Africa Today

Ive always known africa as a poverty striken country. From television adds wanting money to help kids, and the fact that everything id ever seen was either poor people struggling to survive or amazing animals in the jungles and safari's. Now i see africa as still an amazing beautiful country, but also as a country that has riches and poverty. War striken area's with violence everywhere it seems to be a very dangerouse place in some parts. Genocide between tribes has happend for example the tutsi and hutu tribes in rawanda.Many difficutlties have come through colonization. The European countries saw africa as a huge country filled with resources and wealth to be made. The did not care for the African people. The enslaved them, made them work, took their land split them appart and turned them against eachother. For many years you rarely saw one of the africans leading or being the boss. The Europeans came in late 1980's and early 1900's looking for money and resources. This beautiful country torn appart. The african people have been struggling for a long time and now they are still struggling because the colonizers either moved on or were forced out by rebels. The industry was run by Europeans now the resourses they have left are being taken and sold for wealth of small groups not entire city's. The politics are improving, more africans are now in power and things are getting back on track. The way i see it now is actually in many different ways. I want to visit africa because it is not only beautiful but very divers. Most young people before they look at a map would never even asociate egypt and the pyramides with africa. Or even think that they could have so many diamonds that they could be very wealthy. Some things i wish i could help with the poverty but i wish they could set themselves straight. Being taken over and then left with nothing is the biggest challenge i believe. Now my thoughts are changed not for better or worse but different.

Skateboarding

Skateboarding is a widely known sport today. I do it myself and i see day to day how many people are trying to learn or how many people already skate. Once a sport that almost disappeared, to a sport that every knows of. It all started in the 1950's when surfers from all across California began to have the need to bring surfing to the streets. They would use planks of wood even boxes and throw on some roller skate wheels and off they went. Many people were injured during the first years because the boards were not stable and the wheels were made of clay. If they hit a rock a crack or anything they would pretty much be air born and hitting the pavement soon after. In about 1965 skateboarding died out. The company's stopped making boards. People who wanted to skate had to go back to creating their own. But people were still dedicated. In 1972 an amazing invention was created. The urethane skate wheel, similar to what are used today this made people change their minds about skateboarding. These wheels were a lot smoother, faster, and more absorbing. They were now able to ride faster over cracks and things but rocks are still always a challenge. The sport grew popular with many teams, a legendary one known as the Zephyr team. They rocked the competitions and were amazing on their boards. The team members such as Jay Adams, Stacey Peralta, and Tony Alva were the best back in the late 1970's. Now skateboarding is at a whole new level. The tricks are unbelievable there are so many skaters that are just amazing. Its really hard to keep up and sponsors are looking for the best of the best. Its definitely a revolutionary sport and anyone can do it. Every type of personality click or group has skaters. There’s punk, jock, nerd, hippie, emo, gangster, weirdo, quiet, and even some dogs can skate. It just amazes me and i believe its one of the fastest grown sports. It is my favourite sport and i believe one of the greatest creations in history today. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEdAKw0MBlo

This is a video of a 21 stair gap and handrail skaters have mastered. Amazing!

The Holocaust

The Holocaust was the act of killing approximately 6 million European Jews. They were murdered, enslaved, discriminated against and put down as horrible people for absolutely no reason. First moving them into ghettos all around Europe cramming tens of thousands into small areas with horrible living conditions. Then moving them into train carts shipping them out to work camps and death camps with nowhere to escape and no one to help them Germans separated women children brothers and sisters and either put them to work or sent them to death. They told them they were going to take a shower, crammed many into the "shower room" and when they realized there was no shower heads, they released gas and killed them all. In Europe at this time if you were Jewish, disabled, homosexual you were targeted and murdered. People need to learn from this horrible time in history. This was genocide, for reason that is unexplainable. This should not have happened. The Germans had no mercy, from what i have seen in this unit i was disgusted. The massive graves with bodies just killed and thrown in. Cutting off their hair stealing all of their possessions and selling it for money. Taking a whole religion and practically eliminating it out of Europe. This can never happen again. We need to teach this in our schools and show people how horrible this is to discriminate against people. Hitler died in 1945 and the war was over, the holocaust was over. Allied forces were moving in and discovering the death camps. even after everything they had seen in war they still broke down into tears when they saw these horrible places of evil and killing. They found documents of experiments that they performed on people that were crimes against humanity. They were able to charge anyone who had any knowledge that the death camps were running. They charged the scientists involved with the experiments that were disgusting. In the end we discover how brutal people can be and that brainwashing a whole population to go against a religion can lead to mass murder.

