30 for 30

The story of South Africa's rugby team was a Cinderella type of story. South Africa just elected their first black president who spent 27 years in jail previously. The whites expected terrible punishments and did not like the look of how the country was changing. The blacks were mad for getting mistreated for years by the whites and it seemed like the two groups were in for a battle. However Nelson Mandela, the new president had different plans. He wanted to bring peace between the whites and the blacks and he did this with the sport of rugby. Nelson Mandela urged for the Rugby World Cup to be held in South Africa and they hosted the 1995 Rugby World Cup. Rugby was considered a white sport and there weren't blacks playing. Blacks enjoyed the whites getting hit hard by the opposing team and rooted for the opposing team. However this was all before the 1995 Rugby World Cup. As a team with little to none international experience, the Springbok team entered the Rugby World Cup without any recognition from other nations. On the Springbok team, one black was named to be on the roster. Throughout the Rugby World Cup, Nelson Mandela urged the nation to rally behind the Springbok rugby team. It was amazing to see the people in the stands rooting for their team the Springbok. Whites and Blacks celebrated the team's success and both races were rooting for Springbok to win. What makes the story even more extraordinary is the fact that the Springbok made to the finals against the powerhouse New Zealand. No one gave South Africa a chance but the South Africans still rooted for their country. The whole nation watched the game together. The white people respected Mandela for his kindness towards them and the black people were able to find a connection with the whites through the sport of Rugby. Even though there were still problems afterwards, the sport of rugby brought the two sides closer significantly.

Helium balloons carries propaganda

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/05/31/south.korea.message/index.html

North Korean defectors that now resides in South Korea have sent bags full of paper, dollar bills, and radios attached to a giant helium balloon. They hope this will reach the heart of Pyongyang where they feel that many people have been brainwashed by Kim Jong Il. The group of defectors believe that if North Korea can't receive messages from the outside world, the news have to be delivered to them by the outside world. A North Korean defector, Kwon Young-Hee says that North Koreans know nothing but the power of Kim Jong Il as a general and no nothing of the truth. The Fighters for Free North Korea hopes that the citizens of North Korea can listen to the illegal radios and realize the truth about North Korea. Even though the propaganda war is heating up, the citizens of South Korea don't feel threatened by a real war.

This is important because I would think that this would anger Kim Jong Il and make matters worse between the two countries. War should be avoided but I don't understand why South Koreans would do such a thing that might agitate Kim Jong Il. It said in the article that South Koreans feel that North Koreans wouldn't attack because South has too many strong ties with their allies. I don't think South Korea should depend too much on their allies because even though they do have allies, no one wants to go into war.

Israeli military gives version of flotilla incident

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/05/31/gaza.flotilla.israeli.raid/index.html

Nine people were killed in the fight between the Israeli soldiers and a group of activists. A group of activists on a flotilla were looking forward to deliver aid to Gaza and while attempting to do so attacked Israeli soldiers. Israeli soldiers said that they were immediately attacked by the group of activists as they boarded the boat. One soldier said that they were beat by metal sticks and knives from the activists. The soldiers said that there were about 30 activists and that they were all speaking Arabic. While the soldiers say that they were attacked, the activists have said that the soldiers opened fire on unarmed civilians.

This is important because skirmishes between Israeli soldiers and the group of activists who seem to be Palestinians have been going on for years now. This conflict has been difficult to solve. The Israelis have been looked as the bad guy in this conflict because the media states that they killed citizens. There are two stories behind this but when viewers see that Israeli army has opened fire on unarmed citizens then the Israeli army looks like the bad guys even though they were only trying to protect themselves.

Tropical storm leaves many dead in Central America

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/05/31/honduras.storm.emergency/index.html

A big hurricane hit Central America as it killed at least 135 people. The storm hit 3 countries, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador; it affected Guatemala the hardest. 92 were reported dead, 52 missing, and 59 were reported injured in Guatemala. Bridges collapsed, houses were destroyed, and rivers were dramastically over their normal levels in Guatemala. In Honduras, 14 people have died. Nearly 3500 were evacuted from their homes and nearly 3300 were living in shelters. Many houses have been destroyed or damaged due to the storm. In El Salvador, the conditions were less severe. Only 9 people were dead and the rain had stopped. This storm was recorded as the first pacific hurricane.

This is important news because even though it's not as bad as the Haiti earthquakes, people still died from this natural disaster. Nations need to learn from this and need to prepare their citizens better so nations don't have the death toll up to the 100s. Many people have been affected throughout the 3 countries so it will be vital for the government to replace them back to their homes.

