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.                 
   

Let it Linger (after group discussion)

1. One idea or question that is lingering after the discussion was why did the Author name the chapter, "Where there aren't no ten commandments."


2. In the group discussion we did not have that much support other than a few references from the text.  This is mainly because we did not have time to prepare and the questions that we picked from the list were mostly one sided questions.  This created an unsuccessful discussion.   

Discussion questions and response from King Leopold's Ghost

1. Why do you think King Leopold does not ever come to Africa to witness the bloodshed and slave trade?

2. What were the main reasons and or resources that the Europeans wanted to colonize Africa?

The part of the reading I liked was about the native African people such as priests and leaders of the community of the Kongo that eventually fell under the greed because of the goods received from the Europeans.  Even Affonso, the African ruler, submitted to the greed of the money and goods exchanged for their own people as slaves.  Reading this part was very interesting because it showed two sides of the situation by the view of the African people.  One was from the beginning when men, women, and children were being sold and shipped out to other countries as slaves.  The African's saw this as terrible and begged the Europeans to stop the slave trading.  When the African's realized that the Europeans would not budge they eventually started accepting the fact that their own people were being used as slaves.  Then they started to like the goods in which they were receiving and became greedy.         

End Of Class Response (9-2-10)

1. Today I learned about Colonization and Imperialism which occurred and is still occurring all around the world.  I leaned how much of the world was colonized by European powers.  Also I learned about Haiti, the country in my summer reading book, which was colonized by the French in the early 1800's.

2. I really do not have many countries.

3. Something that I am curious about is specifically how many countries did France colonize? 

Current Events Reporting

What's being discussed in this article?
-This article consists of a suspicious poisoning attack from the Taliban which happened in a girls school.  Many were taken to the hospital and treated because of severe poisoning.  The attack was described as "an apparent poisoning attack by the enemies of women's education." 


When did the event happen? (Is this breaking news or something that's been analyzed and discussed for a while?)
-This event happened on Wednesday 25 August 2010. This is breaking news that only happened two days ago.   

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?
-One question I do have is how the poisonous gas got into the school?  In other words, what was the source of the poison? I need to learn more about the history of these attacks.  How many there were before this one and how severe to accurately report this event throughly. 

Which Newsworthy events do you remember from your lifetime?

Mine:

1. September 11th, 2001.  This event has changed the way we perceive other countries in the middle east and how we live our lives.  Also it has impacted the way we travel by stricter security searches and procedures.

2. First African American President of the United States, Barrack Obama.  First time in history that a President from a different race other then Caucasian has been elected

3. Virginia Tech University massacre in which multiple students and faculty were shot, killed, and or wounded by a raging gunman who was a current student from Virginia Tech. 

Parent:

1.First Man On The Moon.  The first manned space shuttle to land on the moon.

2. Rodney King Beating.  Racial beating that created major controversy in L.A. and all over America between Blacks and Whites.

3. OJ Simpson Trial.  From the death of his ex wife to the police chase this was a very well followed by the American people and almost everybody was interested.