conections with egypt and animal farm

there are some huge connections between Animal farm (writen by George Orwell) and what is going on in egypt and several other contries today. Hopefully, Egypt's situation will not conclude as it did in Animal farm

one strong connection between the two is the fact that the leaders have fear and annoyance of the other animals and pigs. Napoleon, for example, had great fear of some of the pigs, particularly Snowball. snowball was in a sense a threat to Napoleon because he knew that he was one of those who was able to overturn and take his power away. to do so, napoleon used his fearsome dogs to kick snowball away. the leaders in egypt no long ago had a similar fear. but what they feared was not only the people but also the internet. this is why they shuted off the internet. the leaders knew if the information about what  they were up to (abusing thier power and keeping thier nation in poverty while they have an easy life), they would develope more enemies. this would also cause other nations to get involved and then they would be totally busted. they wanted to hide thier deep secrets, though they have not made any progress at all.

Another connection that Animal Farm an the uprising in many coutries today is that the people can be fooled easily if they are persuaded. All the leaders need to do is make some blank promises and sound wonderful. Then everyone is in favor of him or her. They use excuses so the support remains strong. In egypt, for example, the leaders said that they where having an bad situation and emergency laws were in use as a reason for their unwise decisions. The pigs did something similarly. When they violated the constitution they established and the animal questioned why they violated it, they played played around and even changed their laws to benefit themselves instead and excludes the animals. The fiddiling with the laws is they the egyptian emergency laws. The laws were established originally to benefit the entire country. Instead, it benefited the leaders more than the people.

Animal farm question 1

A command is not always obeyed and/or agreed upon. Unless you are involved in the military or some sort of stick order system, people will not nessasarly obey you. People usually would like a reason for their orders, making sure that what they are to do is not a waste of their time. But there is something that can increase your chances of people to follow you even in the most rediculuos and doubting situations. It is persuasion. In the book animal farm written by george orwell, the most intellegant creatures on the farm, the pigs, were grasping the other animals attention through persuasion. However, not all the pigs persuaded the farm animals the same way. Major and Napolion both had different ways in gatting the other animals to follow their orders.

Major, the pig that inspired the animals to revolt against the humans, persuaded the farm through using words of wisdom and agreeing with all point of views of each animal. This is shown in his speech when he questioned “how many thousands of gallons of milk have you given? [...]  [to hens] how many of those eggs have you laid in this last year, and how many of them have hatched?” (pg 29). Here major is pointing out to the farm that their life is miserable. What makes his speech so persasive is that he uses real life examples as evidence to back up his point. His words of wisdom cannot be argued against or proven wrong. Major was able to reason out in a way which made the animals freely followed him.

Napoleon uses a different way to persuae his audience into following him. Whenever he fials, he always uses a scapegoat to keep the animals following and supporting him, thinking it is never his fault. Napoleon frequently used Snowball as the scapegoat. An example when this occurred was when he proclaimed “Comrades, do you know who is responsible for this [ the dystruction of the windmill]? Do you know the enemy who has come in the night and overthrown our windmill? SNOWBALL” (pg 82). It is very unlikely snowball played part in the dystructon of the windmill. The night of the windmill’s colaps, there was a heavy storm that was so strong it managed to rip off part of the roof and that is most likely the cause of the collapse. Ever since napoleon took charge, he never took resposiblilty for milstakes. He always tried to make himself look clean and as an ausome leader. Napoleon also began to rule the farm but no longer for the animals but rather for napoleon himself. Things changed forever. Napoleon no longer carred what the other animals thought. He did not need to. He started to use a new form of persuasion; fear. Now napoleon had some fersive dogs that would do anything he told then to do. The dogs had the ability to kill on order, so no longer did the animals have the ability to disagree but they had to do everything as told. They had fear from their government.