Response to the Berlin Conference

I thought our group did well for the position we were in. We were the last group to pick and we were able to surround Ethiopia. That was one of our goals to surround Italy and perhaps attack them once again to gain more land. We were able to get much of the Sahara dessert which contains oil for future use. A chunk of land in Madagascar were left so we took that land as well. We also were able to gain a little of land in the south where there were a lot of raw materials.

Great Britain did a good job with their planning and got a lot of land. They were able to gain land that possessed raw materials and land that was suitable for farming. I thought France didn't do as a good job that they should have done. If you look at what they were actually able to do, they were able to obtain a large amount of land. In our run through, France only gained small lands around ports near France. I thought they could have done better and try to get more raw materials which they really didn't go for.

The Berlin Conference affected Africa greatly because Africans had no say in what happened and all of their land was lost. Foreigners came into their land and they could do nothing else about it. Families were separated, cultures were broken, and many lives were lost during this phase. It still affects Africa now because many African countries are in terrible conditions. European countries used the land and destroyed the African's lives. After they left, they didn't help and let the countries run by themselves. Europeans encouraged tribes to fight against each other and now there are violent wars going around in Africa. Now, many countries in Africa need help and lack sanitary living conditions. They are plagued by diseases such as AIDS, dirty water, wars, and lack of food.

The Scramble for Africa

This quote refers to the European countries rushing down to Africa and claiming their territories. The European countries broke up Africa and divided it so they can have the materials Africa contains. For a while, almost the whole Africa was claimed by Europeans. European countries took people, broke up families, and took many raw materials.

African traditions

1. Child takes the characteristics of his/her name. I think this is very bizarre because in the U.S. the name doesn't make the person. The father in the show was worrying about what to name his child because the child took the characteristics of his/her name. It's good to have names that have positive vibes but we don't let the name dictate our lives unless if it's our last name for some people.

2. When the boys are 15, they are taken away to become brave men. This was like their way of going to the army. It was mandatory for boys to go and people in the village took this very seriously. The kids went without even knowing what was going to happen.

3. The goal of war is to win, not to kill. Warrior respects another warrior. This was a different strategy than many other countries would prefer. If a country was in war, they would want to defeat the other country by killing their soldiers instead of just letting them go. Our mindset is to weaken their army by killing and not giving them a second chance to attack.

4. Boys that turn into men can't stay with the family and must live in his own hut. These kids were still about only 16, but they were still forced to leave their parents and live by himself. From this one camp the boys are forced go to, their lives change so much afterwards. It was peculiar to see how the boys changed so much after the camp. The main character in this story acted like a totally different person.

5. Father builds a hut for his son while his son is at camp. I guess men couldn't live in the same house back in the day in Africa. So as the sons prepare to become men, the father has to like jump start his son's life by building a hut for him. Even though not all parents do this, but this would be like getting a car after the teenager finally passes his license test. It would be nice if all the parents were like the ones in Africa.

African Folklore

Sahara- Their folklore was about a girl named Binta who created peace between the djinns and the humans. One day Binta and her friends were walking home and they saw a tafaka, a lizard, pregnant. Binta helped the lizard with the birth. Few weeks later a stranger comes to her house to help give birth to somebody named Tafaka. She goes and finds out that the tafaka was a djinn. She stays at their camp for 40 days and learns more about the djinns. When she returns home, people know about what happened to Binta. One day a handsome man comes in her tent and she decides to match him up with a djinn. They get married and because of their marriage the women of Air are beautiful and lovely even till this day.

This folklore involved a human helping out an animal from the wildlife and importance placed on wildlife is one of the elements of African folklore. It explained why the women of Air are lovely by showing how the first generation met. The moral lesson from this folklore can be if you help someone without any selfish intentions, then you will receive a reward. Binta helped willingly and she got a reward of becoming friends with the djinns. This wasn't very entertaining to me, but it could have been entertaining to people back then. I guess it's funny that there was a random lizard pregnant and some girl passing by helped with the birth. Suprisingly the lizard was some kind of god and from that experience the girl can have a friendship with the gods. I could connect to this myth by trying to be like Binta and help out without any selfish desires.

Rescuing girls from sex slavery

http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/04/29/cnnheroes.koirala.nepal/index.html

Koirala and Maiti Nepal have been saving 12,000 Nepali women and girls ever since 1993. U.S. State Department reported that between 10,000 to 15,000 women and girls from Nepal have been sexually exploriated through prostitution. Geeta, as a 9 year old, she remembers staying up late and having sex with many men per day. She was sent into a brothel and forced to go out on the streets and have sex with men that wanted them. Koirala, who have been on this movement to save girls in this terrible situation, decided to help these girls after her abusive relationships in the past. Now her group goes around raiding brothels to save girls and women that have sex for a living. Her goal is to rescue these girls and help them live a happy life. She helps them cope with problems and has an open home for them. The group wants these girls to be able to go out into the world and reintegrated into society.

