Eric's Global Blog

Mikhail Gorbachev and the Collapse of Communism

2010-05-07T09:43:00.000-07:00

MikhailGorbachev is the president of Russia. He was the youngest president at age 54. Mikhail decided that since the russia was a totalitarian state, and nothing was getting done, he thought that he should open up russia more so that free fresh new ideas will come and make Russia more economic and new with social reforms. This was called the "Glasnost". This was to promote Openess in Russia.

In 1985, Gorbachev decided to make something new called "Peristrokia". This was to make economic reforms. Local managers gained full rights to their farms and property and people were allowed to own privately owned small buisnesses.

Nelson Mandela and Apartheid

2010-05-07T09:33:00.000-07:00

The apartheid was a racial segregation policy in South Africa. Much similar to the one in the United States. But they were segregated from 1948-1990. This policy stated that white people were above everyone else and can vote, while the "Bantu" which is everyone else that is black mixed or Indian is nit able to. Nelson Mandela was put into jail because of this.

Nelson mandela fought for the independence of South Africa. He was in the ANC's fight to promote non-violence methods to get freedom and justice and to stop the Apartheid. He was a hero because he did this. He was in jail for 26 years and he got out, wrote a book, and still continued to fight for his country and the people admired that and when elections came in 1991, he was elected over the other person with 61% of the votes.

African Independence

2010-04-28T09:29:00.000-07:00

The Europeans basically imperilized the continent and took it for themselves. Until recently 1955-1970, Africa had been gaining their independence. The French, Spanish, English etc. took over them for a long time. They used them for their natural resources and cheap labor.

Ghana was the first country to gain their independence. Kwame Nkrumah was the leader. He was a teacher who spent time studying in the united states and came back to get rights for his country, but ended up becoming the president of Ghana and the English left.

Another nation was Kenya. This country was special because their leader/president was in prison then he was elected as the leader. This is one of the two countries that did this. The leaders name was Jomo Kenyatta. He led the Mau Mau's so he can scare the white men away without any war.

You can see during the fighting for independence, Africa changed a lot, they gained all of their independence from the European countries except for a select few and most of them got to eliminate their country's names and change them to something more African and create a flag. For example Zimbabwe was Rhodesia, then they changed it and created their own national flag to show their independence.

Film Lesson: "The Right Stuff"

2010-04-14T09:28:00.000-07:00

" The Right Stuff " was a movie made in the 80's about how the US and Russia were challenging each other for the first to make it to the moon.This war was a war with no fighting in it. In the movie, they were competing on who could get to mach 1 speed which is about 750 mils per hour( speed of sound ) and mach 2 which was about 1500 miles per hour ( 2x the speed of sound).

Then they showed how the Russians launched their first satellite into space. Then the US heard about this and then they choose 7 experience pilots who must of had went to college to be the first astronauts . One of the main character of the movie was not able to go up with them due to the fact he was not a college graduate. The Russians was winning because they launched the first satellite into space but then the US was trying to put men on the moon. They were not successful at first because many of there tests have failed month after month. So they decided to send a monkey up there for no humans losses. That however was a big mistake because it showed that the Russians had more guts by sending up a human before us.

The scenes that will help me remember the battle between Russia and the US would be the Mach1 scene which was very impressive and the scene were they were getting the 7 highly educated pilots ready for the big mission.

NATO and The Warsaw Pact

2010-04-12T09:14:00.000-07:00

The ones who created Warsaw pact were USSR and 8 other communist countries.

The ones who created NATO were France, United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland

NATO stands for the (North Atlantic Treaty Organization). The NATO was for the United States and countries of east and some western European countries. If a country would attack a nation that was a member of NATO, all of those other countries would team up like a pact or crew and attack the enemies. In response to this, the Warsaw pact was created.In May 1955, the USSR made the Warsaw Treaty in response to the scare of the Federal Republic of Germany into NATO in October 1954. This pact would not be powerful unless the Soviet Union was part of it. Back then, the only two superpowers in the world was the United States and the Soviet Union. Unlike NATO, the Warsaw Pact was weakening because of the political scene of Russia towards the 80s and it fully dissolved in the 90s.

