Response to first part of Maus 2

When I was reading the first part of Maus 2, one question came to my mind, why did Art Spiegelman use Mice for his main characters?  In my opinion, using mice as the characters can easily organize the hierarchy in the concentration camp and in the Holocaust in general.  For example, the guards were cats and the prisoner guards were pigs.  In the context of the Holocaust it makes perfect sense to have cats be the prison guards because in real life they scare mice and frighten them.  In the eyes of mice, cats are their primary enemy.  The use of pigs whom were prisoner guards is useful to show that they had more power than mice, but not a much as cats because they were not predators.  Pigs were a piece of meat which was bigger than the mice and gave them more power and in a sense they were more useful.  Overall, Art Spiegelman's use of characters to create a social and political hierarchy during the Holocaust is very creative by using mice, pigs, and cats. 

Human Rights in class Activity response.

What is the challenge to address human rights to everyone?

-The challenge with addressing human rights to everyone is that there are so many people and different circumstances which come about.  Human rights are given to everyone once they are born and it is there right to use these rights that the United Nations has created for them to further their life in the best way possible.  It becomes challenging when these rights conflict with religion or faith.  Also when giving these rights to people they tend to abuse them.  Such as the freedom of speech right which can cause riots, strikes, and bad publicity.  Overall, human rights are for everyone, but it is challenging to keep them in order all the time.

DRC Current Events

-http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3786883.stm
This article is about the rebel leader, Laurent Nkunda, that was arrested in 2009 after he was put on trial.  He was accused of violence and mass killings by the lead of his troops.  Also he was accused with rape and and torture while he was in charge.  Overall, he violated the Human Rights bill which initially put him on trial and arrested him after he was found guilty.

-http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/10/01/congo.atrocities.un.report/index.html?iref=allsearch 
This article is about violation of human rights in the Democratic Republic of Congo.  Throughout this article it describes the reports that the United States has reported on human rights violations such as rapes, killings, and torture over a 10 year period.  Along with all of this violence the military force in the Congo is recruiting at least 30,000 children for troops to fight.  Worst of all there are random mass killings of civilians when villages are raided by the rebel military.

Both of these articles have similar points due to the fact that they both talk about violence, rape, torture, and mass killings.  This is a serious problem that you will most likely find in a report about the Democratic Republic of the Congo.