Reading this article showed that anyone could become a hero in the world. This woman worked dilligently and rescued so many young lives. She was determined to change something and now with her group she is saving 4 girls per day. At a global standpoint, India should start enforcing harsh rules against these people that are forcing women into prostitution. 10,000 to 15000 is a very large number of girls that are sexually exploriated. The U.N. should take action into this issue and encourage India to be more active in order to rescue more girls and prevent this from continuing.

U.N. eyes international tribunals for pirates

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/04/28/un.pirate.tribunals/index.html

The U.N. has put more emphasis on the pirate attacks that have been going on near the coast of Somalia. The 15 member body unanimously voted for countries to persecute and jail people that may be suspected of being a pirate. All the countries wanted piracy to be eliminated and more suspects to pay for what they have done. The U.N. also looked forward to see other organizations such as the European Union and NATO increase their role in the fight against piracy. Countries neighboring Somalia was also asked to increase their efforts against piracy.

This is a good decision by the U.N. to fight against piracy. Piracy has made traveling and trades harder for countries all over the world. Ships carrying goods in the area often got robbed and lost all their goods. People were captured and held hostages by the pirates in the area. Last year, I remember that a U.S. sailor was kept captive by the pirates. The U.S. marines were able to free him and kill some of the pirates. The pirates are thieves on waters and same rules need to apply just as if they were any other convicts.

South Korea holds funeral for 46 sailors

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/04/29/south.korea.ship.funeral/index.html

Last month a South Korean ship sunk which led to numerous number of sailors missing. After weeks of searching, South Korean officials announced that 40 were dead and 6 were still missing. The whole country was in a somber mood as they buried 40 young sailors. Head of naval operations Kim Sung-Chan said "We will never forgive whoever inflicted this great pain on us." South Korean officials are still trying to find out what truly happened. They believe it was from an external explosion. Even though North Korea media has denied accusations of an attack and no evidence of any unusual movement was detected, there are still speculations of North Korea causing this dilemma. A U.S. military official also believes that a North Korean torpedo was the most likely cause of the explosion. There were no mines in the area and it would have been highly unlikely a mine to hit a moving vessel. The South Koreans are still searching for pieces underwater, but so far no pieces of torpedo or mine has been found.

This was a terrible incident that happened that led to the death of many young sailors. Even though I didn't know any one of them, it still hurts to see the country I used to live in, in pain. This is a global issue because if pieces of torpedo are found, all fingers are going to be pointed at North Korea for this attack. There were some strong words from the head of the naval operations and if this was an attack from North Korea, some kind of a riot seems inevitable. If these two countries go into war then many other countries will have to get involved in it. It's going to be frightening to see what the cause of this truly was.

African Wonders

Pyramids at Giza- The pyramids have been standing in the heart of Egypt for 4600 years. The 3 pyramids were built by Egyptian kings Cheops, Khafre, and Menkaure from the 4th dynasty. Even though it was built such a long time ago,the pyramids are a highly advanced piece of work. It's amazing to note that it was the tallest structure on earth for 43 centuries. The pyramid itself is a wonder; the angles on each side are exactly 51 degrees and the measurements are unerring. There are about 2 million blocks of stones used to build the pyramid and some suggest that from all of the blocks from 3 different pyramids, a 10 ft high, 1 ft thick wall can be built around France.

Temples of Abu Simbel- These temples were built between 1290 and 1224 B.C. by Pharaoh Ramses II.There are 2 temples and these were built to dedicate Egyptians gods. There are statues built outside the temples, inside the temples, on the walls of the hallways, and in different chambers. The interesting fact about one of these works is that on every February 22 and October 22 at sunrise, the light illuminates the faces of the figures. The temples are highly treasured that when a construction of reservoir for the Aswan High Dam threatened the temples, an international team spent 40 million dollars and more than 4 years of hard work to reassemble it on a higher platform.

Christian art- Ethiopian artists produced many paintings of extraordinary beauty. They have a number of distinctive styles. They incorporated elements from Western Europe and India. It's odd to see that the Ethiopian artists put no emphasis on the skin color of the saints they drew. Having different skin colors mean a lot and depending on your skin color, your life is very different from another person's life with a different skin color. Also one would think that their pictures would be about the Islam religion, but it's bizarre to see some of there masterpieces were of the Christian religion.

