Community Based Learning Project

So I thought I would make this blog post  a little different and actually talk about what my class and more specifically, my group has been working on this semester for our CBL project. My group worked on a project called Freedom Sunday, but it more so took place on Saturday. This was about speaking up for those who are now free from sex slavery. My group and I did much preparation work for this project, we had many team meetings and I myself met with Father Tom many times to prepare with him what exactly we needed to do for this project. My group and I attended the Church services on both Saturday and Sunday and on Saturday we collected close to 300 dollars from people in the community who were willing to help our cause. This money will be going towards the Not For Sale club on campus and also to the Somali Mam Foundation to help educate the young girls who are now free from slavery. The second project I, Greyson, and Gio are working on is a bake sale on 4/20. It is Earth Day and although many people think 4/20 has an alternate meaning, we think this is a perfect day for a bake sale to raise money for our cause. SO EVERYONE COME TO THE FRONT OF THE CAFETERIA ON APRIL 20TH FROM 12-2 TO PURCHASE BAKED GOODS FOR OUR PROJECT!

Chapter 23

It is rather interesting because as I opened my book to read chapter 23, I actually looked at the book in some amazement becuase we are literally at the end of this text. I am so surprised because very rarely do you ever reach the end of textbooks in a class, so I was pretty excited, and also, this chapter deals with issues from modern day, something you rarely deal with in a world HISTORY class.

In this chapter, the end of Empire in World History. In 1900, European colonial empires in Africa and Asia appeared as permanent features of the worlds political landscape. Before the end of the 20th Century, they were all gone. The first major breakthrough occurred in Asia and the Middle East in the late 1940s, when India, Pakistan, Burma, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, and Israel achieved independence. From the 1950s to the 1970s, Africa gained their independence, colony after colony.
India also ended British rule in their country. There were attempts in early centuries to do this, but they never truly succeeded. Unlike previous rulers, the British never assimilated into Indian society due to their small sense of racial and cultural distinctiveness. This served to intensify Indians awareness of their collective difference from their alien rulers. There was a prominent role of Islam in Turkey and also in Iran. There were many experiements with Freedom during this period of about 100 years. There were attempts to create political order to contend with a set of common conditions. Populations were booming, and expectations for independence ran high, exceeding the available resources. Most delevoping countries were culturally diverse with a small amount of loyalty to the central state. Nonetheless, public employment ballooned as the state assumed greater responsibility for economic development. Colonial rule had been highly authoritarian and bureaucratic with little interst in African participation, during hthe 1950s, the British, French and Belgians attempted to transplant democratic institutions to their colonies. They created legislatures, permitted elections, allowed policial parties to operate, and in general anticipated the development of constitutional, parliamentary, multiparty democracies similar to their own.  By the early 1970s, there were very few regimes left among the new states of Africa, and many had led the struggle for independence. Those that did lost mass support and were swept away by military coups.

THE GREAT DEPRESSION

This is probably one of the most famous images of the Great Depression.

The Great Depression has always been a topic of interest for me to learn about. It is thought that the main causes of the Great Depression were the unequal distribution of wealth, overproduction in agriculture, war debts and high tariffs, and the stock market crash. The main effects can be summed up as: widespread hunger, poverty, and unemployment, a worldwide economic crisis, democratic victory in the next election, and the "New Deal".
The stock market crashed in 1929 and by the spring of 1933, unemployment had risen from 8 to 15 million, so almost doubling. The Great Depression finally ended when the federal government imposed rationing, recruited 6 million defense workers, drafted 6 million soldiers, and ran deficits to end World War 2.

A line of citizens trying to get welfare money or find jobs during the Great Depression

Chapter 20

Chapter 20 was all about colonial encounters. The century and a half between 1750 and 1900 was a second  round of European conquests. Germany, Italy, Belgium, the US, Japan, were new players in this scene of conquests. Europeans constantly had to fight long and hard to make their new Empires. The peoples of India and Indoensia colonial conquest grew out of early interaction with European trading firms.  There were lots of endless but peaceful negotiations among the Great Powers who were competing about "who got what" and there was lots of military action, sometimes lasting decades. Being under European rule was difficult for many people. Small scale societies crashed, there was a loss of life, and homes cattle, crops, and lands were devastated. Many men found employment, status, and security in European led armed forces. The shortage and expense of European administrators and the difficulties of communicating across cultural boundaries made it necessary for colonial rulers to rely heavily on a range of local intermediaries.
The Indian Rebellion of 1857-1858 was triggered by the introduction into the colony's military forces of a new cartridge smeared with animal fat from cows and pigs.

