Independent reading assignment-women of the silk

In many Asian countries, women were treated very poorly. When a woman was unable to have any sons, they were looked down upon. The novel Women of the silk moved me because the main character's mother is scolded for having another baby girl. Villagers think that she is cursed by the spirits/gods because she is unable to have healthy baby boy. The main character's father doesn't even bother looking at the baby when he hears that their fourth child is another girl. This moved me because as a child, my grandmother used to tell me how differently she and her brothers were treated from the elders. This moved me because if I was in the mother's place, I would not be able to survive under the unjust laws/rules that forbade women from doing things men could do.

Short story

It was a gloomy morning. The American soldiers in Afghanistan were ordered to meet early in the morning to discuss the current war situations when suddenly the siren turned on. There was an emergency at the U.S. embassy in Afghanistan and the soldiers were assigned into their units to go to the embassy building and stop all the commotion. While on their way to the embassy building, one of the trucks suddenly stopped. The car engine wasn't working so the soldiers had no choice but to walk their way to the site. Because the group of American soldiers were vulnerable of getting attacked from the Afghanistan terrorists, they had to keep their identity a secret. To avoid any possible shootings, the group of soldiers decided to take a short cut through the woods. However, a Afghanistan spy had already found out about the situation and were following the American soldiers. When the American soldiers decided to stop by the river to take a break, the Afghanistan terrorists took the opportunity to attack them. When the shooting started, the American soldiers defended themselves by shooting back. But the number of Afghanistan soldiers outnumbered the American unit team. In order to fight back, they needed more soldiers to help, so the captain sent one of is members to run to the embassy building and report the situation near the river. So the soldier ran to the embassy and two more units were brought in to help the soldiers fight back.

Decision Making

There are approximately thousands of decisions that I must make in any given day. Some are less important than others but they all affect me in various ways. The type of decisions I must make are usually influenced by the environment I am in and the people that I spend my time with. For instance, if I wanted to do something during class I must take into considerations of how my actions will affect the people around me. My friends and family affect how I make my decisions because they influence me to think and act in a certain way. For example, when I had to decide which college to go, I had to talk it over with my parents and make my final decisions. Also, there were times when I had to act a certain way because of my family. When my parents decided to come to America, I had decide to come with them.

Afghanistan

Recipe for Afghanistan: European influence, Third Anglo-Afghan war, Civil war, Soviet invasion and the Soviet War, establishment of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, rise and fall of Taliban, War in Afghanistan with U.S.

Spring Break

During this spring break, I visited Canada. It was a long time since I met my family and friends in Toronto, so my time there was very meaningful. I spent some time visiting colleges and met a couple of my friends, who toured me around their campus. I also met my brother who I hadn't seen so a couple of months. Together, we visited Montreal. I wanted to see McGill university and so we decided to tour around the city to see whether I would like it or not. Although I liked the school itself, I didn't really feel comfortable in Montreal; I didn't think that I could spend my next four years of life there with my limited French.

Tone

In the beginning of the first chapter, Ernesto Guevara states how he and his friend decided to leave home to travel around South America. In the journal, Ernesto Guevara states his reasons to leave; he explains that he wanted to escape from all the medical school stuff, the hospitals, the exams, etc. He realizes that he was much of a dreamer and could not be left at home doing what the rest of the people were doing. This excerpt helps people get a better understanding of him, because it tells you how everything started. It explains why he left Argentina to travel and how he met with his partner, Fidel Castro, and led the Cuban Revolution.
When Ernesto Guevara talks about the two commandments for traveling and the whole purpose of leaving, he mentions how there can be endless trips. This describes who Ernesto Guevara is because it separates him from the rest of people. His ideals and his dreams define who he is and why he left home to pursue his goals to, revolutionize places such as Cuba. This reflects his overall tone because from the excerpt you can tell that there was a plan all along inside him.
(This was a Do Now from a long time ago, but I didn't post it because I was having trouble connecting to the site at school.)

Separate Ways

When Che leaves Argentina, he is an idealistic dreamer, hoping to unite the South Americans as one “America”. Through his journey with his friend Alberto, he comes in close contact with widespread poverty, famine, and hunger. From his journey, he realizes that his goal is to help the people by making everyone equal. He sees that communism is the way to everything and starts to revolutionize Cuba. When Che first meets Castro and decides to work with him hand to hand, he doesn’t realize their differences in political ideals. However throughout their years together, they eventually separate. Guevara states during his speech that his goal is to help the sick and the poor so that they may prosper.
(I had trouble connecting my blog at school, so I'm posting the Do Now now)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdo6FwAPyng

"The Experts"

When Che and his friend are named “the experts” they travel around the different towns in Chile curing and helping out the sick and poor. This relates a lot to what Che does later on his career, because his whole goal is to spread the common wealth. Because he sees people suffer from poverty, he spends his later years trying to start a revolution to help the South American people. For this reason, he gets separated with Fidel Castro; Unlike Fidel Castro, Che believed in pure Marxist ideals.
(I was unable to connect to my blog so I'm posting my Do Now now)

Connection to the article

It is interesting how the article and Che’s story are alike because the basic background story is pretty much the same. The article and Che have similar circumstances that relate the two together. Although the two situations are both based on the political struggle between two nations it is different because of the problems concerning the political struggle. I feel like this can be considered similar because it deals with the whole political disagreement and the involvement of the American troops in South America.
(I had trouble connecting to my blog so I am posting the Do Now now)