I believe that we don't get to hear of these wonders of Africa because these wonders are from the distant history and it gets shadowed by the negative things that are going on in Africa. Even though these are some great things, these wonders are thousands of years old. With the world today, people are more interested about the present and the future rather than the past. Now, Africa is going through major problems that attract all the attention. The public hears about how Aids is spreading and children are used in wars and this is all the media has to say about Africa.

Africa

When I think of Africa, I think of a continent with undeveloped countries. I know that many countries are going through many difficulties in Africa and many lives are being lost. There's problem with health, violence, and education. European countries imperialized the countries and hurt the countries. The state they are in now is attributed from European imperializing them. Wars are going on in Africa constantly. People are mistreated to do what the rebels want them to do. Some children are forced to shoot guns and kill people. In some areas, clean water is very rare and living conditions are terrible. AIDS have been a problem and I think the number was like 1/3 of the population was diagnosed with the disease. On a positive note, the World Cup is going to be held in Africa which I look forward to.

Obsession

1. Culture of Jihad- They kill people not to just see dead bodies but to bring the West down. Dying in order to kill the West is an honorable mention in their religion. Jihad is a religious holy war. This is for the sake of Allah. Islam people believe that the U.S. is trying to eradicate their religion and that the U.S. is becoming a threat. Jihad literally means self struggle. The Muslims want to eliminate not only the U.S. but Israel,

2. Culture of hatred- Muslims view Americans and Israelis as satan. They hate America and the Western culture so much that they are willing to die to bring down the West. America is categorized as a threat and this is used to stir up the people of Islam. When 9/11 happened, Palestinians were more than happy to see what happened to America.

3. Jihad in the West- Islam extremists have been spreading their ideas to the west as well. There are terrorist meetings at mosques in London. The terrorist leaders brainwash people and tell them that it's okay to murder. The bombing in London in 2005 were people from London. 9/11 terrorists practiced their act in U.S.; they were able to disguise themselves as Americans and take airplane classes in America.

4. Culture of denial- Americans still believe that terrorism is not a threat. Americans don't want to recognize this as a threat. America cannot ignore the fact that people in the Middle East want to kill Americans on a daily basis. Many believe that this will become like WW2 and that many lives will be lost.

5. Hitler and the Mufti- Mufti and Hitler had a relationship and a connection in achieving the goal of exterminating the Jews. Mufti raised an army of Muslims to fight with the SS of Hitler.

6. What do radical Muslims want- Destroy Western civilization and defeat Christians and Jews. The Muslims believe that Islam is the only way to go; no other religions will prevail and other believers will die. Islam leaders want to Islamize the whole world. The Muslims believe that Allah commanded them to control the world.

7. We've been here before- Even though it seems like many Muslims seem like terrorists, there are still Muslims that seek for a world without terrorism. They do not follow what the extremists are doing and do not believe in the actions they take. More support is needed for this group so the world can overcome these extremists that want to take over the world. "The only thing necessary for the triumph of Evil is for Good men to do nothing" is true and fits this situation. Evil can be torn down, but good men have to work upon it for it to be won. Looking at those statues of Communist leaders torn down, the Tiananmen Square protest, and the fall of the Berlin wall provides a small hope in terrorism eradicating one day.

War against Afghanistan

I wrote my whole paper on this issue, but even as I was writing it, I started to doubt what I had written. I wrote that the Taliban and the al-Qaeda groups would be eliminated, but it's really hard to see that happening. From the information I gathered, the U.S. forces had been affecting the terrorist groups. However, I think even if the U.S. forces were to kill all of the Taliban and al-Qaeda members, they would just rise back again. In the video one of the commentators said that the U.S. hasn't realized in 25 years that Afghanistan people aren't going to listen to what the U.S. wants to do and will do what they want to do in their own way. Any group can rise up again to fill the spots that the terrorist groups left and create their own terrorist groups. The U.S. may think they won the war in Afghanistan after we defeat the Taliban and al-Qaeda, but in the end, other groups are going to step up and perform terroristic activities in their place. Therefore I don't think the war can be won in Afghanistan.

