Tyranny, Justice, and Self-Determination

The words Tyranny, Justice, and Self-Determination are all very important to the book the Animal Farm. Without these thoughts, the rebellion could not have taken place. Tyranny, the usage of power without any restrictions, is how Farmer Jones and all other humans rule over farm animals in this novel. On pages five and six, Major explains to his fellow animals how Mr. Jones is a tyrant, meaning he has absolute power over them all. They must work until they reach their limit, eat only enough food to keep them alive, and once they are no longer useful, they are killed. This is because Farmer Jones is able to do anything he likes because he is in control of the farm, as a tyrant. This angers the animals causing them to resent their current situation on the farm. Justice, to be morally right, is a key idea in this novel as well. The point of the rebellion of the farm animals against the farmer is to free the animals from their unjust situation. The way they are treated is inhumane, and they want to be treated as equals among the other inhabitants of the farm. They believe they are justified in wanting a better life for themselves as well as their comrades, which eventually leads to the thoughts of rebellion. Self-Determination, to be able to act or choose according to your own wants and needs, is the most important idea to cause the rebellion to occur. The farm animals want the freedom to be able to make decisions for them, without being under the control of another being. With Mr. Jones gone, the animals could feed themselves, work for themselves, and live their lives according to them. They are trying to make a better life for themselves and ultimately all other animals. THe song Beasts of England, on page 9, represent their self-determination. Stirring about the tyranny on their farm, with justice in mind, and their self-determination for Animalism make the rebellion successful. These ideas cause the animals to revolt against the humans, and cause them to achieve their goal in running their own farm.
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World War One Peom

Evolution of World War One

I am young

I am strong

I am ready

I can take on the world

For my country, I will

I cannot fail

No one will defeat me

Because I am invincible

Hours tick by

Days drag on

Weeks are never ending

Months meander

Years pass me by

Crippling,

Trench foot lets wind whisk away my digits

Cramping,

Stiff positions mutate muscles into stone

Crumbling,

Mustard gas peels pieces of cartilage

I am old

I am weak

I am useless

I can’t move, speak, breathe

For my country, I try

But I have failed

I am defeated

I will surrender to my fate

Image Sources
http://z.about.com/d/history1900s/1/0/O/3/wwi16.gif
http://www.medalofhonor.com/NativeAmericanSoldier.jpg
http://www.awm.gov.au/visit/images/PAIU1989_140_01_1.jpg
http://library.uvic.ca/site/spcoll/Digit/JM%20Web/images/Book%202/full%20size/JM02_053.JPG

My Military Future

Being from the United States, I will never have to join the military. The United States do not have a compulsory military service, but in times of need, they may have a draft. The last time there was a draft was in the Vietnam war, but women could not be drafted. Men between the ages of 18 through 25 could be sent to war without a choice. There are several reasons I will most likely never want to join the military either. First of all, I do not support violence. I believe we can solve conflicts with other nations without having to physically attack each other. Even though I would want to support my country, wars are not necessary. The United States spent a whopping $12 billion a month on the Iraq war in 2008. This money is could have proven very useful to the United States during our economic crisis. There are many ways this money could have been spent to help our country, but we decided to spend it on unnecessary violence. were also 4,222 Americans killed in Iraq. In my opinion, these are unnecessary deaths. Secondly, I would not want join the military because most wars are for an unjust cause. Mr. Coyle taught us that conflicts are usually about economics or politics. Fighting about economics is useless. All people want in the end is money which they get by more land, power, or resources. Gold, God, and Glory are ridiculous reasons to go to war. Political reasons may be more justified in conflicting about, but there are many ways conflicts can be solved without violence. Lastly, I believe there are many ways to serve your country other than joining a military. You could work in the government, volunteer in an environmental organisation, help out in a hospital etc. There are plenty of ways to be active citizen of your country. I will find a way to serve my country, without harming others, which is why I will not join the army if I do not have to.

