Maus- [Dan Ketelhut]


It is horrifying when the human race lets something like the Rwandan Genocide happen. After all we are a species that learns from our mistakes, something like this will never ever happen again....... right?
Well no one can predict the future, but for one we do know our past. Last time I checked The Holocaust was exactly the same in every way. Genocides start when a culture is put in power over another. If a 15 year old from Metro-Detroit understands this why shouldn't the rest of the world. The Holocaust already happened so why did the Rwandan Genocide? I always thought that it was unethical to let unforgivable things happen to people in general, but I guess parents are not enforcing that much anymore. So in relation to The Holocaust the human race is all Nazi's. I mean we all just sat back and watched what was happening to those people and that is just disgusting. This is why in the book Maus by Art Speiglman the humans are perceived as animals because of the dreadful slaughters that happened and the way people just watched and did nothing.

The main reason that the human race is perceived as this is that we are too prideful about everything we do, we just glorify all that we do. We are so brainwashed into thinking that everything we do is perfect and we never make mistakes. This is why the holocaust has already happened more than once and could even happen again. Ignorance is the problem here if we can stop being so narcissistic then we can maybe prevent war.

Another reason why we are animals is the way we act toward people out of fear. It's like a dog eat dog world and it shouldn't be. If someone treats someone like dirt then others will so they won't be treated that way. Germans hated Jews so much and talked about how nasty they were. This is why when the war started we didn't want to interfere much with what was happening no way we didn't go into Germany because fear they would take us over. It was the same exact thing with Rwanda. But there was even more exposure to what was happening, it was the attitude we had in Rwanda that was the most disappointing. Who cares about Africans war happens all the time over there cause they are all tribal. If you think that you should be ashamed.

Overall its these animalistic ideas of us being better than everyone else that Art Speiglman used in the story Maus to convey people as animals. Cause when you look at what we have done in the past, how far away from animals are we?

Alfie the Special Tiger.

There once was a very very special tiger named Alfie. He always walked down to the pond to watch this girl named Suzie. She said it was a restraining order, he said it was love. One day she came to the pond with a boy named Tad. He was very strong and Suzie had been scared lately because she knew Alfie was watching her but she couldn’t do anything about it, until now of course. Alfie came down the pond and began watching her like every day.
She was eating a sandwich and Tad was walking around the Pond looking for Alfie. He finally found him and Alfie was petrified. He sprinted off but Tad was faster. He grabbed him and started to bite his leg, when Suzie came up she looked into his eyes and ripped his shirt open. Then she ripped his heart out savoring every little piece she ate. The next day they carried on with their lives like nothing happened.
Remember when I said Alfie was a very special tiger? Turns out Alfie can’t die. Though his body is gone he still exists in a ghostly form. So instead of going to the pond he went right too Suzie’s house. He waited in her room until she got home from the pond and once she did, he ripped her eyes out then skinned her Tiger fur off and dipped her in a salt–water tub. Until eventually she came to a painful yet salty death. He then proceeded to baste her in sweet baby ray’s , then he marinated her over night.
Next morning Tad came over to Suzie’s house because she hadn’t called him in a few days and he was worried. On the way through the city Alfie took over the body of a street vendor and cooked her body until it was golden brown. Tad was hungry from the walk so he bought some Suzie from Alfie not knowing it was Suzie . He ate it and said that was unlike anything he had ever tasted in his life. Alfie then came out of the vendors body and told him he hasn’t tasted it because it was Suzie. Tad in shock, that Alfie was still alive, started crying and puking up chunks of his girlfriend Suzie. Alfie then took over the body of Tad and dug a large hole in the pond, and buried himself in it. Once buried he could not escape. It was one hour from high-tide on the large pond and Tad was there to experience it…literally……
Only one person could have saved him, and I’m pretty sure Alfie wasn’t in the mood to do that……..

SIMUN

The SIMUN simulation for global ed was really fun. I enjoyed it a lot because i had Andre in my group and he is amazing. I liked that there was older kids participating because it almost gave me people to look up to. There was one kid named Jack who was funny and really smart who i looked up to the most. Whenever he said something I did .

Being my first SIMUN i thought i did pretty well, I talked a lot on the speakers list, I always asked questions and helped write most of the resolutions. I think next time I should write what I say before I say it because a few times I talked I mumbled and repeated the same thing I said over and over.

The worst part of the SIMUN was when it ended. By the time I got to the end of it I wanted it to last forever because of the fun debating with upperclassmen. I wish that the whole SIMUN simulation lasted longer, and I can’t wait till I am one of the older kids and I get to be the chair.

The preparation for SIMUN kind of scared me in the beginning because I thought that we were going to have to know our whole history leading into SIMUN and I really don’t care much about Frances history. I was really scared leading into it, I thought that I was going to get owned by other kids on the debate part.

