Recap of class on 3/25/15 North Africa/Middle East and Israel with some Terrorism on the side

Well we covered North Africa and the issues with the encroachment of the Sarah (by the way this means desert so don't say it twice) into populated areas causing conflict. Speaking of conflict we had the pleasure of seeing Sun City, South Africa and the De Beers family and their monopoly of the worlds diamonds, buying up of Conflict Diamonds, the use of slave labor to work said mines, and the squandering of a major natural resource WATER to do their patented flood mining. So go ahead and get her a Diamond you "TOOL"! Big supporters of Apartheid also! The 1%, love'em or leave'em!

Then we move into the Middle East and how the main force that drives population growth is access to water. The fact is that more and more areas are loosing this precious commodity. On the other hand they do have oil and the (haves') have "more money then God" while the "Have nots" Have  God and nothing else. Meanwhile the two Islamic powerhouses(Saudi Arab and Iran) wage proxy wars against each other. The latest is in Yemen where Iran Backed "Hootie rebels" tried to overthrow the elected government with the backing of Iran. The Saudis are dropping bombs to maintain the Pro Saudi regime that was in place. Meanwhile with the with all the confusion there seems to be a golden opportunity to Foster Radical Islam. Why do they hate us? Well we promote freedom, women's rights, and materialism. How horrible! It's always better to oppress all women, Kill women, children, and anyone who wants to speak out about the brutality. All this in the name of religion or just to cover the brutality of man. In class it was pointed out how Israel used terrorism to help achieve its state hood but should be ready to do it again if threatened. Well if we're going that route then what about a tea party, the targeting of Royal goods and employees, and full on attacks by a rebel alliance.

Latin America and Africa (South of Sahara) 3/18/2015

 Well tonight we started up with Latin America and the liberation of Grand Columbia by Bolivar. He took his example from us and is considered The George Washington of South America. He liberated the Spanish Colonialist from Spain's oppression. This would have been a golden opportunity for a true relationship between North/South America if they only spoke English. We have always been snobs about that fact that we want freedom but only if your WASP.
  We also looked at Argentina and Peronism, don't be misled, this is Fascism renamed after WWII by Nazis and remnants of Mussolini's party who fled to this safe haven after the war. They practiced their own atrocities as we in the U.S.looked away. Well they weren't communist so who cared. It's sad that we put so much effort into stopping the spread of communism instead of making the lives of the people in South America better. Now we have an illegal immigration problem because of all the crap we stirred up with regime changes to keep the red threat out.  
  Lets look at Africa now. It seems that with global warming and the expanding deserts, the continent is in turmoil. HIV/AIDS have killed generations of Africans and created some of the worst refugee criseses since WWII. It seems that some are under the impression that Catholic Charities is the  biggest cause cause of this because they maintain most of the medical and educational needs of these poorest of the worlds poor. Well I may not be a practicing Catholic but I am a Catholic and I Say what has any other group done to really make a difference in their lives. We watch Islamic radicals come in  and kill and force their views on the weak. Yet they make no one they touch better and destroy all they conquer. More Christians (Most Catholics) are killed for their beliefs then any other religious group today. They still go and help regardless the threat, and they don't force conversion on those they help. So I say if you don't agree with their views then come help these poor your own way. Don't hate Catholics for being Catholics. Well thats my rant for this week.

      

United States Hegemon of the World? 3/4/15

America,
What's our culture? Free, Powerful, Bipolar, Capitalism (selling of labor), Complicated, Money is Power, Influence, but we have to do so to make the world work together. The World looks to us to be that influence that has to fix everything. We can't pick and choose what causes we will and won't support! If we are going to be the Worlds Hegemon then we need to be ALL-IN, or ALL-OUT!!!!!
We never listen to our own good advice. We should have filled those voids we created after the Cold War but instead we let the world fall into turmoil. If we are morally obligated to take care of these issues then we need to get off our ASS NOW!!!!! Our weakness didn't start with Obama but could go back as far as Ford and Carter. We try to control the world through USAid. Buying friends 1 country at a time.
We also talked about gender inequality and how women rights around the world. How America turns out ideas that women should be educated and that puts us into conflict with many Islamic Fundamentalist. We start these ideas but we don't protect these women when there beaten, raped, and beheaded. We just don't give a crap unless we can build a Wal-Mart or a Chilies.