There are two main ways one can persuade someone into following his or her order(s). it is either achieved with agreement and benefits/changing ones mind, or it is achieved by showing fear such as devastating penalties, that communism is all about. Major had the words of wisdom that were able to turn the tides and bring a new life for the animals. Unfortunately the wise pig died and chaos began to arise. Major inspired the uprising for the benefits of the farm and himself. Napoleon however used fear to drive his government . he used his killing dogs that had the ability to kill anyone napoleon ordered to be killed. Since napoleon had such superiority, he became tempted and abused his power. No longer did napoleon rule for the animals but rather for himself .Napoleon made the farm treat him as a king which all must worship. He no longer focused on the benefits of the farm but rather all for himself. He had all the power ( thanks to the dogs) and there was no one there brave enough to fight back and say that it is wrong.

debate post: wiki links

Wiki links can be benificial for a society. It is better to know the truth of what is going on then just carrying on not knowing full detail behind what your leaders are up to. You can never trust anyone in our modern day world so you should never assume wiki links is foolproof. But if what is said is true, then there will be positive feedback.

Wiki links has informed its readers about the mischief our government is up to. It has informed us about what truly the US military is up to in the Middle east. It informed the reader that the US has done more damage to their government then it claimed to have helped. The troops mistreat and torture their prisoners who many are innocent. The US has “accidently” shot far more innocent civilians than they claim to have had. This information, if true, tells us that we are doing far more damage to their society than repairing it. This encourages and and angers those who read this. Not only would they be disappointed for the fact the US is causing problems and killing innocent lives, but they would be mad that their leaders have lacked honesty and fooled many into this war. It is more benefical to know the truth and follow it than to be fooled.

Though wiki links may be benifical for a society, it is definently devastating for the government. When wiki links informed tunisia about how their government was just taking advantage over them and used their power for them selves, the people of tunisia rebelled and things became violent. Releasing this secrete brought violence and anger from the society, putting the government’s lives at risk. And what if wiki links stated a false statement (purposely or accidently)? That too would be devastating not only for the government but also for the people.

Though devastating for the government, wiki links can be benificail to a society. if wiki links is truly honest, the society benefit.  They can know if they are being cheated and simply used for the governments personal life and pleasure. Then the people can know if their support and dedication to their leaders is truly worth the cost.

political power

Political power can corrupt the people who attain it. Great power brings great responsibility. If the power comes in the hands of the wrong  person, the group or nation is heading into a troubling dark situation. However, if the government has some limits to the power and what one can do, then they are in a much safer situation.

If there is a lack of limits for the government, then it becomes more tempting for leader(s) to abuse their power. If the leader(s) become abusive, no longer would the people support their leaders. No longer would the people desire to follow them. Dictatorship is on no citizen’s wish list. Those who are abusive no longer would be ruling for the people but rather for themselves. More enemies would arise and many would no longer desire to obey, causing hatred to flow and cause violence. If the people no longer freely follow, then the government would need to force them. To force the people to follow, the government does so by using fear. To fear a society, the government uses severe penalties. Take the soviet union as an example. In Poland, if one did not follow or was thought to be a threat against the communist government, he or she would be arrested or even shot. These leaders are serious on having people to follow their orders and demands. My dad grew up when Poland had communism and life was tough. To keep the people from disobeying, spies were used. No longer was it possible to trust anyone since he or she could be working for the communists, including young teens. The Russian communist rulers were more desperate to preserve their form of government and more controlling. Many who disobeyed were sent to the freezing no mans land of Siberia in camps.

After reading Orwell’s Animal farm book, I believe he would totally agree that political power would corrupt the people who attain it. It is extremely tempting to abuse it if no one is there to stop you. Eventually this could play around with the leader’s mind, believing that he or she has nothing to loose or fear. They begin to feel over confident and more arrogant, thing only on ways of benefiting themselves rather than their society

elite college debate

After reading through all the articles that either said going to elite college or univercity is what you should aim for or it is a waste of time, I had a bit of a difficulty of judging which one was the best. Perhaps this is because my bull shit detector was a bit too sensitive, beeping nonstop in my mind. Since I had such a difficulty, I decided to write about the one which I found the least persuasive; Skip the Admission’s game by Kevin Carey

There are several reasons for my lack of support for the article. One reason (if not the main reason) is that it had a poor style and voice. When I read it, to me it sound as if a 4^th grader from elementary school wrote this. This is not what I expected to get out of reading this since the true author, Kevin Carey, had a college degree. If he was to participate in Ms. Valdez’s class, he would have a long way until he stops receiving Ds and Fs. His title does not sound relevant to what he has to say. “skip the admission” sounds as if he is trying to persuade students to avoid working like crazy to get enrolled into elite colleges.

