Tuesday, Jan. 11

There are 3 issues I noticed while looking through the two websites; health, HIV/ AIDS, and hunger/homelessness. All 3 of these issues are important and something that interests me. For the health issue there are several agencies, such as A Better World, that help urban children develop healthy lifestyles and other things in order to promote better living. Apparently HIV/AIDS is a growing epidemic in the STL area, and that is a scary thought since this cannot be cured or prevented. Several agencies in the area help those who suffer from HIV/AIDS. Lastly, in STL hunger and homlessness is also a growing problem, especially with women and children. Several agencies are working with families in low income households, and helping to work towards giving them a better way of life.

Bowling For Columbine- Hollenbeck

Bowling For Columbine Presentation

Research Question

Child Soldiers in Sierra Leone:

What is the worlds response to child soldiers in Sierra Leone?

To find the answer(s) to this I will have to learn where the idea originated from, who or whom developed the idea and started it, what the child soldiers are used for and why they are better at those tasks than adults would be, whether or not anything has been done in Sierra Leone about this, whether or not anything outside Sierra Leone has been done about it such as the UN, charities, etc.

I want to research blood diamonds in Sierra Leone. This topic is interesting to me because I had never heard of this issue and then I watched the movie Blood Diamonds and thought it was really interesting, but I never looked into it. Now I would like to further research this topic and learn more about it, and I think that since diamonds are a part of many cultures that we all can learn about it and help or maybe even prevent the atrocities that happen in the cultivation of diamonds. The book I'm going to look at for this Blood Diamonds: Tracing the Deadly Path of the Worlds Most Precious Stones. Also, there is a song about blood diamonds and the movie.

Democratic Republic of the Congo Recent News

The first article I read was about how an armed rebel group leader commanded the rape of 303 civilians in the Congo. It talks about how this leader was just arrested by UN authorities and the Congo government, and how groups like this prevail in The the Congo. It says that both the UN and the Congolese have put in additional forces in the area due to these attacks and not having done anything about them sooner. The area in which these attacks occur have had 3 pilots kidnapped from it, and it is also a place rich in natural resources, causing groups to fight over mines and trade routes along with others things. Some questions after reading this article that I had were:
Is the arrest of this leader actually going to do anything? Will he just get out? Or let off? Does the arrival of these troops cause unrest in the area? Are the troops going to be effective? What are the people like? What do the people of this area do about the events?

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2013081935_congo06.html?syndication=rss

I then came upon another article about the mass rape, in which there was a little bit different and more information. In this article it says that 500 people were the victims of the mass rape, not 303. This article also , discusses the effects of the rapes and the situation in the Congo and also what some people are doing to help. One lady has been going in and talking to the victims and helping them out, also MONUSCO, the UN security force in the Congo, is sending in more forces to help protect citizens. They have been facing criticism for not preventing it in the first place. People believe that events like these are going to destroy the Congo and its people, and I think that I agree with them. As long as people are committing atrocities such as these the country will deteriorate and diminish since the people will either have no values if they are committing the crimes, or dealing with the aftermath if they are the victim or know a victim. The main question I have is whether or not the placement of troops in the area will actually help improve the situation.

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/rebel-chief-held-in-congo-over-raids-20101006-166it.html

Group Discussion Response

1. The main idea/question that is staying with me after our discussion is whether or not Leopold was a homosexual, and maybe that was why he caused so much terror in the Congo as an outlet for his frustration.

2. I didn't feel like the discussion questions were open ended enough, because you could answer most of them with quotes from the books. The questions should be more open and able to discuss beyond the text, but those are hard to make. I think we discussed the questions at hand very well.

King Leopolds Ghost Respone (1-32)

I think that this book is actually pretty interesting. I like how it gives a detailed, but not overly detailed history of the events it discusses, such as the discovery of lands or people. I thought it was interesting how the book showed through a series of events how the evolution of slave trade slowly ended the kingdom in the Congo. Also, I thought it was interesting how the one King of the Congo ruled for over 40 years, and throughout those 40 years the biggest changes were made due to the slow settlement of the Portuguese. It must of been interesting and frightening to watch your kingdom change before your eyes like that.
Another part I thought that was interesting was how the author explained the life of Stanley, and then went on with the story, and then explained the life of Bennet, and then intertwined the two stories together and explained how they crossed paths. The life of Stanley was ridiculous.
Lastly, the thing I liked most was how they put in the fun facts about the early learnings of Africa. For example, how the first person in 1350 wrote that they were one eyed people who used their feet to cover their heads. Putting a fact like that in the book, along with others, kept me interested in the story.