Colonialism/ Neo-Colonialism

     On Wed. 2/18/2015 we talked about the Pros and Cons of Colonialism. The question was posed that the world would not of evolved as well as it did without the expansion and colonization of the known world by Western Europe. I think that's a load of crap because when you look at the evolution of humans every major advance in our race occurred almost simultaneously across the planet. So just because Europeans couldn't play nice in the yard does not mean that these great advances would not of happened anyway. Maybe the advances of man would have been even greater if  colonization had not occurred. Historians are now challenging the estimates of how big the indigenous population of North America was before colonization nearly wiped them from existence. So instead of giving kudos to the English, French, Dutch, and Spanish we should give them a Bill to pay for the cleanup of all the Mess and Grief they caused around the world. That's only one mans view of colonialism.

     Next we look at Neo-Colonialism and all things American. We want to recreate the world in our own image like we are Gods of Society.We really need to get off our soap box and treat our citizens as well as those around the world with some dignity and respect. Instead we try to change people one Coke at a time, a few pieces of KFC, and Big Macs all around. Meanwhile our greatest citizens Walmart, BOA, ING, Microsoft, Disney, G.E.,Monsanto, and less then 1% of the wealthiest Americans have stolen our government, our rights, our health, our futures, and plundered most of the worlds wealth. We have been exploited and watched our quality of life spiral down over the last 30 years thanks to good old Neo-Colonialism. Right to work(Exploit) is the new trend and the propaganda about how bad unions are even though they only make up less then 12% of labor in the U.S. today. When will the people ever wake up and say ENOUGH!!!!!!!! So Hooray for Neo-Colonialism!

Reflections on class 2/11/15- Modernization Theory of Development/Religion

     I think that sometimes we look at things with an insulated view. I wish that people would open their eyes instead of going through life blind to the evil that is done in the name of profit. So when I look at  Modernization Theory of Development me it looks like this to me:
1) Exploit The Masses!!!!
2)Hoard The Profits!!!!
3)Distract The Masses, Keep the from organizing/Revolting!!!
4)Get them to Help Exploit Others!!!! Then Repeat #1!!!
The argument in class is that this is a natural progression that all societies go through to become a Great Society. I don't buy into this at all. What we have today is what we had in the past, a very small group of people hoarding most of the worlds assets while everyone else lives and labors to support the decadence of the few. This theory has no room for meeting peoples basic needs for health, home, education, and food. It creates a Defacto class of new slaves under the names of poor, working poor, lower middle-class, middle-class, and upper middle-class. They are all slaves living in a society of debt and regret while all wealth goes up not sideways or down like your told it will. I really wish people would stand up and say this i s wrong for all of humanity and needs to change instead of being perpetuated by Academia.
     We then talked about Religion and its purpose in the world. I think people do need to feel their is a higher purpose to supplement the hard lives they have. I feel religion is good but universal help for all people to live safe and happy lives would be so much better. It is true that more people die in the name of religion and it seems that more and more religions are becoming less and less tolerant. I feel that if modern religions can't live civilly in the world then maybe the world should come together to disband these religions. Why should the whole world suffer because of the distorted views of the few. Well sorry for being so dark with this blog! I just feel we could be so much better then we are!!!!!!!!!   WARNING!!!! SOME OF THESE IMAGES ARE VERY VIOLENT AND GORY!!!!

                                          

Class on 2/4/15 Les Miserables

In tonight s class we talked about the Pros and Cons of Supra-nationalism. The 5 countries that make up the security counsel at The U.N. (U.S.,England,France,Russia,and China) and that as long as it is not an issue that concerns one of these nations it might get passed. We also discussed the fact that Morocco is are best supporter and gives us these suicide monkeys that throw themselves on mines to save our tanks. We all thought this was OK except one girl a few rows back that was quite disturbed over the whole dead monkey thing. Well anyway after that we talked about the movie Les Miserables  and had to pick out of the characters which we thought was the most miserable. I felt it was Fantine because she didn't deserve all the grief she received and was only concerned for her daughter. It seemed that allot of people went with Jean Valjean or several other characters. Well I'm glad I don't have to sit through that movie again. In the argument about the collective or the individual, I personally would choose the collective because left unchecked the individual is cold, cruel, and very greedy. The only way to have a better society is to do it together.    

//Playing catch-up with post on class 1/28/15

Hi All,
so anyway last week we started a talk about supra-nationalism. What ? Well it' an idea that when smaller nations team together they have a collective might that is bigger than any one nation on its own. We talked about some examples of this and they would be the U.N., N.A.T.O.,N.A.F.T.A., the E.U., and  other treaties based on economic or security issues. I think in one sense that collective bargaining is needed so it levels the playing field for all involved. I support any system that helps the greater good and does not  try to impose or exploit its people. Some real good comes out of everyone working together.