Multimedia Presentation on Prisoner of her Past

http://www.empressr.com/View.aspx?token=U3QxDyDbZkk%3d&e=WbicHq211TxeNEyrKANdpv20AWEhAMs2BvppYOyBxbp%2bfw8pbUmqFQ%3d%3d

Research Question

Research Question:

How has the acceptance of the Taliban impacted the rights of Afghan women?


Information that I need to find out:

Rights of women before and after the Taliban.

Is there somewhere, in terms of religion, that says woman must cover everything but their eyes?

What impact if any has the UDHR had?

Possible Exam Topics

I want to do something about women from Afghanistan or Pakistan and their human rights violations. I am interested in how the rights of women in Afghanistan or Pakistan are violated (and how they are against the universal declaration of human rights). I am interested in this topic because of the recent news events about the woman from Pakistan. Also when I was downtown I saw a women from the Middle East who had been abused (I think she was burned), so ever since then I have been interested in human rights.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/08/world/asia/08burn.html?_r=2&scp=2&sq=afghan%20burning&st=cse

Voices of women in Afghanistan unveiled

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/11/18/pakistan.blasphemy/index.html?hpt=C1

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4074377.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/478900.stm

I don't really know where I want to take this topic, but I know I want to do something about their limited rights being violated. I may want to focus on one right in particular that is violated very often, or something like that. I also am interested in what the rest of the world is doing to help or prevent the human rights violations.

MAUS II

The most disturbing image to me was the bottom block on page 72.


I don't know if it is the image, or the words that go along with it, or a combination of the two. The text on that strip just really stuck with me, "and the fat from the burning bodies they scooped and poured again so everyone could burn better." The facial expressions on the mice in the picture and the fact that you can see there ribs just disturbs me a lot. The pictures makes me think of how painful it would be to burn alive. And just the pain that is brought to me by looking at the picture. Then you get the added visual effects of the old bodies that had already burned and the thought of them being poured on top of the people that were still alive is utterly disgusting.

moral dilemmas

I think that being brought up in a military family had a very large influence on my decisions and opinions. At most family get togethers, there are not the usual 'I had to walk to school, uphill both ways' there are the stories of “when I was stationed in ____” I think that having heard these stories, and having read the letters that were sent back home from war and the first hand accounts that my dad, or my aunt, or my uncles, or my cousins, or grandpa had witnessed caused me to view things in a different way.

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/congothedemocraticrepublicof/index.html?scp=2&sq=democratic%20republic%20of%20congo&st=cse

This article talks about the issues that the Congo has faced, and how they are impacting/have impacted the people.The Congo has vast rainforests and natural resources. There have been many lives lost and battles fought in recent years. In 1960 the Congo was set free and basically didn't know what to do, and became a pawn for more powerful countries to utilize. The article talks about the United Nations' impact on the Congo. However, 4 million people have died since 1998; over half of them were children under the age of five. How can the United Nations not be able to protect them? How can a country that has so many natural resources, and has had billions of dollars invested in rebuilding it, not be able to sustain itself (that's not the right word)?

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/10/01/congo.atrocities.un.report/index.html

This article talks about the recent report that the UN published regarding the many atrocities in the Congo. The report talks about how children were recruited for the army, and millions of people died. The report also focuses a lot on the horrible things that have happened to women and children. This article makes me wonder, if we know that these things are happening, why can't we help figure out a way to stop them? What caused the Congo to be in the constant state of war and heartbreaking atrocities? Just why?

Something that stuck out to me

A quote that really stuck with me was "Even those who volunteered often did so because, as one soldier explained to a European visitor, he preferred to be with the hunters rather than with the hunted'"(127). I found this one to be particularly interesting because it showed that people knew that the abuse was wrong, however the fear that they would now become the abused was greater than their desire to stop the malicious actions that were going on. 

KLG 33-60

Quote that sums up King Leopold, "Leopold was nonetheless a dedicated scholar when it came to one subject, profits" (37).

Quote that sums of Stanley, "To read Stanley today is to see how much his traveling was an act of appropriation. He is forever measuring and tabulating things"(51).

Quote that supports King Leopold's desire for profits, "His drive for colonies, however, was shaped by a desire not only for money but for power"(39).


Ms. Knechel - I think I may have done this homework wrong : (

KLG 1-32

I found the reading to be very interesting. The different perceptions, while limited, were insightful and helped shed a light on the what was happening. I also thought it was very interesting to hear what the Africans thought of the Europeans, and how Africans had once been described. As for John Rowlands, better known as Henry Morton Stanley, I thought it was kind of weird that he embellished his stories so much. I understand that he was trying to impress people and separate himself from his childhood, I thought it was a little weird that he changed his name so many times and that he embellished his stories so much that they became rather far-fetched. However, I also thought it was interesting that he considered Africa his place to seek solace.


Why do you think the Europeans felt it necessary to take people from the Congo?

What are some similarities and differences in the ways that the slave trade is viewed? What did the ManiKongo think? King Joao III?