Why President Bush went to war with Iraq

The whole article criticizes the Bush Administration for waging war in Iraq. Doherty believes that the reason that we waged war was because of 3 reasons: oil, Israel, and military transformation. I always thought the U.S. went to war in order to combat against dangerous forces. However after reading different articles such as this one, my mind is beginning to think of different reasons why we went to war with Iraq. Out of the 3 reasons stated by Doherty, the oil issue sounds the most reliable. I don't think for the two other reasons, we would risk thousands of lives of young Americans. If we wanted to strengthen our relationship with Israel, we could attacked the other Middle Eastern countries that want to eliminate Israel. The third reason was very confusing to understand. Oil is something that the President Bush would risk for because the U.S. was so dependent on oil. As we were desperate for more oil and noticed that oil in Iraq was not exploited, we decided to invade Iraq and take control of some oil. Doherty pointed out when necessity and opportunity came, we took action and waged war. 9/11 and the whole terrorism issue could have been the decoy for going into Iraq. Eliminating Saddam Hussein was the decoy in this war and our addiction to oil seems like the main reason why the U.S. ever went to war with Iraq.

Oil in the Middle East

I believe the U.S. should strive for new ways to fuel our transportation. We need to stop depending on oil which we don't have a lot of. We keep spending our money on oil and towards a wrong cause. The countries in the Middle East have been feasting from the money we spent on oil. They use it against us and boost the prices to see us struggle. They view it as our Achilles-heels and we need to find a solution towards that. The money spent there is also being used as money for weapons. We can't have the Middle East countries acquiring more weapons. Our need for oil is basically helping terrorism because the Middle East countries now have more weapons from the money we spend on them. It just imposes more danger to the world. Terrorism grows while we lose money. I like the point the author used of how if we start changing then others may follow as well and not be dependent on oil.

The world should be concerned about the water issue because at the end it's going to affect everyone. In countries that are already lacking water, it's going to affect the people. For countries that are about to lack water, they are going to start fighting for water. Countries like the U.S., who have water are also going to get affected because water shortages are going to pay more for water. Everyone is going to suffer because of water shortages. Something needs to be done because of the alarming number of people that died from dirty water. Also lack of water is going to affect the oil in the Middle East because water is needed to drill oil out of the ground. If they lose the ability to get oil, then our country is going to be without our main oil source which will lead to more problems. Even though we are still going to have water, prices are going to start rising up and later in the future, we might not even have oil.

True Life: I live in a Terror Zone

The person that stood out to me the most was the 25 years old teacher Yoni. He was born in the U.S. but moved to Israel. He lives close to other Arab villages, but he is not scared. He actually is willing to live where he resides now. This is a way of him showing how the Israelis aren't going to run out of the country because of the Arab's attacks. This stood out to me. I also picked him because his mom was murdered from one of the Arab attacks. I could imagine how he would feel and he has the right to want revenge against them. However, if everyone sought for revenge then the world would be much worse than it is now. As I was hearing about his life, I really felt bad for him. He lost his mom, couldn't be in the army when he wanted to, and lived a life he didn't want to live. It was usually the Palestinians complaining, but I noticed how bad it was personally for Yoni living through his emotions.

My life compared to the teenagers in Israel were very different. The Palestinian teenagers lacked so many rights. They were forced to stay inside, couldn't travel easily, couldn't receive I.D.s, and were treated so much worse than a regular Israeli would be treated. The Israelis had similar rights as I did. They were able to travel freely and could go outside whenever they felt like. However they always had the risk of getting killed by a random attack.

Body Scanner "Harassment"

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/03/25/uk.heathrow.scanner/index.html?npt=NP1

A 25 year old male who works at London's Heathrow Airport has been given a warning after making a "lewd remark" about a lady that was scanned by one of their new full body scanners. A spokeswoman for the BAA, which runs the airport, said that this situation will be investigated more thoroughly and the "appropriate action" will be taken for the employee. These new full body scanners were implemented by other airports to strengthen the security after the December 25th incident. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown believes that these scanners are necessary to combat against terrorism. However others believe that it is an invasion of privacy.

This is important to the world because other nations might be going through the same problems as they are trying to decide if this is a good or bad way to combat against terrorism. Terrorism has affected so much, and it has made regular flights more difficult. Now we have to start go through security that invades our privacy. If countries are willing to implement this, they need to make sure what happened in Heathrow Airport is never going to happen.

Russian Subway Incident

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/03/30/russia.subway.explosions/index.html

Two women were responsible for 39 deaths and 60 injured people, on the Moscow metro. The two women denoted their explosives just before 8 A.M. on 3/29/10. The Russian officials believe that the Chechen rebels were behind this terrorist attack. They also believe the two women had accomplices to help them out. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev plans to use force to eliminate terrorists and bandits. Ramzan Kadyrov, the Russian backed leader of Chechnya believes that these terrorists should be "poisoned like rats". President Medvedev and Kadyrov both want to eliminate terrorism, but they both acknowledge how difficult the road is going to be. It's not a surprise that this attack was from Chechen rebels. This fight against Russia and Chechnya which has been going on for nearly 20 years. Chechens claim to land own the land in the Caucasus Mountains region which is currently owned by Russia. Thousands of people died and suffered for this fight.

