What is Power?

Power can be defined in many different ways according to the situations. In the history of the world, power has been a very important ingredient. Some events were caused by powers and some had powers related to the events. The history shows many aspects of power; general categories of power are economic power, political power and military power. The world we live in could not have been the way it is now if it weren’t for the economic power. One of the examples of economic power is different types of economic systems such as capitalism, communism, and socialism. Capitalism shows how individuals have powers to run their own companies and decide own their own for their benefits while communism shows how people all share equally among themselves and how people are ruled by some leaders or parties. Socialism shows how people can have their own businesses but has sort of equality in the system. These economic systems represent the economic power as they show different aspects of it. Moreover, the Industrial Revolution is another example of economic power. Before the Industrial Revolution, people were basically all poor with barely anything to eat. With economic power that grew during the Industrial Revolution, people were able to live longer and more well fed. Furthermore, globalization represents the present economic power. It improved the technology that is used a lot these days, giving advantages to people and making the lives of humans more comfortable, quicker and easier.Another type of power is political power. This power can become both good and bad depending on the situation. An example of political power is the Russian Revolution. From the cause of the Russian Revolution, it involved political power. One of the causes of it was Tsar Nicolas II, the kind of Russia, retaining absolute power, which was autocracy. The outcome of the Russian Revolution was communism of having USSR as the leading party. It later showed that it led to corruption of power of the party being the rich while the common people being the poor. Also, in the book Animal Farm, which is an allegory of the Russian Revolution, Napoleon, who later in the book possessed power all to himself, commanded other animals to work for their benefits when it was actually for himself. As you can see, the political power in the Animal Farm is a bad power.Military power is a very strong power. An example of it is World War I. As the Allied Power had better military power, they could win the war. Also, World War II is another example of military power. It was when the Allied Power won again over the Axis with better military power with more machines than the first war. Moreover, the Cold War shows military power; though the United States and Russia never actually fought a "hot" war, they invented advanced technological weapons to intimidate each other. Actually, US used its very new weapon, an atomic bomb, on a city in Japan, Hiroshima, which affected Japan hugely. Military power is very important, especially in wars to protect their countries.
In conclusion, there are many different types of power, and most of them can be divided into three categories of power: economic, political, and military. Those powers can both benefit or worsen the society depending on the situation.

Power and Control

How do you see either the theme of power or control in your novel?

From the novel The Hunger Games I can see the theme of control very well. I think the whole book is actually about control. For example, on page 5 of the novel, it tells us how the people of the Districts are not supposed to go out of the fence as the Capitol made it a law. Also, it says "District Twelve. Where you can starve to death in safety." This shows that as the Capitol is controlling them and have laws that might lead to starvation of the people of the district, the society is safe, but the people are not fed well. Another example on page 13, it tells us how for the reaping of the Hunger Games, people between ages of 12 to 18 has to have their name in the reaping for one to get picked to participate in the Hunger Games. This shows control because even if the people don't want their name in the reaping or don't want to participate in the Hunger Games, the Capitol control the people to have their name in the reaping and have to participate in the Hunger Games or they will get punished. Also, the novel shows the control of people of not letting them meet or go to the other districts. For example, on page 203, where the little girl from the District 11 called Rue and the main character, Katniss, talk about their districts, which they know nothing about because of the control of the Capitol. Moreover, on page 244, it tells us that the Capitol changed the rule of the game to only having one victor to having two victors and later on page 342, they change it back to one victor. This definitely shows control because they changed the rule to fit their needs. Furthermore, on page 348, it shows how Katniss is controlled even though she won the Hunger Game and should have freedom then.

Feedback - April 27 - May 1 - Population Project

What are the three most valuable things you have learned during the Population Project process? How will they help you in the future?

During the process of the Population Project, I learned that I had to use my time well in the beginning as I had not done my research in March, resulting in a lot of research later for my data analysis and research paper. This will help me to finish my project in time and not to do all my work at last minute. Another thing that I learned is how to write a data analysis and a problem research paper. Though there were lots of things that I didn't understand during the writing process of my data analysis, I learned many new things and how to interpret the data of my graph and use the information to prove my thoughts and opinions. I had learned how to write a issue research paper when we wrote the Africa research paper, but I learned how to write a problem research paper during the Population Project. This might help me in the future when I write a data analysis or another problem research paper. The last thing that I learned from the Population Project is how to use Microsoft Excel 2007 to make a graph. This will help me use Microsoft Excel 2007 to make a graph for my future projects.

