What is Power?

Power: the possession of control or command over others, or ability to do or act as defined by dictionary.com. I think power is defined by what you control. I also think that you can use power in 2 ways. The first way is by helping people or trying to benefit society. The second way is just to help yourself and not caring about the needs of other people.

There were a lot of great leaders and a lot of bad leaders. Some are not president or prime minister but as or more famously known through out the world. One of the greatest leaders in the world is Gandhi. He was not a tall man or a big man. He was a simple man who believed in peace. And he freed India from the British rule. Another famous example is The United Nations. They help maintain peace through the world. A bad example of a person who abused power is Hitler. He thought he was helping the Aryan race but really he was just killing a lot of people for his own selfish reasons.

Also people have to look at the examples in the Socratic Seminars. People have to think about breaking rules for a higher purpose like Gandhi did. And people have to find the balance between personal freedom or for the good of the society. If people achieve those 2 things they will be a good leader.

Technology Reflection

Technology is the objects that are hooked up to an electrical outlet or uses power and makes life easier. The 5 most important pieces of technology used today are the car, the computer (including the internet), the plane, the cell phone and the ipod. The 5 least important pieces of technology used today are the typewriter, I don't use the TV much, in India people don't use the vacuum as much as in the US, the CD player, and the tape player. In my opinion AES is far ahead of most other schools in terms of technology. In my old school they didn't have laptops, they just had computer labs. Here they have I think over 250 laptops and a few computer labs. But I do think AES should let us listen to our ipods, they did in my old school. Overall I think AES has more technology than most schools.

Vonnegut Technology

I think he is half right. People shouldn't be totally dependent on technology, but we should use it as a tool to help us with our following life. The Euphio Question was a perfect example of abusing technology to create happiness. We should pursue happiness, not create it. How can you feel the sense of accomplishment when you really achieve happiness if you just create it? But you can use technology to help you like the internet and computers. People use them in everyday life to help them with work or just for relaxation. I don't think its right to shield people from their true potential or "dumb them down" to the IQ of other people like in Harrison Bergeron.

World War 3

I think World War 3 will not happen because there is no other country that needs to fight a war. Even the USA can back out of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars because there is no need to be fighting in those wars. The world now, in my opinion, does not need to be "upgraded" to the point of war and no country has the need to start the war. The wars that we fight now are unnecessary, they are to get more oil, or find a person that we think did something very wrong, but there is no need to go to war. It would be pointless to go into another world war. And even if there is another world war, I don't think that a lot of countries would join. I do not know what weapons World War 3 will have, but if there is a World War 3, World War 4 will be fought with sticks and stones or bows and arrows.

World War 2 Recipe

Start with a failed Treaty of Versailles
Add in a failed League of Nations
Add in the rise of Fascism
Add in 3 of the worst leaders of all time: Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin
Add a pinch of appeasement by Britain and France to Germany
Let Hitler invade Rhineland
Let him annex Austria
Give him part of Czechoslovakia
Than let him take over the rest of Czechoslovakia
Let Japan attack Pearl Harbor
And let them invade China

And there you have it... World War 2

About tyranny, injustice, and self-determination

Tyranny means to have absolute power executed unjustly. Tyranny relates to the book because farmer Jones takes all the milk from the cows without letting them drink any of it, all the eggs from the chickens without one of the eggs becoming a chick, and all the energy from the horses to plow the fields instead of plowing it himself. Injustice means violation of the rights of others. It relates to the book the same way of how tyranny does, farmer Jones is treating the animals very badly. Self-determination means without outside influence. This word relates to the book because even though Old Major died, the words he said before he died started the revaluation between farmer Jones and the animals.

Military

In America, it is not required to join the military. But you could get drafted from age 18 to 25 depending on how big the war is. I think it is right that America doesn't require everybody to go to the military. Personally I am against going to war or fighting in any way. I would rather go to college than join the military.

Great Powers Game

The main visual elements are how some countries are fighting, some countries are making alliances, and some countries are making other countries fight for them. The issue that this political cartoon is trying to cover is how some countries wage wars while other countries trade and try to become allies.

