Blog #10

Before the Industrial Revolution, the Atlantic Revolution contributed to a significant change into our modern day world. Robert Strayer refers to these as echoes – within the Atlantic Revolution did it consist of the Haitian Revolution that “echoed” louder than the French Revolution that also occurred. The malice that took place in the Haitian Revolution created a dispute between European officials and the Caribbean slaves. The slaves revolted as the rumor of the abolition of slavery travelled with the mouths of each slave – ready to have their land ridden of the Europeans. The Caribbean slaves managed to overthrow the Europeans. Leading in a joyous time to celebrate their independence as citizens did they not realize the decline in their economy. Only did they realize their independence resulted in the destruction of their own plantations. The destruction of their plantations decreased the amount they were able to produce – thus the slaves were only able to produce on a small scale. It seems the rumor replaced being rational with their actions. Pumped from the rumor the slaves recklessly destroyed their land – resentment probably being the main cause for the destruction of many plantations. Through this revolution did come the abolition of slavery – as well as the inequality of man, specifically those of African-American descent

The French Revolution echoed differently than the Haitian Revolution, but the parallelistic concept of inequality focused on woman. The French Revolution provided foundation for what we know today as feminism. The women of this time question their political equality – wanting to “progress” by wanting more than major events of the revolution – so why were they suppressed of political power? Arguments consisted of traditional beliefs that women should not dip their feet in government affairs but tend to their family at home.

Ebola Presentation

The presentation by Paul Brockmann dealt with the issue of ebola. My friend Christian hosted this event and my interest peaked from this video I remember watching. I'm not sure if it was Discovery Channel - I don't know what plays on our television anymore, people just put on random informative things. This time, the video basically interviewed a few people in Africa about their view on ebola. It may have been the place that the directors decided to record, but the African Americans seemed to have been oblivious that they have caused the diseased to be prevalent, today. According to the video - I apologize for being wrong, but this was based off of the video - ebola is a disease carried by a few species of monkeys that the African Americans eat. Their source of food displayed more hunting-like because the captured footage of the monkeys showed a vendor selling hairy, dead, roasted monkey. During this video a man bought a monkey and ate it then - in front of the camera. He then said, from what I remember, "Ebola doesn't come from us, we are healthy..." Somewhere along those lines displays a sense of oblivion - possibly some pride. The failure to acknowledge that ebola is stemmed from Africa, shows that they have no sense of urgency to heal these people. They believe that the sickness is of another malady.
During Paul Brockmann's presentation he presented experiential facts - and how his team dealt with those patients. The experiential facts consists of a mother being ebola-free while her child still remains with the malady. The separation, as Brockmann can agree, is heart aching. He also shared with his audience the tedious process that they must do when suiting up. Extra precaution is taken, especially when they are within close proximity of each other - if an ebola patient is carried, protocol requires them to carry the patient away from them to prevent skin to skin contact, or the risk of having their mask pulled off.
Both knowledge attained from the video and Paul Brockmann continues to spark an interest in me, and with due time this ebola epidemic, will be of history.

Blog #11

The Industrial Revolution could also be called the Anthropocene, or the age of man. In regards to the past events, it is understandable why it would be labeled as the age of man. As humans, we progress until an impact is made. During this time as industries grew, we definitely made an impact on the atmosphere by air pollution and waste dumping into rivers. During this time the environment was a mess. It isn’t surprising that people go sick; the work environments were unsanitary to work it. Employment during this time as well was unpredictable. Unsanitary factories made it difficult for some people to maintain steady employment. They risked their lives in an unsanitary working environment trying to put food on the table for their family. Working was just a risk that people had to endure during this time, the time of industrialization. 