It's always sad to hear about terrorism. It's devastating to see those innocent lives taken away for a selfish reason. This also showed that terrorism doesn't always occur in the Middle East and it's a global issue we must all fight. From this article it states that these two have been fighting for almost for 20 years. It needs to stop because if it doesn't more deaths are going to occur.

South Korean navy ship sinks

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/03/26/south.korea.ship.sinking/index.html

A South Korean ship sank in the Yellow Sea on friday near the island of Baengyeoung which is located near the borderline of South and North Korea. South Korean officials have reported that out of the 104 crew members in the boat, only 58 were rescued. The ship sunk from an explosion that occurred near the rear of the ship. No one knows at this time how the explosion started but South Korean naval officials said that South Koreans shot a vessel towards the ship in the north. The President of South Korea Lee Myung-Bak ordered a "quick and thorough investigation" and they are considering all possibilities. There was no evidence of this being a North Korean attack, but that has been ruled out. Also, the South Korean officials are not sure if a North Korean vessel was involved in this incident.

This is a serious issue towards the whole world because if the two countries get into a war then the U.S. and more UN countries would have to get involved in it. I hope the incident wasn't caused by the North Koreans so a war can be avoided. I can't imagine what would happen if it was North Korea and because of this the two countries get into a war. North Korea has a strong military so a lot of aid will be needed to help out South Korea. North Korea also has possession of nuclear weapons. Almost all of my relatives live there and I would be devastated if there was a war in Korea.

Westernization, Imperialism, Nationalism, and Zionism in the ME

I think the Western countries mostly the European countries, caused many problems for many areas. We saw it in Asia especially in China where they caused problems there like the Opium addictions that many Chinese people couldn't escape that were sold by the Europeans. They also caused problems in North America when they first arrived in America. There were fierce battles between the Indians and the Europeans for land. We see the same thing in Africa where now the whole continent is going through major problems since the Europeans just left them after imperializing. Now in the Middle East, I feel that it has been the driving force for their hatred towards the West. Imperialism led to the many problems that we face from the Middle East today. The European countries just took their land and tried implementing their culture when the Middle Eastern countries already had their own culture. Other countries had the same response where none of them liked the European countries coming in with their culture. It shouldn't be a surprise that the Middle East countries have such hatred against the West.

Imperialism and Zionism had the most impact. Between them, I think imperialism had a bigger impact on the anti western mindset. I think this because imperialism started everything. Without it the other factors such as Westernization or Nationalism could have happened. Because of the European countries coming in, nationalism rose in order to get rid of the European countries. The Middle Eastern countries had to get westernized to become strong enough to beat the Europeans. The saying in order to get rid of the Barbarians, you got to be like them was what the Middle East did. Since the European countries had control over Palestine, they let the Jews to come back which fueled the idea of Zionism brighter. If the Europeans didn't come into the countries, there might have not been those extremists that have been the enforcer of terrorism. Extremists saw how the Europeans were when they entered the country and the way the West lived angered them.

Veil

I personally don't like seeing Muslim women in their veils because it hides their identity and it also just automatically raises stereo-typical views of them. But from these two articles, I could see why Muslim women wear the veil. It seems like wearing a veil is not a law since it's not specifically stated in the Koran, but it's like a custom now since women wear the veil. The women who converted to Islam had good points in her paper about how women still have their freedom, but I felt like she was too biased for her view. She made it sound like all women want to wear the veil and that it was like an honor to wear it. She should have put facts like who actually enjoys wearing the veil and who doesn't to show the other side of this issue. Since it is not like a set rule, I think there should be a law stating that if women want to wear it, they should, but if women don't want to wear it, they shouldn't be forced to.

Clash of Religions

I think what the journalist said has a point and that we may be the cause the terrorism that goes around the Earth. I think the Western part which includes like European countries and America are cause of many problems in the world. It all started when the European countries imperialized the Middle East that started all this hate from the Muslims and people from the Middle East. Imperialists came in trying to change up everything and Middle Easterners felt that their cultures were going to be broken. I think that's when their hate started. As we started getting more carried away with money issues and walked away from our religion, this angered the Muslims even more. This is what really angers the Muslims from what the article is saying and I see his points. It said in the article that "As monotheists, Jews and Christians have historically been entitled to Muslim respect and even protection"(D'Souza 2). Muslims had respect for Christians so that can't be the reason all of a sudden. U.S. has been more about money and its economy instead of our own religious beliefs. The article says that this is the real reason that we have been under attack for not being religious enough and by being secular. I believe that the U.S. has been more focusing on other areas than our religions.

