The
Christmas truce of 1914. This is the
type of historical information that really sparks my interest. And unless there is a man still alive to talk
about it, how would we ever know? The
fact that right in the midst of WWI, German and British soldiers actually had a
truce, exchanged gifts, played football in neutral territory; and then proceed back
to killing each other amazes me.
In reading
about WWI, I never realized that if not for this war, the United States may
have not become the Global Power nation that it is today. Similar to when China pulled back and opened
the gate way for Europe to take over huge territory. The end of WWI brought about many changes,
some good and some terrible. On a
positive note, it makes me pleased to
learn that social mobility was surfacing and that higher level jobs were
available to commoners. I’m particularly
pleased to read about the progression of the women’s movement. As well as an overall increase in
consumerism. Little did we know that in
the decades to follow tragedy awaits; the Great Depression and the crash of the
stock market..
If that’s
not bad enough, look at the destruction
one man can achieve.. Yep, I’m talking about Hitler.. What a jack ass… this man
created such genocide; I just don’t know how he slept at night.. which leads us to WWII, I knew that this war
was far worse than the Great War or WWI
but it saddens me to learn that the total estimated death toll was 60 million
or 6 times that of WWI. More than half
were civilians (due to new technology; bombers, jet fighters; atomic
weapons). More than 40 percent of the
total deaths were in Soviet Union. This
is due to Hitler’s racial war, he was destined to destroy all of Russia; with “unprecedented,
unmerciful, unrelenting harshness” (Ways of the World p. 649). One of my good friend’s mother and family had
to flee from Russia and grew up in China during the German invasion.
The chapter
on the Rise and Fall of Communism was quite interesting. In reading about communist feminism I was
surprised to learn that communist countries were in fact the ones that
pioneered forms of women’s liberation, I was sure that this would have started
in the West. As I read through the
chapter, it angers me to think about US involvement in various wars such as the
Korean and Vietnam. None of our
business. These wars ended in fruitless
bloodshed of thousands of Americans.
Its
interesting comparing the freedom struggles between India and South
Africa. While India’s fight for freedom
let by Mohandas Gandhi had a religious focus, South Africa’s led by Nelson
Mandela was focused on race, ethnicity and ideology. And most of all the end of apartheid. It doesn’t seem logical that white settler
minorities (a mere 20% of the entire population) had total control over South
Africa. What’s worse, these people were
not even in their own Country. I can’t
imagine what it was like for the Country’s black African majority to have to
follow these ridiculous segregation “pass” laws in their own Country. Then you have the Islamic law of Iran which
was to promote moral purification of the country under state control. Discos and bars were closed, alcohol was
forbidden, boys and girls had to attend separate schools, women were required
to wear a veil and loose fitting clothing to conceal their figures. After reading this chapter , I have to say, we
as Americans just don’t know how fortunate we are to have freedom. Some of the things that other Countries are
fighting for, we just take for granted.
Certainly puts things into prospective.
The final chapter! I was most interested in reading about Globalization,
as the rest of the chapter seems to be similar to what we have studied in the
previous chapters. I imagine that
Globalization is necessary in order to expand the Country’s Global
relationships with other Countries, and I am fine with importing and exporting
of goods as every Country specializes in something that each of us require to
thrive. However, I am opposed to the US
outsourcing jobs; India for example (A
World Economy p 725) and this is why.
There are thousands of Americans right now that are in need of work!!! Not only is it wrong to deprive our own
people of a means to survive, it is happening all because of some corporations
bottom line… it is also morally wrong to
pay employees of these foreign Countries “sweat house” wages just because you
can. It is also frustrating from a
customer’s perspective, in which I have firsthand
experience. The organization where I
work recently laid off the entire IT department and outsourced to a company in
India, the communication barrier makes it almost impossible to effectively
resolve issues in a timely manner.
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