2010-03-25T10:02:00.000-07:00

Film Lesson: "Night and Fog"

Night and Fog was a powerful documentary that showed the very painful things that the jewish people suffered during the holocaust.I found the film to be powerful and a strong piece of evidence that the holocaust is a true event and not something made up by Hollywood. The scenes from Schindler's List was similar to the ones in the documentary because they both showed the Jews boarding the train and went to concentration camps.This movie actually shocked and surprised me. I have never seen anything so sick and disturbing as this video, its so hard to imagine that anything like this could actually happen..

Film Lesson: "Schindler's List"

2010-03-24T15:03:00.000-07:00

Schindler's list illustrated the Holocaust historical accurate. The Holocaust might be more horrific and bloody but Steven Spielberg seemed to do a good job in those scenes. The most powerful views that i came across was the parts that were really graphic. The way they treated the kids and starved the people. It showed how sick&twisted the Germans were. The image of the kids hiding under the floor broads of the homes will alway stay in my mind. I can see the fear in there eyes even tho it was just a movie. I can see that even with no parents around and no food to feed themselves they are willing to still hide from this unknown event thats going on around them. I think Schindlers list was an overall better movie because it showed what jews were going through at the moment. It was also more graphic and it made me feel like i was there and plus is won many awards so it must be better. =]

HERE IS THE ACTUALLY LIST..

The Treaty of Versailles (ended WW I)

2010-02-25T09:31:00.000-08:00

The Treaty of Versailles affected Germany at the end of WW I in a major way. German pretty much lost everything they really had that showed they were a powerful country. At the end of WW1 (Germany's defeat) they had to sign a Treaty which stated that they had to make up for there loses. One of the problems Germany faced after WWI was having to pay back all the damages done by them. Many European countries demanded huge amounts of money from Germany. Not only did they had to pay a high amount of money, they lost 13% of there territory and 12% of there population which made them lose most of there power they had before WW1, basically the country's economy suffered. With there army cut down in size and the economy doing really bad it is why the German people were so willing to believe Hitler and the Nazis when they said they would better Germany and make it like it was before the Treaty. This is what lead to WW2.

I believe the treaty was fair. Germany did do the most damage and even though they were helping an ally of theirs, this did not mean they had to put all their military resources in it. Those are Germany's consequences and they should of knew that the consequences would be harsh.

Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) and the Modernization of Turkey

2010-02-24T09:35:00.000-08:00

Mustafa Kemal also know as Ataturk (Also the first president of Turkey) changed turrkey in a major way by making it a much more modern country after WW1. He modernized Turkey and made it more secular. First off he told the people of Turkey to change the way they dressed to more of a modern look the many parts of Europe was all ready wearing. The people of Turkey now wore modern tuxedo like jackets and a tie instead of a traditionally Muslim robe. He also passed all law making it illegal to wear a fez. A fez was a type of hat the comes sometimes with a tail that has no brim. It is just a cone type hat that's flat on the top. This made the people of Turkey to look more civilized.

SECULAR- not pertaining to or connected with religion (opposed to sacred)

First Post "Flim lesson Gandhi"

2010-02-11T09:33:00.000-08:00

Gandhi helped his nation of India gain Independence from Great Britain. He used a method called Non- violence. He and his people made a promise not to fight back and show any type of violence back to the British. His philosophy of non-violence was successful at the end even though his people of India had taken so much pain.
The main reason this method helped them is because he made a conference meetings with high British authorities. Gandhi told them to wear their own clothes that they didn't need to wear the British's clothing. Then he went some salt march were he use this idea to make salt because the Indian ocean is part of India so it was Gandhi idea that they have the right to get there own salt from the ocean. It showed everyone that the Indians were not fighting back and it made the British look bad because they would hit them even when the Indians would not fight back.

TEST

2010-02-03T09:47:00.000-08:00

THIS IS A TEST