I do not agree with Bin Laden's and the Muslim extremists' actions towards our apparent problem from their perspective. Even though we have been less religious, that doesn't mean that we should get attacked upon. We are not killing others by not being religious, but they are killing others to become more religious. It's very ironic, but it's something that we will never be able to change because it is firmly stated in their roots of Islam.

Holy Land

Jerusalem is the center of problem for 3 different religions. All three religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, proclaim that it is their Holy Land. They all have legitimate reasons, but I believe the Holy Land belongs to the Jewish population. They were the first ones to establish Jerusalem as their holy city and remained steadfast to it all this time. It is such an integral part of Judasim as Jews pray in its direction, mention it in prayers, and stands as the only city with a Jewish majority during the whole of the past century. Jews lost the land couple of times, but they never denied it as their Holy Land. From the passage it seems like other religions fought for the land and proclaimed it was theirs. I don't think it's fair for one religion to say that it is more important to them than the other religions. Jerusalem has a special meaning to each religion. Since the Jews were the first to proclaim it as theirs, I believe it should remain to the Jews. They tried staying faithful towards their Holy Land but difficult circumstances got in their way which drove them away from Jerusalem.

Top Israeli official: A nuclear Iran would endanger world stability

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/02/26/israel.iran.nuclear/index.html

News about Iran equipping themselves with nuclear weapons is gaining more attention now. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak believes that something should be done about this. He thinks that not only will Iran be a threat to Israel but also to the whole world. Barak doesn't think that Iran would drop it on Israel because it could disrupt the oil supply. U.S. Hillary Clinton also believes that something needs to be done to get Iran off their course. Barak doesn't trust Iran's plan of building nuclear development for power and the civilians. Also Barak talked about the situation with the Palestinians. He says he wants to have peace with them but isn't scared to get into a war if it becomes necessary.

This is important to the whole world because if Iran did have nuclear weapons it would be a concern to all countries. I agree with both of them and believe that something needs to be done to stop Iran from making nuclear developments. Also the last few paragraphs about peace with Palestinians is important. Barak said that the country's right hand will be holding a gun with their fingers on the trigger while the left hand tries to find opportunity for peace. The whole world does not want this war to break out as it will disrupt the oil distribution and lead to many deaths.

Afghan flag raised over war-torn Taliban stronghold

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/02/25/afghanistan.offensive/index.html

In Marjah where U.S. and other troops have been fighting the Taliban in Operation Moshtarak, an Afghan flag was raised as a sign of improvement. The Taliban occupied the land and lacked the presence of the Afghan government. However now U.S. and other troops took over the area and Brig.Gen. Larry Nicholson believes that they are "feeling pretty good about the control of the populated areas, the infrastructure." NATO reported trends of the region's security and its stability improving. In despite of all this, some citizens still doubt the government and prefers foreigners. Abdul Qader a local in the area, does not trust his safety in the hands of the government. He believes it's corrupt and the only way to bring about change is for the foreigners to do it. Another citizen, Mohammad Sardar, felt that the Taliban provided safety and that he still fears the foreingers.

This helps the fight in Afghanistan, but I don't think it helps significantly. If the people don't trust their own government and would rather be in the hands of foreigners is a bad sign. The Taliban isn't the only problem and I think the government is a problem that is just as big. If we were to leave their country after taking out most of the Taliban, with a corrupt government problems can reoccur. The fight in Afghanistan is difficult but this a positive note that we can build momentum on.

Closing thought on Middle East

As the President of the U.S.A., I would not try to solve the problem just by myself. I would prepare a speech to other countries to help us to clear this problem out. The only bad thing about this is the the chance of fighting against terrorism turning into a World War 3. However, the fight against terrorism would be easier if other countries supported us. Even if we are the world power, it is hard to combat against many countries. The situation seems to be spreading to more countries and now it's just not Iraq so we need more support. Ultimately, my plan is to get more support and send more troops towards these countries.

Current Event- Toyoda faces lawmakers

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iQQ34S6JO4atWukmMagF8-He-vPQD9E2TNQ00

Toyota CEO, Akio Toyoda apologized on wednesday about the problems that Toyota cars has caused due to safety issues. The problem was many of Toyota's car's accelerator would get stuck which led to deaths and millions of recalls. About 34 Toyota owners have died from this safety issue. Toyoda said that he was sorry for all the troubles that toyota drivers experienced and that the company's priorities became confused. Toyota has recalled 8.5 million cars and out of that more than 6 million cars that were driven in the U.S. Toyoda believes that the cause was from a mechanical problem and not a design flaw in the company's electronic throttle control system. The angry lawmakers were criticized and scolded Toyoda constantly during the hearing.

