Liberia-notes

-was founded by free African-Americans and freed slaves from the United States in 1820

-similar government as United States

-member of United Nations

-major exporter of iron ore on the world market

-16 different ethnic groups make up Liberia 

"Background Notes: Liberia." SIRS Government Reporter (2009) 16 Mar 2009 .

http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=SMN0307H-0-996&artno=0000087865&type=ART&shfilter=U&key=liberia&title=Background%20Notes%3A%20Liberia&res=Y&ren=Y&gov=Y&lnk=N&ic=Y

-Monrovia is Liberia's capital

-estimated 1 million refugee's and displaced people out of  less than 2.5 million

-many people died from violence, malnutrition and disease

-late 19th century, 1000's of ex-slaves from the American South settled along Liberia's coast

http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=SMN0307H-0-996&artno=0000007066&type=ART&shfilter=U&key=liberia&title=Still%20Searching%20for%20Liberty&res=Y&ren=Y&gov=Y&lnk=N&ic=Y

Bole, William. "Still Searching For Liberty." SIRS. 1991. SIRS Researcher . 16 Mar 2009

Blog # 15

I recently read an article called, “Pony gives birth to twins, overcoming odds of 10,000-to-1” on a British website, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-457179/Pony-gives-birth-twins-overcoming-odds-10-000-1.html. This article is explaining that a pony in the UK gave birth to twins. The 22 year old New Forest Pony surprised experts when she gave birth to the twins because the chance of them surviving are so small. Twin ponies usually don’t survive because the mother’s body simply, cannot handle it. Even the statistics are low according to experts, the chance of a mare giving birth to healthy twins are around 1 in 10,000. The best part is that the twins are one hundred percent healthy and running around like normal ponies. The ponies and it’s mother definitely defeated some odds in this case. 

Blog #14

This short clip on Foxnews.com was about the Love Story hoax that was to appear on Oprah. Oprah claimed that she had witnessed one of the best love stories of all time. Turns out, it was

fictitious. What happened was that a man wrote a memoir about him being in a concentration camp and having a little girl throw an apple over the fence in the camp, and them falling in love. Then he wrote that later on they met up and got married on an island. In the end his friends in the concentration camp said that there’s no way anyone could have gotten near that fence because it was so heavily guarded. He then admitted it was a hoax and agreed to pay back the money for the book. There was even going to be a movie coming out from the book! He just might have to pay back the money for that too. Things people do for money and fame just don’t always end up in a good place.

http://www.foxnews.com/video-search/m/21716732/fake_love_story.htm

Blog # 13

Today I read an article about what’s happening in Iraq. What’s happening is, while people are killing each other because of the war, dogs were multiplying. Now there is a bunch of stray dogs wandering around. People are now killing the dogs because there are so many of them and they are a pain to look after. I think this article shows that when people aren’t paying attention to certain things, they can spiral and get out of control. In this instance just that happened. I think that the war and other wars are so vile and morbid and cause so many other things to get out of control. It’s not only that the war is bad itself, but because of it, people don’t know how to control anything and everything is focused on the war and how bad that is when in reality there are so many other things people should be worrying and thinking about. I really think that people should focus more on their personal problems rather than war and violence.

Blog #12

I recently read about colonization on, http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-coloniza.html. There are many causes of colonization. Some being, overpopulation, economic distress, social unrest, and relgious persecution in their home country are all factors that cause colonization. But before colonization can take it’s course, the indigenous people that already lived there must be demolished or converted to the culture of the colonists. Otherwise there must be a treaty or alliance arranged between the people. Colonization has a great effect on the indigenous people, or the people already living there. They are forced to overtake a culture and society and language that they are not familiar with because the colonists believe that their way is better. Just like in Things Fall Apart, the British firmly believe that being Christian is a much better way to live their life and insist on converting the Africans because they think that they are savage. When really, they have their own culture they developed and grew into.

"colonization." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Encyclopedia.com. 15 Mar. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

Blog # 11

 

A recurring, frequently talked about issue is global warming. I recently read an article about it at http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/2008/09/15/10-ways-global-warming-could-hurt-your-health.html. I still think that the issue is still talked about today as much as it is, because it’s not resolved. It’s still a threat to our world and our environment. So as soon as I saw this article, it made me think more about it. First off I had no idea that global warming could have health risks, and that’s exactly what this article is about. The ten risks are, more sniffling and allergies, increased amount of algae, painful kidney stones, exotic infections, bad cases of poison ivy, more bee and insect stings, less fruit available, more coughing and wheezing in the summer, more heat-wave related deaths, and bigger coastal storms. When I thought we were just going to have an increase of temperature, there are actually a lot more situations that could affect a lot of people. I think global warming is an issue that needs to be addressed and taken action against, or else something that we all don’t want to happen, just might happen.

 

Blog #10

There was always one holiday I was confused about, April Fool’s day. What is it? And who invented this holiday for what reason? I learned all this by visiting the website, http://wilstar.com/holidays/aprilfool.htm. While it says the purpose of the holiday is unclear, maybe having to do with spring, it gives a date it started on, 1582 in France. What happened was in France the New Year was changed from April 1^st, to January 1^st. Those who refused to switch were the butt of practical jokes. In Scotland the holiday is celebrated for 2 days. The usual is doing simple jokes such as telling a funny joke, or to the elaborate as the British did. In England there was a detailed documentary that came out on spaghetti farmers and their spaghetti trees. Although it may be a nuisance to some, April Fool’s day is just a fun-loving holiday.

Blog #9

I recently read an article titled, "Is Bollywood coming to Hollywood?" By Elham Khatami. Slumdog Millionaire, an Indian movie that was awarded with 8 Oscars was a film with no well known actors, that showed the poor aspirations of India. However, it is not an authentic Indian movie, it is widely loved by all. It’s about a boy who pays homage to Bollywood by using technology. There’s lots of colors, a happy musical dance ending and it’s just the typical fairy tell happily ever after story. Because it’s not a Bollywood movie, but has the same characteristics some are saying that more Hollywood movies will start mimicking the flick. Those who watched the film claimed to of learning a lot more a bout the culture. It is quite possible that more foreign films could be made more popular just because of this movie. Who knows! Maybe we’ll be seeing more musical Indian films that we expected.

--->http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/02/23/bollywood.hollywood/