Thesis

Ernesto Guevara dreamed of becoming the “problem solver”. But through his foolish mistakes, he failed to help South America and became a problem himself.
(I had trouble connecting to my blog, so I am posting the Do Now now)

Motorcycle Diaries-Peru

While in Peru, Che makes a visit to San Pablo, the leper island. Before Che leaves, he makes a long speech about his goals and ideals. He writes in his journal that the audience accepted the speech with great applause. Do you really think that they did or do you think that he was exaggerating?
In my perspective, I think Che might have been exaggerating because the audience could have had different political ideals. Not everyone in San Pablo believed in Communism and could have had disagreed with him. Furthermore, I think Che was making a fool of himself because he believed that he could be the hero/savior of the people of South America through his own personal efforts.
(I had trouble connecting to my blog, so I am posting my Do Now now)

My Ideals

I believe that there are some ideals that transcend our ability to define them. For example, I would define goodness and truth as the ultimate way to all things. I think that being untruthful or lying to make another feel better makes situation worse because it always leads to a bigger problem. Although the truth may hurt some at times, it is the best way because it deals with sincerity and honesty. Because our intentions are authentic, I feel that it is right to tell the truth even at times when it may hurt. Additionally, I feel that it is ok to make mistakes because it makes us better people. Although the mistakes may have consequences for the individual and others around him/her at a moment in time, I feel that one can never go wrong in trying hard. I believe that you ca always gain from your mistakes.

(I had trouble connecting to my blog, so I am posting the Do Now now)

Che Blog

After watching the video and the documentary of Che, I feel that no one is specifically responsible for his death. However, I do feel that the Bolivian government and Castro had some contribution or influence on his death because of what they had done to him. When Castro read the farewell letter to the people of Cuba, I think that (although Castro didn’t kill him physically) Fidel Castro left Che powerless, preventing him from coming back to Cuba. Because Castro felt that Che was getting on his political pathway, I think he felt it was best to keep Che away from Cuba as soon possible so he made an attempt to abandon him. I think that is why the audience can tell the awkwardness between the two when they are at a meeting after Che's speech on the Tri-continental. Because Castro had a different philosophy from Che, I think he may have contributed to Che's death.
(I had trouble connecting to my blog, so I am posting the Do Now now)

Poem

The person who wrote these notes passed away the moment his feet touched Argentine soil again.
The person who wrote these notes was no longer the ordinary, but a hero for America.
The person who wrote these notes was born the moment his feet touched Cuban soil.
The person who wrote these notes gave birth to the revolution.
It started with a journey to Argentina and it led to the birth of new Cuba, but it ended in Argentine soil again.

Ideology

Ideology: 1. The body of doctrine, myth, belief, etc., that guides an individual, social movement, institution, class, or large group. 2. Such a body of doctrine, myth, etc., with reference to some political and social plan, as that of fascism, along with the devices for putting it into operation. 3. Philosophy 4. Theorizing of a visionary or impractical nature.
I think that Che's ideology was based on the second one because you can see Fidel Castro and Che's division throughout their political career. Although they both believed in communism, you can tell from watching the documentary that Che believed in the good of all people. He criticized Soviet Union for trying to benefit only themselves and not the rest of the third world countries. He wanted to create this new Utopia where everyone would be somewhat equal, unlike Fidel Castro who wanted all the benefit and the profit to himself. Because Che believed in communist philosophy, he played a major role in the revolution and Cuban politics, which ultimately led him to leave Castro in 1965 to visit other countries.

Documentary Topic

Documentaries are made to help inform audiences of the certain topic or person. If I had the opportunity to create my own documentary, I would chose to do mine on the current economic crisis because it would allow future individuals to learn from the past. The recession is currently hurting so many Americans as well as others all over the world. Unemployment has recently been increasing to approximately seven to eight percent, excluding all those individuals out of the workforce (the discouraged workers). By creating such documentaries, it would allow future people to learn from our mistakes and make efforts to prevent disastrous economic crisis, such as the recession and even worse a depression. Additionally, by creating a documentary about our current economy it would allow people from the future to learn how the government worked to fix the problems. It would teach people how the president tried to solve problems.

Documentary

If I had to create a documentary on Che, I think I would focus on his journey and experiences in Cuba because it would describe his political career. By covering his life story in Cuba, I think I would be able to judge whether he was truly bad or not. Because so many people are unfamiliar with his story, I think covering Che's story in the documentary will give an opportunity for people to learn about him and his true motives behind all of his work.

Road Trip

During the fall of 2001, my family and I took a road trip to Muskoka, which is commonly known as the Canadian Wilderness. Although we had moved to Canada a couple of years before, my family never really had the time to visit places so my dad planned a a trip to Muskoka. Although it was the end of September, the weather was still very humid and dry and the woods were filled with hungry mosquitoes. During the first few days we were at Muskoka, the weather was warm so we hiked along the Muskoka Park trails, but the days eventually became colder and wet. When the weather became cold, the tree leaves changed colors so my family and I climbed up into the Lion's lookout, where we could have a bird's eye view of the woods and the town nearby.

Gathering Blue

I judge books by looking at the color, cover images, and summaries. After reading the brief synopsis of the book, I decide whether I want to read the book or not . If the book seems like something that I can connect to I usually read it. A book that caught my attention was Gathering Blue. After reading The Giver and looking at the front cover, I felt that it would deal with the same issues of the world without life and color so I decided to read it.