Image:http://www.holycrossjustice.org/images/nonviolence2.jpg

Info: http://usliberals.about.com/od/homelandsecurit1/a/IraqNumbers.htm

Alliences Political Cartoon

This famous cartoon is from World War I, but it also relates to our Great Powers Game. The main visual elements are contrast, and connections. The contrast between the people depicted in this cartoon are tremendous. They are of different races, economic statuses, and they portray different emotions. This is because they all represent different countries troughout the world that fought in WWI. For example, you can tell the group on the lower right represents Turkey. They have darker skin tones, middle eastern attire, and they have a hukkah with them. They greatly contrast the Germans, or the Russians. Another visual element connection. This is represented by the hand shakes (alliences) between several of the countries. Some alliences are forced, like in the upper left coner, and other are mutual, like the upper right hand corner. Some people have been refused alliences, like the lady in the bottom left. The hand shakes depict alliences, which is a visual element. For that reason, I believe alliences are the focus of this cartoon. I believe that the cartoonist might be trying to portraying the flaws of alliences. There are alliences on connecting everyone, even though some people have multiple hands. which means, in a war, some of the alliences would have to be broken. It also shows the people in the middle are the most powerful, gaining the weaker alliences to attack eachother. So, they are just using their allies to defeat their enemies, like the two sides of the cartoon. This shows me, the cartoonist might be portraying the flaws of alliences. Personally, I think the cartoonist could have had someone bending over backwards to recieve an allience from the powerful men. I also think they could have included someone being out numbered, and possibly forced, to ally with a group. This cartoon definitly relates to our Great Powers Game. Alliences were being formed, broken, strengthened, and weakened during the whole game. They are all different countries, with different needs like the people in this cartoon. The men in the middle have more hands,which could mean they are more powerful, or decieving to their allies. There also seems to be two sides of this cartoon. But, that didnt work because it just turned into a big mess of alliences. This is how it played out in our game as it seems to be playing out in this cartoon.
Image: http://mrcoyle.edublogs.org/

Great Powers Game Debrief

In the Great Powers Game that took place during the last few classes Yoon Ah and I were assigned the country of France. Building our empire up by buying colonies, industries, armies, and navies was thrilling. It made us feel powerful and in control. Certain countries had the advantage at the beginning of the game by starting off with more points. We were in the middle of the group with 3 points to begin with. The more powerful nations had 4 points, and the less powerful nations had 2 points. In the long run, it was best if your country had a balance of armies, navies, colonies, and industries. For example, owning colonies was useless if there were no armies or navies to protect them. For this reason, you need enough armies and navies to protect several colonies, with multiple industries. Balance was the key. Our country did well by buying quite a lot of colonies at the beginning, know that they would soon run out. We also wanted to develop these colonies by buying industries. By buying these two things we could get more spending points. But, because we were neutral for the great war, we didn't need much military. We continued like this for a while, becoming more and more powerful. I would have only changed one strategy of ours. I would have chosen a side for the great war. Because we didn't choose a side, both groups were unhappy with us, which is why we were attacked by Germany. They left us with only one industry, thus starting from the very beginning. The alliances were very unsuccessful. No one stuck to the alliances, even if written down on paper and signed. Therefor, our allies ended up disloyal, and eventually destroyed our country of France. No one could be trusted in the game, causing everyone to be wary of their "allies". I learned three specific things about conflict during this game. First, becoming neutral in a situation of conflict could potentially be hurtful. Secondly, alliances can be made, but also broken. Do not fully rely on anyone for support. Lastly, anything could happen in a short period of time. Some conflicts could be resolved, while others intensify. The Great Powers Game was very useful in showing us how conflicts operate.

Image: http://montagesl.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/conflict-resolution.gif

End of Quarter Two Feedback/ Quarter 3 goals

I think I have done fairly well this past quarter. My goal for raising money on stocks quest is hard to measure because I have sustained about the same amount of money from the beginning. We began with $100,000 and I currently have $88,804.52. I lost money in the very beginning due to my lack of knowledge about the stock market, and transaction fees. The amount of money I have has increased steadily since then, but still leaving me $12,000 short of the initial amount. I would say I have improved since Quarter one in knowledge and amount of money in my stocks quest account. I also believe I succeeded in my second goal. My goals was to get full AR points for this quarter. I planned to achieve this goal by reading the Twilight series; each book worth more than twenty points. By taking a quiz on one of these books, and scoring well, I fulfilled my second goal. My last goal, improving my blog postings, was also accomplished in some ways, and not accomplished in others. My grade for the blog in Quarter one was an A+, but in Quarter two it was a flat A. I lost two points for missing assignments. So in that way I did not succeed, but I think the overall quality of my blog postings has improved since the first quarter. They are more detailed, and thoughtful in my opinion. In that way, i think i have achieved my goal. Overall, I have made improvements in my school work this past quarter, and I plan to continue.

I have set many goals for myself in this upcoming quarter. Firstly, I am going to prepare for assignments more thoroughly. I haven't fully provided myself with enough information for discussions in the past, and I will better equip myself during this quarter. Secondly, I intend to study more for tests and quizzes. I have lacked outstanding grades for quizzes and tests, and I would like that to change. So I will study over a longer period of time with more focus. Lastly, I will do better on research assignments, then i have in the past. On my Africa research paper I received a B-, but it had been my first time doing a research paper like that. So now I am prepared, and have more knowledge of how to go about researching different topics. I believe I can reach all of the goals I have set for myself this quarter.

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