D-Day

The D-day invasion was planned for so long I don’t think that luck had anything to do with the victory. It was planned years in advance planning intelligence. If they did not think they would succeed then why would they go through with the attack. They had so many groups and army's to fight with them. It was a massive battle with all of the allied forces to take the power out of Germanys hands and end the war. From fake blow up tanks and ships, to little pocket crickets that could save a soldiers life if lost somewhere in France. They had "test" invasions on Dieppe and Dunkirk where they wanted to test their intelligence, the beaches, and just to see if they could win. When the men were slaughtered they realized that their intelligence was bad. They also had a lot less men involved less strategy which lead to their loss. After those two battles they learned what they had to do. Every soldier had a map and many more intelligence related items. In nights before the attack they dropped dummies with fire works on the beach of Pas de Cale, this made the Germans think they are trying to distract them for an attack that would be coming later. This gave them more time on the beaches and many of the Germans were at Pas de Cale. This lead to success in the end although not reaching all they objectives they stormed the beaches taking out the pillboxes and the Germans. They moved through Normandy taking out all German forces. This day of long planning and hard battle lead to the allies defeating the Germans and setting the world back in order.

Causes Of the Russian Revolution

The Russian revolution began because of the people being miss treated, having practically nothing, and being sent to war with absolutely no resources. Russia was falling apart. People were not going to put up with it for much longer. They had to fight to get bread, and bread was all they had. The people were angry. When large populations get angry, they rebel. The army at war was fighting with nothing. Their clothes were torn, most had no shoes because they had to eat them to survive, they had to follow each other around with 1 gun so that when the guy dies they can pick up the gun and keep fighting. Russia was in a war they were not prepared for, and the supplies sent from France and Britain were stuck at the ports. The Government was falling apart with the Tsar out at war and his wife leading the country Rasputin was taking over. The politicians had no interest in any public benefit. No one had a say in what went on. Rasputin had fired all of the politicians and replaced them with his own friends. They were using the government to get rich and benefit themselves. The people were angry. They began the Russian revolution.

Social Darwinism

When rich or more powerful people believe they are better then poorer less successful people. Or a race that believes it is superior over other races because of minor facial differences. The theory of survival of the fittest or Darwinism was thought up in the animal kingdom where if they evolved they are clearly the leading species taking the elements and adapting to them when others are being killed off. Humans took this theory into them with the belief that if they have more money or are stronger and better off they are surviving and others are being left behind. German Nazi parties applied this concept to kill of the Jewish the handicapped and the homosexuals during world war 2. He used the concept and said they are unfit for survival we are better then them so they deserve to die. It was like an excuse to eliminate people because they are different or inferior. This concept has brought lots of trouble in the world. It makes people feel horrible and as if they have no purpose when they are showed up by the "upper class". This belief came in with the colonizing of Africa. The European countries walked in to a country that they believed was inferior and made them work, go to war, and give their resources because they are the better society or people. It is not a good concept for our social world because now we have to work against it. We have to get the point across that everyone is equal. The people that are still using the concept are now wrong. The fact that this concept went so far with one race trying to completely eliminate another, and slaves being mistreated for many years. Still racism and hatred going on in the world today is unacceptable and no one is better than anyone unless you separate the good people from the bad.

Journal Entry, Fernandez S. Wilmerino

August 5th 1907

Today was a great day, the cook made one of the best breakfasts ever. Me and the boys played some croquet in the morning. My wife was preparing the home for the guests that we are going to have over tonight. Just a small party. I have cut my friend out because he was a jackass during the last one. I’ve bought 4 of the most uncommon fish in all of the Mediterranean sea. 40 pounds each and we replaced their eyes with diamonds for looks. We have just bought 6 new outfits each for the dinner parties coming up. We are hoping to be looking better and more expensive then the Ricardo family. Last time both of our wives were wearing the same thing. I’ve gone to the bank today. Looks like we have around 10 000 dollars in that account. I just sold my steel mill to my neighbour across the street. We are looking to move in to the big mansion up on the hill because our 4000 square foot home isn't large enough anymore. My new steel mill is up and running and I’m paying the workers 5 dollars a day for their labour of 9 hours. I’m hopping to be buying some new machinery and unfortunately the workers pay will be lowered by 1 dollar.

The dinner went well tonight. The guests were very impressed by the fish. Luckily we made the Ricardo family look like crap. My wife looked stunning but was a bit angry that i was flirting with Mrs. Flavour. She cant do anything because Mrs. Flavour is married. I have proved tonight that i provide for my family and have the most money in town. When we move into the mansion i will host another party with 2 times more people. Now i must sleep....