The best scenario in my opinion was when I got to talk about China using and stealing European software off the internet. I really got to talk a lot and this was the funnest issue for me. I worked on many issues like this with Andre and Olivia and we wrote the main Resolution.

The overall experience for SIMUN was really fun and I learned a lot from the kids. It was really fun learning from other kids for once not only teachers. When you are learning with kids it just feels like fun not really learning. I enjoy the SIMUN simulation and I may try to sign up for MAMUN next year if it comes to it. I defiantly cannot wait for SIMUN next year and I hope it will be as fun as it was this year. Next year ill learn a lot more about the issues before I talk about them.

Simun Question

Pakistan-Taliban

France- Judging by America's decision we, for the most part will back them 100%. As a strong allie to the United States, if they will send in troops to hold up the government long enough in Pakistan to retrieve nuclear weapons, then so will we. Right now in this day and age with all of these nukes floating around we cannot let a terrorist organization such as the Taliban to get their hands on this material. First of all all supporting countries must send in troops to help the struggling Pakistan. If the Taliban attacks the government in anyway we must lend the current government a hand.

There is no telling what will happen to the world if the Taliban got their hands on this kinda of nuclear weaponry. Which is why at the moment we cannot trust them. If all else fails sanctions upon not only business' and travel to the country must be made, but also communication. Communication must be shut off so the terrorist group's cannot travel out of the country to move any kind of Nuclear power. Worse comes to worse a very strong war will be waged and hopefully not ending with Nuclear Warfare.

MAUS

Maus: by Art Speiglemen

I am reading the graphic novel Maus by Art Speiglemen, the story is about a kid learning of his father's life story during the holocaust. The strange thing though is that everyone is represented as animals. Possibly this could be saying that we are all primal animals if we could let something this horrific happen to us such as the Holocaust.

There is a reason to that the Jewish community are represented as mice. They are mice because during the holocaust Jews were treated so terrible, and their living conditions were of that as a mouse. Also they are mice because when we think of mice we just want to kill them and not want them to be near us ever. This at the time was the outlook on Jewish people and though now it is horrible, then it was just something that happened. The worst part is that's what the whole world thought.

So far the book MAUS has been very interesting and is showing that the holocaust was not only killing there was the stealing of the Jewish economy and business. It is really an amazing point of view coming from a survivor. It an amazing story and i would never have thought that this many people would have been sent to the Auschwitz camp for the gas room.

Fantabulolicous.

Ode to Quiznos; sandwiches of perfection, one can't deny, served on whole-wheat, white, or rye, at 5 bucks a pop, a deal so fair, that not even subway, can compare, keep it up Quiznos, a job well done, ill be there tomorrow, round 12:30 or 1. THE WHOLE THING IS THE METHODS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Big Fish

In the story of Big Fish Edward Bloom sees himself in the Giant Karl.

Whenever Edward Makes a big decision the giant is there.

In the first scene when they first meet the Giant is with Edward when Ed makes the big decision to leave town because he and the giant are destined for bigger things. Later on in the movie when the two are at the circus Ed sees a girl and he knows right there that that will be his wife. So he works for Danny Devito doing the dirty jobs of the circus to learn things about her. But when he finally finds out where she lives the Giant was next to him and he left to go meet the woman he will marry. But the Giant stayed which proves he won't ever make a bigger decision in his life.

Before all this happened Ed was a smaller guy but started growing very fast. He started growing so fast that he had to lie in a machine for a long time because his bones were getting big very fast. He did some research and he found that when goldfish live in a small bowl they stay small but when they released into a mass of water they grow alot bigger. Ed knew he had to leave to reach his full potential. But before he left he had to look for the Big scary giant that was a pest the the small town. When he got there Ed noticed the man was very big. So he saw himself in the giant because they both needed to leave town to do greater things.

The Last Oracle

A battle, for all the glory across the land, and I was in the middle watching it all.

A battle between giant men and the perfect robot. Though he was perfect nothing can achieve full perfection not even something that is perfect(unless you are a lion).

I sat in the dark blue ocean one day thinking over the possible outcomes of the battle. I reminisced from battle long ago a leprechaun spoke of. Then I knew it was destiny.

It was a stormy morning, I sprawled out of my bed to see the heavens celebrating gay and merrily with nature the previous night. A small layer of snow kissed the ground and I was their to witness its untouched beauty.

After that the boring stage of the adventure came around. I was heading to the quill vectronian centroid of the world which was all old woman and cheesy goods they were trying to push off on people. It was basically a white room with a bizarre inside, interesting for the first 5 seconds then terrible for the remaining time. This area i tried skipping through as fast as i could. After this I needed to take a train to the fox's den where i would here stories and learn the future that will lead up to the next few wars. The men in the fox's den were the elders or oracles with all the knowledge. They were geniuses and I needed to make it their to study.

I arrived to see the train leaving. It was gone and I had to wait for 8 more hours. It felt like forever but eventually the grueling wait ended. So i hopped on the train and headed to the Fox den.