In some respects, European colonial empires were but the latest in a long line of imperial creations, all that had enlisted cooperation and experienced resistance from their subject peoples. European racism really affected those Whose western education and aspirations threatened the racial divide. Not only were Europeans foreign rulers, but they also led the way to a new life, which grew out of their own modern transformation. Just as in Europe, artisans suffered so much when cheaper machine manufactured merchandise displaced their own handmade goods.

Religion dramatically changed during the colonization. There was widespread conversion to Christianity and it took place in places like New Zealand, the Pacific Islands, and especially non Muslim Africa. As in the Americas, military defeat shook confidence in the old gods and local practices, fostering openness to new sources of supernatural power that could operate in the wider world now impinging on their societies.

"Collapse"

So recently in my history class, we read an excerpt from a book called "Collapse" written by Jared Diamond. In class, we talked about what kind of issue we would like to focus on that Diamond mentions in his book. I chose to write about protecting wildlife and conserving it. I feel like this is an extremely crucial point to talk about, and although it may be trite, I am going to talk about it more. The Earth has limited resources and every day we are taking more and more of it away. People wonder why we are running out of things and running out of land... the answer is simple, we are using it and abusing it. Also, something we talked about in class but I didn't actually get to speak about is the use of solar panels. Although a great technology, we really have to think about also , the materials that are used to make those. How much fossil fuel and raw materials are we using to make those? Are we doing more damage by making the panels than we are by using them to save electricity? We are trying to find so many alternate ways of saving energy or converting it, that we may actually be hurting the environment more by doing this. I have so many opinions about a lot of this that it would be hard to express it all in one blog, but truthfully, I feel that we only have one Earth, we need to respect it.

Feminism Debate

In class today, we had a debate about the pros and cons of the feminist movement. I found the arguments interesting and some of the points that I wanted to bring up, but didn't get a chance to, I thought I would bring them up now. There is this belief that men get paid more than women. In my macroeconomics class, we saw that technically, this is not true. The reason for this belief is that women, on average, have to take more time off, more days off,etc... to be home with the kids or to take care of the house issues. If a kid is sick , it is typically the mother that has to take off work and stay home, while the father stays at work. So on average, a mans paycheck will be larger than a woman's because she has to take more time off. Also, if it were not for women getting equal rights, men would not be constantly competing in the workforce for jobs, women provide an edge and a place for competition in the workplace, and this provides a setting for more quality work to come out of it, rather than men just being complacent with what they are doing. Men feel so entitled to coming home to a home cooked meal, the clothes being clean, dishes washed, house perfect, and for so long, women were responsible for all of this, but times have changed. Men are now being forced to either do some of that on their own, all on their own, or hiring someone else to do it. A good point was also brought up in class, that, since women have entered the workforce, wages for men have gone down, also college acceptance rates for men have decreased. This debate was very interesting,and I am sure, if given more time would have been more hashed out.

CHAPTER 20

This chapter spoke about the European movement throughout history and was really quite interesting. It was said that between 1750 and 1900, there was a second round of European conquests. This time, it was centered in Asia and Africa rather than in the West. There were more countries involved as well, Germany, Italy, Belgium, and the US, Japan, and then the Spanish and Portuguese had small roles. Europeans, it was said, had to fight to create their new empires. African and people of Asia incorporated very well into one another in the European empires. 

There were so many wars that were peaceful among the "Great Powers" during this time to see who would get what and there was lots of military action. People under European Rule had many complaints. It is said that the transition was a very "traumatic" experience for many. Small scaled societies suffered the most. In the textbook, it said that European colonies were some of the latest in a long line of imperial societies to be built. This chapter opened my eyes more to really how difficult the transition was for people to be under European rule, something I had never realized before.