My Goals for 3rd Quarter

I met 2 of my goals, and the 2 that I met were bringing a bag of chips (which I am stopping) and I learned about other countries mainly Africa. In Africa, I learned about Central Africa. Becoming a better oral speaker I still have to work on (which I put in my next paragraph)

My 3 goals for 3rd quarter are getting at least a B, becoming a better oral speaker, and study better for tests and quizzes.

Good and Bads of Imperalism

GOODS

• New technology
• New jobs
• One central language
• Provided health care
• New Religion

Bads

• Destroying culture
  
• Destroying religion
• Destroying language
• Enslaving people
• Bringing rivaling tribes together
  

Democratic Republic of the Congo

After the Democratic Republic of the Congo gained freedom from Belgium in 1960, they had to build a stable government and economy. When the Belgium left the DCR a lot of Belgian people left also. Few teachers, doctors and other professions remained. In the chaos that was left behind, ethnic groups fought for power to gain control of DCR. In 1965, 5 years after DCR gained freedom, Joseph Mobutu gained power as a dictator. He took over foreign industries and tried to make those industries a monopoly. He decided to borrow money from foreign countries to expand local industries. However, he misused many of the funds that he acquired from abroad. Mobutu became very rich while the rest of the country went into poverty. He mostly used violence to persuade and murder people who challenged him. Under him, DCR seemed to be in a worse situation than when they were a colony.

The main visual elements are the "black Africa" and the boot print in the middle of Africa. The political part is how Europe has put their "boot print" all over the world and now they are coming to Africa. The dry part in side the boot print may symbolize how Europe dried up all of Africa's natural resources.

Central African History and Culture

Most of the early history was based on the Kongo Kingdom. The Kongo Kingdom is located near the mouth of the Congo River. The Kongo people established trade routes to western and eastern Africa. They grew rich from trading animal skins, shells, slaves, and ivory. When Europeans came, they wanted forest products, ivory, and other resources. They used ivory for fine furniture, jewelry, and statues. Some kingdoms got richer from trading, but usually in the end all of them weakened. Most of the that Central Africa speaks is French, Portuguese, or English. The 3 main religions are Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism.

Scramble For Africa

In the game, Jeremiah and I represented Portugal. The resources we need to get were coal, iron, and copper. The strategy we used to get the resources we needed was that we looked in the atlas and see where the resources we needed were. The factors we need to consider was that other countries might need the land that we had, so what we did was we found a lot of resources that we needed that were in different places just in case another country got the land. The country that won was France. The team who lost was Portugal.

Central Africa

The physical features of Central Africa include large rivers, huge rain forests, and some of the highest mountain ranges in Africa. Some of the main physical features are the Congo Basin, the Congo River, the Zambezi River, and the copper belt. All are necessary for Africa. There is also a lot of wild life in Central Africa. Some of the animals are gorillas, elephants, wild boars, birds, monkeys, bats, snakes and okapis. The okapis looks like a horse and a zebra combined. Central Africa also has many valuable minerals. They include copper, uranium, tin, zinc, diamonds, gold, and cobolt.

Julius Lester To Be a Slave: true or not

I think that Julius Lester's book To Be a Slave is true because I have heard of most of the information from this book happen in other places (books, movies, tv shows, ect.) My second piece of evidence is that he was never convicted of fraud for this book or any of his other books.

Central African Republic

Who: Central African Republic
What: UN Peacebuilding Delegation Visits Country
When: November 5 2008
Where: Central African Republic
Why: To help build peace in Africa
How: Talking to them

http://allafrica.com/stories/200811071055.html

Movement

Does Violence lead to more Violence

I think it does because if someone starts a war than the other person wants to fight back, he wouldn't just do nothing, he would fight back. In the play, after Caesar dies and the crowd finds out by means of Antony, they want to riot against the senate. But Antony wants them to revolt against the senate at the right time. And also when the towns people kill Cinna the poet just for his name, and they did that because Cinna the conspirator was one of the people who killed Caesar.

Brutus: Good of Rome or Good of Julius Caesar

Personally as Brutus I would choose the good of Rome because that is my first duty before being a good friend. One main story of the evidence that I have is Cassius was telling bad stories about Caesar like when he wanted to jump into the river and he almost drowned, that was bad judgment on his part. If he really wanted to be the leader he should have thought about what my choices are before doing what he did.