Net Effect of Globalization

According to the World Bank, globalization is "the growing integration of economies and societies around the world..." and also "a historical stage of accelerated expansion of market capitalism". Globalization has affected the world both positively and negatively. Firstly, one of the positive effects is that it has westernized the developing countries, helping them to modernization. Secondly, many more jobs were provided for the poor people in countries such as India as the result of outsourcing. Thirdly, due to globalization, we can buy products more cheaply, easily and quickly. Lastly, the technology today has improved so that it makes our lives a lot easier and faster. There are many more positive effects of globalization. As you can see, globalization seems admirable now with only positive effects mentioned; however, there are ugly side to globalization, too.
Globalization definitely has some negative effects to the world. Firstly, millions of Americans have lost their jobs in their country as a result of outsourcing and providing jobs to the poor in cheaper wages. Secondly, the cultures in the east has been somewhat westernized. Countries like India are losing their cultures and traditions because of globalization. Thirdly, as people have to follow the western time, many people in the east have to work in the night, therefore, families are not able to spend much time with each other. Fourthly, there are lots of traffic as more roads and cars are built and bought for transportation. Lastly, a widening gap is creasted between rich and poor. Because the poor can't afford to use technology that are available to the rich, the gap is getting wider as new technology is introduced. Overall, as globalization has so many both positive and negative effects, it can't be considered simply either good or bad. It needs a lot of consideration before deciding it.

Image Source:
http://www.tcnj.edu/~franco6/images/large_globalization_e.bmp

Feedback - April 13-17 - Technology and Schools

The main visual elements of this cartoon is a child eating dinner with his parents and the most important part of the cartoon is the writing under the image: "Well, yes, we could read your blog... or you could just tell us about your school day." I think the cartoon is showing the issue of families not talking about their private lives, rather make the other family memebers read what they did on their blog. I think the cartoonist's opinion on this issue is that technology even prevents families from talking to another about what they should talk about. Though the family is right in front of him, his action of not telling his parents what happened at school and telling them to read his blog shows that technology is not allowing children to talk to their parents privately. The writing below the image shows that my thoughts can be right; especially the underlined word: tell. This cartoon is ironic as families often talk about what's going on in their lives, however, they are not doing so as technology is there where their family members can find about him. It relates to our study of technology and the future as this cartoon shows that with technology, people will not be willing to tell what happened to them to their close relatives, therefore, in the future, this will get worse and family members will eventually not talk to each other as much. I think the cartoonist could have had the cartoon where the boy also talks about checking the blog and his father replying to make the viewers understand more easily.

Image Source: www.sandiegohomeblog.com

PoP Project Work Week

This week is your week to work on your Population Project in Humanities Class. What I would like you to do for this week’s feedback is to create a work plan for using your classtime most effectively. Take a few minutes to figure out what you have left to do and then lay out your plan day by day for this week.

Monday/Tuesday:
Make note cards.
Wednesday:
Put them in order that I want them to be in.
Make an outline using the note cards.
Thursday:
Write a rough draft of my research paper.
Home:
Edit the rough draft.
Make a final copy of my research paper.

Feedback March 16-20 - Technology?

I think technology is use of mechanical devices that uses some sort of energy to generate itself. It helps humans do things that we can't do with human skills or helps humans to do things faster and easier. Also, it helps humans achieve goals such as putting men on the Moon. I think the five most important technologies used today are light bulbs, transportation such as cars and buses, refrigerators, computers, and cell phones. Those are things that help us to communicate with each other, keep food fresh and cool, travel to different places, etc. The five least important technologies would be automatic sliding doors, Christmas lights, things that light up unnecessarily, doorbells, and coffee machines. Those are devices that we consume electricity unnecessarily. We use technology in almost all of our classes: humanities, algebra, science, Spanish, yearbook, robotics, etc. I think that AES uses a lot of technology, maybe more than needed; however, I think it teaches us a lot of things and how to use technology well. Also, I think we are lucky that we can use technology at AES as it is better than technology that I used in the school I went before.