There were several parts in the article where he focused on assumptions. An example is   “They're nice places to hang out for four years and you'll probably learn a few things”. This is no nessasarly true in all elite colleges. Some strongly limit socializing like military colleges. Here he is describing colleges as a day care since he mentioned “probably a few things”. In college, you are training yourself to master in a field, not to just learn a little and socialize. However, this article did have a few parts that my B.S. detector did not go off beeping like crazy. There were parts some reliable facts where use to support his point and cited his sources, though it would take a while for someone to find the parts he took since his source was continuous. An example where this progress was shown was where he stated some data from Community College Survey of Student Engagement.

reflection: handicap

Having a disability has interfered with many lives throughout history. Luck of us discrimination on disabled is not as common and we have cures and operations that can improve and cure a disabled. After reading   Lhadze’s blog about diability, saw it related to my life.

Disability issues are common all over the world. People are born mentally & physically handicapped. Even if they can't walk or hold still it does not mean that they are not human. These people deserve all the rights everyone else.

How would you like to be in a wheel chair for the rest of your life? I mean we all dream to be on top, famous, or happy, but when we treat these people so rudely you don't how much we hurt them making them feel so much lower.

I know how it feels like to be “handicapped” since I have epilepsy. Though I am more fortunate than those who unfortunately have several seizures daily and those lost their ability to walk, my life is limited. I am advised to avoid activities that require loads of energy such as cross country running and a few games at PE when my team really needs everyone. I am also forbidden to eat carbohydrates (which include sodas, treats, pastries etc) and that I frequently violate. These rules can become so controlling I frequently ignore them, increasing the chance for me in having a seizre. Many of my dream jobs I had became erased from my future. No longer can I become an astronaut, a pilot, or an athlete since these I dream jobs just listed put my life at risk I have a seizure.  Though I luckily have auras (a feeling before a seizure), they only give me about a 10 second warning before they occur.

But disabilities do not only provoke insult at times, but they can also cause crazy worry. Whenever I have an attack many panic like crazy (understandably). After I had a seizure in 6^th grade in middle school, my teacher from then on treated me as if I was the most delicate thing on the planet and anything can kill me. This drove me crazy.

something i do before school

I had trouble with thinking of a topic to write about for my free blog post so I decided to write about the additional class that I have been taking for a while which is JROTC at encinal high school (JROTC stands for Junior officer training corps). JROTC is much more easier than I thought it was going to be and yet I learned a lot from it. I not only learned about how to operate a rifle and how to use it (it is much more than just aiming and firing) but rather discipline, leadership and a bit of history of military, particularly weapon development. But my favorite part of JROTC is the uniform. I can participate in activities and teams like the color guard and rifle team and get medals and badges.

Though it requires me to wake up a bit earlier and become a faster biker since I need to bike from encinal to ASTI within less than ten minutes (though MR. Farger is a bit forgiving to me since he too went for ROTC in the past), I find JROTC something worth my time. It would make my resume look shinier and increase my chances in getting enrolled into an elite college or university and one that I am aiming for though my chances are extremely slim; the United States Air Force Academy. But I had some trouble in getting enrolled. I was not able to get enrolled within the first month. One of encinal’s office ladies that was to enroll me into the program told me that period 0 is full therefore I can not get involved. But earlier she said I am welcome to join. She asked me why my name did not pop up when she searched the system. Once I told her it was because I am a student at ASTI, she from then on refused to enroll me. So I went to the teacher, 1^st sergeant Allen (seriously strict but a funny friendly guy) and asked him and with his help I got into the system. And now I go each day to JROTC learning something new each day that can help motivate me into a better citizen.