This is an important issue to the world because Toyota has been such a successful company in the world. As a foreign company, it took over the car industry in America and attracted many customers. This issue hurts the reputation of Toyota and to some people it will make them think differently about Japanese cars in general. I'm just glad that more deaths did not result from this.

Do Now 2-23

The biggest problem in the Middle East is the terrorists that live in the Middle East. I hear about the wars in the Middle East and our efforts to stop world terrorism. We have been in Iraq and now Afghanistan to try to end the works of terrorists. 9/11 was from terrorists that live in the Middle East and I feel like every time I hear about the topic about terrorism, the Muslim extremists in the Middle East comes up.

Middle East

The Middle East is the southwestern part of Asia. It contains vital sea routes and reserves of oil. It has 5 main physical regions. The 5 are the Northern Tier, Arabian Peninsula, Fertile Crescent, Nile Valley, and the Maghreb. In most areas, they lack water so most of the population is near area with water. This land has been at the center of world conflict because of many reasons. Many people have crossed this land and conquered this land as they were passing it. There is a variety of people living in this area. It had been a land that carried many trading routes and some areas aren't rich as others. They also have variety of resources especially oil. Countries fight for oil that is located in these areas. These days it had been at the center of conflict because of the terrorists groups that live in the Middle East.

Gandhi's accomplishments

I don't think the independence gained from Britain satisfied what Gandhi wanted to accomplish. He wanted independence from Britain in order for his country and his people that he united to live peacefully. However fights occurred between the Hindus and Muslims which hurt Gandhi to see. I think this actually hurt him more to see his people being separated and fighting. While he was trying to gain independence from Britain, he had his people of India unified and working together peacefully. To see that the bond is broken, he was willing to die until all the fighting was stopped.

I think the problem would still exist if Gandhi was still alive because religion is a driving factor for many people and it would have been hard to connect two different religions. People dedicate their lives to their religion and I think even Gandhi himself would have not been able to unite them from all the fighting. There are so many differences between the two groups that one person wouldn't be able to change that. Some Hindus were already mad at him because they thought Gandhi turned their backs on them. I don't think Hindus would listen to Gandhi. When he was able to bring both the people together, they listened to Gandhi. However, because of those Hindu extremists, they would have caused a problem for Gandhi.

Gandhi

Gandhi was able to be successful because he was able to break unjust laws without any violence. His knowledge of British law benefited him greatly on his mission to earn independence for his country. There were some harsh punishments such as the massacre that happened during the mass gathering, but he didn't strike back with his hands or weapons. Gandhi was able to use the event to gather people even closer. Gandhi found other ways to disobey British law and protest without any use of violence at all. He got himself out of jail because he didn't resist arrest. Gandhi's attributes allowed him to become a powerful leader who united diverse groups.

Overcoming Social Injustice

2. I would try to amend the unjust law, but would follow the law until something could be done. I would need to think of ways to change the law and without a plan, I would probably be punished for not following the law. If the government oppress my actions against them, I wouldn't be able to carry out my actions so until I have a definite plan, I would have to follow the law. So transgressing them at once wouldn't be the best idea even though I would want to stop them at once. If a law is unfair, I would not be happy and instead of just accepting the fact, I would strive to change it. You won't get nothing done if you try to stay content with the law so I think that is the worst decision to choose. The government can take advantage of that and just implement more unjust laws. In conclusion, amending the law would be my first choice, but if I try to change the law right away, I would probably be oppressed right away which would not allow me to carry out my plan. I would be a good citizen and obey the laws until I think of the perfect plan to amend the law.

State of the Union 2010

From President Obama's speech, I think the U.S. is heading towards the right direction. People and Americans are the biggest words and I think it's because President Obama put a lot of emphasis on the such topics. With the new year, I trust that President Obama will make changes and decisions to make the future better. He addressed that he will strive to make jobs more available which will also benefit the economy.

With President Bush's last State of the Union, the words Congress, Iraq, and American stand out. From the words, it seems like President Bush cared more about the security of America while President Obama put his attention towards the economy. Even after the plane incident on Christmas day, I didn't even see the word security or terrorist form President Obama's speech. Our country seems to be more focused to get its economy on track in President Obama's hands. I can't find the word economy in President Bush's speech. It should have been an important factor because the decline in our economy started during President Bush's days as a president. Our future in President Obama's hands seem better for Americans to live, but I think it's less safer.