Blog #13

The assigned reading ends with a cliché message, “think globally, act locally” that basically sums up the whole chapter. The reading mentions two sets of ideas that focused on in catholic social teaching. The first one tells people that they have a moral obligation when dealing with world poverty. The second idea calls forth people who believe in resolving world poverty and their ideas to be closer to improvement. Both ideas help us understand the message “think globally, act locally”. By acknowledging your moral obligation the next step is to provide ideas that will make that difference. By thinking on a global scale, the motivation that is produced should be manifested into a local scale project to gradually make that change. The smallest act makes a difference and that is the message the reading is trying to push readers to understand in this section.

Chapter 20 - Blog #15

In the reading, Strayer makes a good point with the war “mocking” Enlightenment values of progress, tolerance and rationality. The war was sparked by the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. Strayer mentions that the outbreak of the war was caused by a series of “accidents”. With the three enlightenment values kept in mind: progress is put on hold with the war going on, there was a low tolerance considering that many accidents caused the conflict, and the war, I guess you could say, was irrational. One of the accidents that stood out to me was the idea of industrialized militarism. Quoted from the text, “…heads of state wore uniforms in public.” Keeping that in mind as well as the Stanford Prison Experiment, a level of superiority is established and because of that the idea of power flooded these elites and could have possibly provoke outbreaks contributing to the war. 

What I also found interesting was the ending of the war resulted in women being allowed to vote. After many suffragists fought for their rights, it took a war to grant them to vote in many different countries. Women made their point when men were needed, but many of them were fighting in the war, and the women showed courage and willingness during of war by making sacrifices. 

The treaty that concluded the war created a level of superiority to the winners and left Germany restricted and to blame of the war. Of course in a country that feels inferior, one individual, or a few, is going to fight against that power, that person is Adolf Hitler.  

Germany seemed to have been able to recover quickly within the two decades because of their quick recovery during the Great Depression. The Europeans were smart enough to produce their own goods to save their money, but at the same time it helped America produce less goods to save money as well. 

In Hawaii I grew up learning the culture of Hawaii and it wasn't until high school was I exposed to learning about the world wars. Learning about the World Wars always caught my attention because of the late exposure to World History and the need to understand how our society was formed because of significant past events. 

Blog #12 - Colonial Encounters in Asia and Africa

The problem with the Europeans seem to stem from their ambition. The text provides us with cartoon art called, The Devilfish in Egyptian Waters. The artwork well portrays England’s desire to gain as much colonies possible by using octopus tentacles claiming their colonies. In this process of their ambition, their “religious superiority” becomes obsolete and results in this new kind of racism. This is where the reading gets interesting because the European’s reliance on science to “scientifically” prove the superiority in race. The one thing I found very appalling was the bishop’s declaration. A religious superior declaring such thing where there is a level of superiority amongst individuals is just wrong. A religious leader, especially a bishop, should be promoting equality amongst each other rather than blatantly distinguishing a lower group of people. 

Chapter 15 Scientific Revolution - Blog #5

The Scientific Revolution, created by Copernicus, Galilieo, Descartes, and lastly Newton, became a great indicator of global modernity. Being able to draw the line with the Modern Era allows readers to make sense of the past to understand the timeline of eras. It makes sense that religion made an impact on the Scientific Revolution because it was their religious beliefs that were put into question that sparked a revolution. One thing I enjoyed about this passage was to be able to clearly see the progress being made throughout the years as science evolved. Nicolaus Copernicus discovered that the middle of our solar system is the sun and every planet rotates on its axis. Twenty-eight years later, Johannes Kepler discovered that the orbit of planets follow an elliptical pattern rather than a circular one. During this time, Galileo Galilei “developed the telescope; the sun spots, mountains, on the moon, and Jupiter’s moons…” Lastly, Isaac Newton left his mark by discovering “the concept of universal gravitation; invented calculus; formulated concept of inertia, and laws of motion.” One concept that I agree with is the concept of progress in human beings. Progress, according to Strayer, is attained by think, conflict, and struggle, rather than reason and education. Reason and education seems to be directed more towards religious progress, and if I were to choose one, progress, scientifically, makes more sense and is more rational.