Multi-Flow Map

Genocide in Rwanda

Websites:
http://www.ppu.org.uk/genocide/g_rwanda.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1288230.stm

http://www.unitedhumanrights.org/Genocide/genocide_in_rwanda.htm

Blog # 13

I read an article about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The two wars have already lasted longer than World War II and have taken more troops and money than the government ever expected. These wars have the pentagon thinking about what they are going to do because the old doctrine may not work for much longer with these wars. The wars have taken already more than 170,00 troops which are having to stay longer than expected and cause the government to keep pouring more money into these places. The pentagon is thinking of having to make a new plan for budgeting, planning, and buying weapons with the effects the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have caused. The Bush administration put into effect a new plan which prevented terrorists from obtaining biological, chemical, or nuclear weapons and defends the American population. The two wars that the US is fighting are causing new strains and problems within our government and have the pentagon seriously searching for a new plan of action to keep our military going.

Shanker, Thom. "Pentagon Rethinking Old Doctrine on 2 Wars." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 14 Mar. 2009. The New York Times. 15 Mar. 2009 .

Blog # 12

I read an article about how for the earth to last for the predicted number of years, we must colonize on mars within 46 years from 1993. 14 years after this prediction came out, there had still been no progress to the thought of living on mars. J. RIchard Gott II predicted this period of time based on scientific methods and has a 95 percent chance of being correct on his time frame. He says that since we have colonized all over one planet, why not move to the next and do something on that planet to keep our world around longer. The colonization of mars needs to be up and running by 2039 according to Dr. Gott and he does not think that this task is too far out of our range. The colonization of mars should not be too difficult because according to him we have colonized our whole world, so why can't we move on to something outside of out planet into the world. We only have a small time period once a rocket is built to get back up to mars and back, so colonizing and building a life up there will be more difficult than many think. Colonization on mars is one that will hopefully come soon and could change the outcome for our planet greatly.

Tierney, John. "A Survival Imperative for Space Colonization." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 17 July 2007. The New York Times. 10 Mar. 2009 .

Blog # 11

For this blog about a global issue, I wanted to read about effects of global warming. I picked an article that talks about the top 5 deadliest effects of global warming. Number 1 is that disease would be able to spread much more rapidly and easier, because disease-carrying insects migrate north as it gets warmer. Scientists believe that because of this, Malaria has not been fully destroyed. Number 2 is more frequent and worst hurricanes. This is due to the temperatures rising in oceans. In one of my previous blogs about hurricane Katrina i learned that there is still tons of damage that has not been taken care of after all these years. It would be terrible to have more of those deadly hurricanes hit. Number 3 is more frequent/worse droughts and heat waves which will most dramatically affect Africa and parts of Africa. Africa already has a very scarce source of water, so this would be a huge problem and could potentially spark wars and conflicts (such as that in Sudan). Number 4 is that the past 3 effects would be costly to the economy because "Hurricanes cause billions of dollars in damage, diseases cost money to treat and control and conflicts exacerbate all of these". And lastly number 5 is that polar ice caps would melt which would cause many, many problems. This is a very serious problem that I think people definitely need to pay more attention to.

Johnson, Simon. "5 Deadliest Effects of Global Warming." Environmental Graffiti. 11 Sep. 2007

Blog # 10

For this blog about a holiday I read an article about the history of Easter. Easter celebrates the resurrection of Jesus. Something that I found interesting from this article is that it is a celebration converged from three traditions: Pagan, Christian, and Hebrew. Another fact that I found interesting was that to solve the problem of what day Easter should be celebrated on, Constantine called to formation the Council of Nicaea. I remember learning about this in my AP world class but did not know that it played a crucial role in determining the day that Easter should fall on (they ended up agreeing on it being the Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox... whatever that means). I was hoping to find out where all of the stereotypical Easter traditions evolved from, such as the Easter bunny, Easter egg searches, etc. I'm not sure what these symbolize in relation to Christianity because they seem kind of unrelated take the importance off of the reason for celebration.

http://www.theholidayspot.com/easter/history/easter_history.htm

Blog # 9

For my blog about bollywood I read Bollywood Confidential by Suketu Mehta. In this article, Mehta tries to describe what it is about bollywood movies that Indians find such a connection with and why this is not the case for Americans and hollywood movies. Although he never specifically states his reasoning for why this is, I think that they love Bollywood films so much is because it is such a crucial aspect of their culture and promotes very good values for viewers. It is something that many people- regardless of race, gender, religion, whatever it is- can bond over and relate on. Much of his article is about personal stories of how Bollywood films impact peoples lives. Such as how when they moved to America his son Gautuma would sing Hindi film music and traditional english songs. He says that when he missed Bombay when he was in New York he would sing Hindi music from his favorite Bollywood film. Suketu comments on this, "An Indian boy in America, singing a Hindi song from an Indian movie imitation of an American comic book: the Ping-Pong game of kitsch.". I think this was an event that stuck out to him because in the midst of a new country that is so different, he can look back and watch over and over again these films and bring a small piece of Indian culture with him wherever he goes. I think that is the reason that these movies are so special, is because they represent their culture and reflects values and morals that are important to them.

Suketu, Mehta. "Bollywood Confidential". New York Times Sunday Magazine. 12 Nov 2005. 27 Feb 2009.