around it in rage and enlist the rage of others", links to Armin Greder's "The Island" because the village people tried to move the foreigner as far away as possible, trying to "shut their eyes to it", but when the foreigner came back to their village they got angry, the only exception being the fisherman who tried to help the foreigner. Colon's story also connects with this poem, "Do we shut our eyes to it" because Jesus Colon tried to shut his eyes from the woman on the train.

'A part of the main'

"No Man is and Island", a poem by John Donne, is about Donne's view on people. I think the most significant parts of the poem are these lines: "Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less", In this part of the poem, Donne says that everybody is important and a part of something bigger. Then going on to say that if someone died, mankind would be less.

"Mankind is no Island" is an award-winning short film by Jason van Genderen. The video shows its messages through a phone's camera using words found around the streets of New York City and Sydney. Tho most important parts of "Mankind is no Island", in my opinion is the ignorance to the homeless and how passers by don't even pass a glance, much less give a donation to someone who needs that kind of help. However, towards the end of the video people stop to take notice to the homeless by talking to them; a simple gesture that could change the way someone felt for the rest of the day. People fortunate enough might take such a gesture as talking for granted but for someone like a homeless person, it could cheer them up.

Both "No Man is and Island" and "Mankind is no Island" play on the same ideas that all are important and no one deserves to be ignored. Though they both tried to deliver around about the same idea I found the video a bit more impacting as I find that a video is more expressive than text. I find that both John Donne and Jason van Genderen are similar to other people we have studied like Aung San Suu Kyi and Fatmire Feka as Donne and van Genderen both have a belief and they are letting their opinions be heard one way or another.