Current Events - PRACTICE

What's being discussed in this article?
The article talks about building a mosque near Ground Zero. The article also discusses how countries from around the world view the debate that is going on, and what they believe should happen with the building of the mosque. Some countries see this as something small, while others see it as a permanent reminder of the memories from 9/11 " and it isn't good to awaken memories" (Dalil Boubakeur, head of the Grand Mosquee of Paris).

When did the event happen? (Is this breaking news or something that's been analyzed and discussed for a while?)

The article was published 2 days ago, but there has been a debate on the possibility of a mosque being built near Ground Zero; and how others see it.

What questions do you have that would help make this article make more sense to you? What more do you need to learn about to be able to report on this event?

I would like to know why the base of Ground Zero was picked as the number one place to build this mosque.

news worthy events from your life time

Which news worthy events to you remember from your life time?

There have been a lot of news worthy events in the past 17 years. When I think about the ones that I can remember every detail, every sound, every action, every moment that happened, the first that comes to mind is September 11th and later the London Bombings. On September 11, 2001 I was in my third grade classroom, with my fellow classmates, about to make our way to science with Mrs. Moore. As we were walking through the hall (single-file of course) we were headed off by Mr. Halverson (our homeroom teacher) and told to go back to his room. We all sat back at our desks and he turned on his TV (that was up in the corner mounted on the wall, the one that I had asked to watch movies on a few days before). I remember the teachers, who we had put on pedestals, crying their eyes out and leaning on each other for support. I remember the tears in the eyes of our principal when he told us our nation was under attack, we sat in our desks for the entire day watching coverage. I remember how only the third graders and up were allowed to watch what was happening. I remember watching the buildings burn and the people inside jump out, so they wouldn't be burned alive, ultimately all jumping to their death. I remember coming home and being sat down by my mom and dad and them having to explain to my brother (a first grader) what had happened and why my mom was crying. I remember with feelings of sadness, helplessness and fear in our stomachs, we realized on that day, as 8 year olds, that America as we knew it would not be the same again. This is a day that I will never forget.

The second event that came to mind was Hurricane Katrina. For Hurricane Katrina I remember watching the news with my family and thinking, how could something so deadly come in an instant and wipe away a city that has been around for ever. I remember the feeling of guilt that I couldn't do anything right then to help the people that I saw standing on the roofs, so that they could stay above the water level. I remember wondering why those people hadn't left. And then I remember coming to Whitfield, I believe Matt Kincaid was the president at the time, and I remember him getting up at assembly and talking to the school about the hurricane and how we as a school and a community were going to adopt a family and feeling like I could help, even if it was just helping this family get the basic essentials like clothes and a tooth brush. I remember a couple years ago going down to the gulf coast and seeing the lines that were drawn on the wall of where the water had gotten to. This is a day I will never forget.


I third event that came to my mind was the Virgina Tech Shooting. I was in Mr. Cacciatore's class, sitting in the front row next to Kelly (our usual spots) and I remember having just talked about the Columbine Shooting in the class before. I remember how Mr. C's cell phone rang, and then his class phone, and the his cell phone again before he finally picked up, it was his wife on the other end. The smile that is usually on his face was replaced with a feeling of shock and disbelief. Then he broke the news to us, that one of the most deadly school shootings in the history of the United States had happened earlier in the day. I remember watching the students at VT on the news crying for their friends, I remember the saying that "Today we are all Hokies".  I remember having mixed emotions of sadness, but also of how could this happen. I will never forget that day.

I asked my mom what events she remembered from her life time. The first one that she said was also September 11th. She says she remembers turning on the news to check the stock market before going to her Girl Scout Leaders meeting (she was my troupe's leader) and seeing a plane flying into the first building behind the news anchor that was talking. She described how she went to the meeting and people were on the phone the entire time with updates like, a plane just hit the Pentagon, now one just went down in Pennsylvania, and coming home. She told me how she was so upset she didn't sit down she just stood in the kitchen watching TV with tears running down her face, until it was time to pick my brother and I up from school. She remembers her college friend that was inside for a meeting, who had just adopted a baby. She told me about the friend that called in sick that day and the other that had a bad feeling in their gut. She remembers my aunt (her sister) calling to tell everyone to turn on the news, and her mis-dialing a number and scaring an elderly lady who had no idea what she was talking about.

The next event she told me about was the Oklahoma City bombings. She was at home with my brother who was not even 6 weeks old yet and watching the news. She saw the bombing in Oklahoma that was in front of a daycare center. She told me how upset she was because there she was watching the news holding her 6 week old baby, while I was at my own daycare center. She told me about how mad she was that someone could ever do that especially to a child.

The final event that my mom told me about was President Reagan being shot, and surviving. She was a sophomore in college and being told at dinner that he had been shot and The President's press secretary had been shot in the head. She said that she was surprised, but not at the same time. She explained that there used to be a cycle that every "x" number of presidents the next one will get shot. She explained how on campus people would all secretly wonder if or when Reagan was going to be shot. She told me how this event helped lead to the changes in gun laws ultimately.