"Hello?" I screamed through the door way, no one replied. But I still proceeded. Stunned I saw all of the Oracles and Elders dead lying in a pool of blood on the floor. After around 5 minutes I was used to the smell of death and I let my curiosity get the best of me. I decided to try on one of the Oracles head dresses mounted on a stand, that was left when someone sat it down before the massacre. As I set it on my head the bells chimed and I saw through the eyes of all the cameras throughout the land that were hidden. All of a sudden something caught my eye. A robot, but not only a robot. About 100 men followed chasing it with swords and daggers. I saw the robot quickly turn around and kill them all within the blink of an eye. I cryed in fear because I could tell this thing was coming to me and it wouldn't stop to have a play date. Quickly 12 Giants rushed out and tackled him on his way to me. This wrecked the robots body. He could not walk for 2 more years until eventually his owner fixed him. But he was never the same.

The symbolism i used ties into the day i watched the superbowl when the giants defeated the patriots.

China to put duties on US chicken imports

Q: In the next few years what will happen to the trading relationship between The United States and China?

The relationship between The United States and China will Worsen.

For the last few months China and The United states have been kicking dirt in each others faces. The article states that there has been a small trade war between the two, and they have been selling good and placing tariffs that will anger the other side yet be beneficial to themselves. Another reason that the relationship is dissipating, is the two have been struggling to become the world power. Basically China is trying to work their way into being the Global Economic Leaders by setting such a low price to their currency, which allows them to use cheap labor and export goods all around the world. But the United States will not let go of this title so they have been putting tariffs on goods and trying to get out of the debt they owe to China.

The lies and cover-up's between the two sides are fueling anger also.

Many of times the United States has made remarks about the current economic battle and had to cover them up with small lies that anger the Chinese more and more each time. But the United States are not the only ones guilty. The Chinese have covered up many of their own problems by not doing anything. They don't lie but instead prefer not talking at all which is angering the United States at the same time.

The Semester In 500+ Words

In Global Education this year Mr. Fielder has taught me many of things....

The big thing we learned this year was that this class required a lot of homework, because the more homework you do and the more papers you write the more your mind expands.

A thing this year I thought was really cool was margin-noting our notes. Before when I needed to study for a test and we got a packet I would just read it once and not understand it, or I would try to memorize parts of it. But now asking questions and summarizing on the sides really helps me learn the info better. It also helped me stay on task.

I also have developed a passion for reading from all the news articles and things we had to read. Before this class my reading reminded me of Free-Taco-Fridays at the Bench Pub, I ease into getting a couple but after that first bite I don't know when to stop. That is another thing Mr. Fielder has helped me get better at Similes. Ever since we did the "First day of school" essay and I used my example about my pants smelling like rotten mayonnaise, I love using similes and metaphors in my writing because when I use it I try to add humor.

But by far the most fun thing we did this year was the debate on the Rwandan Genocide, because of all the different parties blaming each other and arguing. Leading up to it our class didn't know what we were going to say because it was so sad when we learned all the info about what happened during the genocide. Also when we watched Hotel Rwandan which was a tearjerker and made me recognize what I take for granted living in a nice city with everything I need.

Though we did a lot of Blogs I found it was nice to let my feelings out finally about things I held inside. I always wanted to have a blog and when i found out we got to make our own, I knew it was going to be fun. My favorite part about blogs are that you can never be wrong because it is what you believe, because I'm not the best at writing essays in school.

Another thing I use when I'm writing essays that Mr. Fielder taught me is using pathos and ethos, the two have some similarities but overall they are good to use when trying to gain someone’s trust. It sounds kind of funny but in the game Fallout 3 you can chose to try and persuade someone while you talk to them, and when I feel it is necessary to use ethos or pathos I think of the game and how much of a chance I have of actually getting the persons trust. Reading the weekly articles and writing papers helped me get more in the news then I have ever been in my life. I love politics and this gave me basically a chance to be a politician, and I kind of liked having to be under pressure and have a certain feel of power.

These are skills that I will be able to use for the rest of my life and possibly in a future career.

P.s. Mr. Fielder is the best teacher in the history of mankind.

An Aborigine named Dan?

I would be a native to Australia.

Being an aborigine would not be a horrible thing for me, I wouldn't be killed or used as a slave and they got didgeridoo's. If I was a Tutsi in Rwanda even though nothing would happen to me I would still probably be killed later during the genocide. But if i was a Hutu the Tutsi would have murdered me. It also amazes me how long the aboriginies have been around. Over 10,000 years when cultures usually last 1,000 at most.

This proves they obviously know what they are doing in preserving their culture. Though it would hurt seeing my daughters and wife taken away. I would try all that i could to prevent them from getting taken to mix cultures. If i needed to i would live in a cave with them to assure safe hiding. Altogether for me living in Australia would be my best bet of survival.